(Graphics Interchange Format) A popular bitmapped graphics file format developed by CompuServe. Pronounced "giff" with a hard "g" by most Mac users and "jiff" by PC users, GIFs are widely used on the Web because the format uses its own form of compression.
GIF supports 8-bit color (256 colors), but gets the most mileage out of its limited colors by using a built-in color palette. For example, the palette for an image of a forest would mostly contain shades of green and brown. If colors are within a tight range, this method provides extraordinary realism in an 8-bit image. See indexed color.
GIF87a and GIF89a
There are two GIF versions: the original GIF87a and subsequent GIF89a, both named after their year of introduction. GIF89a allows one of the colors to be made transparent (see alpha channel) and take on the background color of the underlying page or window. GIF89a also supports animated GIFs, which use multiple frames in sequence to simulate movement (see animated GIF).
GIFs and JPEGs
Both GIF and JPEG images are widely used on the Web and are supported by all Web software that displays graphics. Charts, screen shots and technical drawings with text are typically GIFs (8-bit). Images with limited colors can also be GIFs, but most photographs are generally better as JPEGs (24-bit). Sometimes, an image has to be saved in both formats to determine which is best. See JPEG.
There Was a Patent Issue
The GIF format uses the LZW compression algorithm, which was patented by Unisys, and publishers of applications that read and write GIF87a and GIF89a images were required to obtain a license and pay royalties to the company. For example, publishers of Web browsers and image editors were licensees. The Unisys patents expired in June 2003 for the U.S. and in July 2004 for Canada and Europe; however, Unisys and other companies have patents on different variants of LZW used in other GIF formats. See LZW and graphics formats.
GIF supports 8-bit color (256 colors), but gets the most mileage out of its limited colors by using a built-in color palette. For example, the palette for an image of a forest would mostly contain shades of green and brown. If colors are within a tight range, this method provides extraordinary realism in an 8-bit image. See indexed color.
GIF87a and GIF89a
There are two GIF versions: the original GIF87a and subsequent GIF89a, both named after their year of introduction. GIF89a allows one of the colors to be made transparent (see alpha channel) and take on the background color of the underlying page or window. GIF89a also supports animated GIFs, which use multiple frames in sequence to simulate movement (see animated GIF).
GIFs and JPEGs
Both GIF and JPEG images are widely used on the Web and are supported by all Web software that displays graphics. Charts, screen shots and technical drawings with text are typically GIFs (8-bit). Images with limited colors can also be GIFs, but most photographs are generally better as JPEGs (24-bit). Sometimes, an image has to be saved in both formats to determine which is best. See JPEG.
There Was a Patent Issue
The GIF format uses the LZW compression algorithm, which was patented by Unisys, and publishers of applications that read and write GIF87a and GIF89a images were required to obtain a license and pay royalties to the company. For example, publishers of Web browsers and image editors were licensees. The Unisys patents expired in June 2003 for the U.S. and in July 2004 for Canada and Europe; however, Unisys and other companies have patents on different variants of LZW used in other GIF formats. See LZW and graphics formats.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.4.8 (Windows)
- Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.4 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. It supports playing more than 400 media formats and the media files protected by DRM-X. Haihaisoft Universal Player has its own online ActiveX Player which supports playing protected or unprotected...
- Software downloads 2009-11-20
- FastStone Image Viewer 4.0 (Windows)
- FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major...
- Software downloads 2009-11-19
- Batch It 5.06 (Windows)
- Batch It is an automated Batch Imaging Editor which allows you to resize, rename, add captions, add watermark, add drop shadow and more. It is a must-have tool for webmasters and digital photographers alike. It supports convert between popular image formats such as PCX,GIF, BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG and...
- Software downloads 2009-11-19
- iWisoft Flash SWF to Video Converter 3.4 (Windows)
- iWisoft Flash SWF to Video Converter is the best option for SWF to Video Conversion. This powerful tool can easily convert Macromedia Flash SWF to video/audio/picture files of most popular formats. Convert Flash SWF to AVI/MPEG/WMV/FLV/MOV/3GP/MP4/iPod/PSP/Zune/MP3/GIF/PNG/BMP/animated GIF with excellent quality. It supports batch SWF conversion. And with this powerful SWF...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Photo Pos Pro 1.76 (Windows)
- Photo Pos Pro allows you easily create, edit, enhance, print, and manipulate your digital photos and computer graphics, and easily create eye-catching graphics, beautiful collages, greeting cards, business cards, website designs, buttons and much more. Though the Photo Pos Pro photo editor is a powerful program, it contains an extremely...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Easy CAD Viewer 1.03 (Windows)
- Easy CAD Viewer allows you to view and print various AutoCAD drawings on your PC easily and quickly. It also enables you to manage 2D and 3D CAD drawings. Easy CAD Viewer works with AutoCAD DWG, DXF, DWF files of all versions as early as AutoCAD Release 9 and as...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Easy CAD to Image Converter 1.03 (Windows)
- Easy CAD to Image Converter supports conversion from DWG, DXF, DWF to BMP, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, and TGA file types. Easy CAD to Image Converter is more than a file format converter, and you can even batch render your DWG, DXF, DWF drawing files to image files of any...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Easy CAD Solution Suite 1.03 (Windows)
- Convert your CAD drawings to various image and graphics formats without the need for AutoCAD-based products. Review CAD drawings in DWG, DXF, DWF format with a feature-rich viewer. Edit, modify design drawing and its internal objects attributes and properties. Convert between DWG, DXF, DWF, PDF, and various image formats without...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- 3D Stairway to Turkey Heaven 2.4 (Windows)
- Cute 3D turkey angels with halos and harps float against a starry backdrop with heavenly stairways and arches. Smooth blues music accompanies the turkey angels flights. Change number, size, fade, and speed of animations. You can also change the screen savers tint and brightness. You can also play up to...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- GIF to AVI SWF Converter 3.1 (Windows)
- GIF to AVI SWF Converter is an easy to use and powerful conversion tool that lets you convert animated GIF formats to AVI, SWF flash and various image formats such as BMP, JPEG, PNG and GIF. Ability to define size and quality on converted output files are available in just...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- Fast Video to GIF SWF Converter 4.1 (Windows)
- Fast Video to GIF SWF Converter is an easy to use and powerful conversion tool that lets you convert video files such as AVI (DivX, XviD), MPEG1, MPEG2, VCD, SVCD, WMV, and ASF formats to animated GIF and SWF flash files. Ability to define size and quality on converted GIF...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- Batch It Pro 4.08 (Windows)
- Batch It Pro is an automated Batch Imaging Editor which allows you to resize, rename, rotate, create thumbnail galleries, add captions and more. It is a must-have tool for webmasters and digital photographers alike. It Load JPEG, JPEG 2000, BMP, TIFF, PCX, PNG, TGA, PBM, PGM, PPM, GIF, VDA, ICB,...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- ASAP Utilities 4.5.5 (Windows)
- Save time in MS Excel with ASAP Utilities. A powerful Excel add-in that fills the gaps in Excel and automates frequently used tasks. Since 1999 it has grown to become probably one of the world's most popular add-ins for MS Excel. ASAP Utilities gives you over 300 different Excel utilities...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- AZImage 2.4.3 (Windows)
- A program to effectively convert between most common image formats (jpeg, gif, tif, raw...). It can process large amounts of files, resize and correct quality on the fly. Ideal for converting digital photos. It also runs in batch mode. Features: automatic upload to Google Picasa, drag and drop files to...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- PDFZilla 1.2.7 (Windows)
- PDFZilla is a desktop application that quickly and accurately convert PDF files into editable MS Word Documents, Rich Text Documents, Plain Text Files, Images, HTML Files, and Shockwave Flash SWF Files. PDFZilla supports most of popular formats: DOC, RTF, TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, HTML, SWF formats. PDFZilla also...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate SE 5.0.51.1113 (Windows)
- Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate SE can rip DVD to almost all video and audio formats such as MPEG-4, AVI, DivX, Xvid, RM, FLV, SWF, MOV, 3GP, WMV, WMA, MP3, AAC, AC3, M4A, WAV. With its powerful compatibility with iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate SE enables you...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- PhotoX Batch Watermark Creator 2.0.1 (Windows)
- Avoid unauthorized use of your product photos. Stamp your product photos with watermark. You can add text or image watermark. For Text Watermark, you can set different font face, font size, bold, italic or underline with different color. For Image Watermark, you can pick from different formats of image, include...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- Zvox Z-Base 575
- Photo gallery:Zvox Z-Base 575Sound bars feel like they've been around forever now, but they're still a relatively new product; consider that the groundbreaking Yamaha YSP-1 debuted back at CES 2005. Since then, the exterior design of the units hasn't changed much, with the vast majority still consisting of a long...
- Product reviews 2009-11-16
- Art Text 2.2.2 (Mac)
- Art Text is an application to create high quality headings, web site graphics, buttons, logos and icons. Multi layer support turns Art Text into flexible tool to create complex graphics for web and print materials. Template Gallery provides over 300 ready made buttons, headings, logos and icons. Use the result...
- Software downloads 2009-11-16
- SimpleWget 0.9 (Mac)
- SimpleWget is a Cocoa front end for GNU Wget, a great UNIX download tool. You can do recursive downloading, specify file type to get(like .jpg only, .gif only...and so on), span hosts, read URLs from a text file. GNUWget-1.8.2 Installer Package for Mac OS X is also available at the...
- Software downloads 2009-11-16
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- The best support in the Linux business
-
If Linux is going to power your mission-critical applications, you'd better have the best support known to business. Novell was rated the top provider of Linux technical support.
- Learn more >>
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
- The more you simplify, the more you save
-
When you transition from your existing Red Hat environment to SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, you can recognize dramatic cost savings, perhaps as much 50%
- Learn more >>
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
Popular Sanity Saver Videos
