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The creator of the popular GIF graphic file format,

Stephen Wilhite,

passed away last week from a

Covid-19 infection.

Wilhite, who was 74, created the

GIF

(

Graphics Interchange Format)

format in the 1980s when he was working for

Compuserve.

He was looking for a file format capable of considerably reducing the size of digital photographs to be able to send them through the modems of the time, and GIFs were the solution.

Speaking to

The Verge,

his wife, Katheleen, explained that Wilhite created this format at home in private, and then perfected it at work.

Compuserve was one of the first commercial

BBS

and computer network access services in the

United States .

In 1989 it was also the first company to offer Internet access, although the network at that time was still very different from today.

Most of Compuserve's tools were for e-mail, forum access, and sending and receiving files.

The web as such had only just taken its first steps.

1989 was also the year that

Tim Berners-Lee

created the

HTML language,

the first page, and the first browser.

Although it is no longer as efficient as other graphic formats, GIF has become very popular in recent years because it allows you to display small animations in a loop.

This feature has made it the

favorite format when it comes to transmitting memes

on the web and was also instrumental in the early years of the web, when there was not yet a way to display videos or animations on pages.

In 2013 Wilhite received a Webby Award (regarded as the Internet's Oscars) for lifetime achievement for the development of the format.

At the gala, Wilhite also resolved the debate over the pronunciation of these types of files.

Although both "guif" and "yif" are accepted, the creator always considered the second way to be the correct one.

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