The GIF is a long-standing communication tool across all social media platforms.
However, many people using them don’t know what these acronyms mean.
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Although there has been much debate about what GIF means, Steve Wilhite (an American computer scientist) has confirmed it to be Graphics Interchange Format.
Wilhite and his colleagues chose the name to make it easy for them to call it a GIF.
In 1987, he created the file format while working for Compuserve Internet Service Provider. It was at a time when dial-up internet connections were slow.
Wilhite utilized a data compression technology that enabled images to be transmitted at higher speeds than ever before.
This invention allowed the company to provide customers with the opportunity to download images in colour, rather than just black-and-white.
The pronunciation of the acronym is another contentious issue.
Although some people pronounce it as “gif”, Wilhite previously stated that it is actually “jif”.
Speaking to the New York Times, Steve Wilhite said he was “annoyed” there was still a debate over how to say the acronym.