GIF inventor Stephen Wilhite dies at 74 from Covid-19

Computer engineer Stephen Wilhite, famous for developing GIFs, died at the age of 74 from Covid-19 on March 14.

The family of the deceased broke the terrible news to 

 on Wednesday, reports 

.

It was in 1987, while working for the Internet service provider CompuServe, that the engineer developed the GIF format (“Graphics Interchange Format”), making it possible to broadcast compressed images without loss of quality. .

This invention won him the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

The GIPHY team is sad to hear of the passing of Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the GIF file format.

GIPHY was built on a sincere love for the GIF — and we are indebted to the creativity and vision of Mr. Wilhite 💕 pic.twitter.com/CTPS895wCQ

— GIPHY (@GIPHY) March 23, 2022

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It's pronounced “jif”

On social networks, many tributes have been relayed.

Internet users took the opportunity to revive the debate on the pronunciation of the acronym.

In 2013, Stephen Wilhite had yet decided.

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations ('jif' and 'guif'),” he told The

.

" He is wrong.

It's a soft 'g', so it's pronounced 'jif'.

End of the story.

»

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This declaration had been doubled by a humorous intervention reiterating this affirmation when the engineer had received his Webby Award.

Despite this, Internet users continued to ironize on the subject.

“May Mr. Wilhite rest in peace.

He was a genius creator and also the very first person in the world to mispronounce 'Gif',” one wrote.

If there are billions of GIFs today, only one was Stephen Wilhite's favorite: that of the dancing baby.

This animation, invented in the mid-1990s, shows an infant cha-cha-cha.

Now famous, this GIF has been featured in

 and the

series , notes

.

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