Know About GIF Format

Do you know the reason behind the good and clear photos? This is because of the image formatting. One such image format is GIF Format, which is also called Graphics Interchange Format. GIF was launched in 1987 is now 26 years old.  The format was created by Steve Vilet. Let’s talk more about it.

40 minute buffering

When animation technique was not much advanced engineers and web designers had to trust the compressed files because it was the only format then. It could easily load the image even on 56K modem and outdated web browser. When youtube was started, it took 40 minutes to buffer a 2 minutes video.  With this the company thought this will be flopped before its launch. Then the company decided to talk to GIF. After this, during the 40 minute buffering i-ball and dancing dinosaurs were seen. Due to this the users were not bored and it didn’t affect the youtube too
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File format

GIF file explains the fixed size graphical area which has 0 and more images. Various GIF files have single image which covers the entire logical screen. These images also function in the form of animation frame.

Know about GIF Format

 Pallet

GIF is fully based on pallet which consists of 256 colors and these colors are centered on RGB. Simple graphics, line drawings, cartoon, and grey scale photograph requires less than 256 colors. 

Use of GIF

·        GIF is suitably used for sharp edge line art logo because it has limited number of colors. This gives advantage to lossless compression and makes the edges of images fine.

·        GIF is used in games to store the low color data.

·        This format is used for small animations and low resolution film clips.

·        GIF is also used for certain forums.

·        Initially started with black and white colors GIF now have 256 colors but these colors are not mainly used for digital photography. Digital photography uses TIF, RAW etc for its pictures.

Other photo formats

Apart from GIF there are many photo formats available by which a photo can be enhanced. These formats are:

·        PSD : Photoshop document

·        PDF : portable document format

·        BMP : bitmap

·        JPEG or JPG : joint photography experts group

·        PCX : personal computer exchange

·        PNG : portable network graphics

·        RAW : raw image format

·        TIF : tagged image file format

·        TGA : twi-vision graphics adapter

Dancing GIF

Did you remember the old GIF where a dancing banana was seen? This image was created for flash music video. Just after this, internet created GIF for its own purpose. Many companies changed its name to dancing GIF.

How the name was given?  

There were many long fights between the directors for its pronunciation. After that they thought to put its name as JIF instead of GIF because alphabet J is spoken with much softness whereas G gives a bold and strong feeling. And as the pictures should provide a soft feeling therefore it was started to be pronounced as JIF. It is also said that creator Villet and his computer company staff members liked the peanut butter therefore they put the name as GIF.