What is a GIF Image?

As part of my plans of building a portfolio on different technology topics, it will be necessary to cover some of the more basic elements in Information Technology. Starting with one of the most basic image standards throughout the computer world; I bring you the GIF image - The oldest graphic format for media delivered on the web.

There has been on ongoing debate over the years about how to pronounce the acronym and is commonly spoken as GIF or JIF. Either way is acceptable and you probably don't need to say it out loud anyways.

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is fully supported by modern web browsers. These kinds of images use a technique called Lossless compression and is actually owned by a company called Unisys .They are better suited for images that have fewer details and will support 256 unique colors. Pictures with solid colors or little variation like cartoons or diagrams will be best suited as a GIF, while pictures of people or scenery are usually too detailed for the image to display in high quality as shown below.

When you think of a GIF, you might think of a bunch of weird, flashy pictures and you would be absolutely right!. These are are a type of GIF that are animated and are all the rage around the internet for better or worse. There are those who love them more than life itself and those that despise them and shun them to the ends of the earth.

An animated GIF, formally called "multi-block" GIFs have multiple blocks of information stored along with the image. When the image is viewed by your browser, these blocks go in sequence to form what you see as an animation. It is very similar to hand drawing an animation in a flip book. Quickly turning each page reveals an object in motion.

When used properly and sparingly, the GIF can be an effective format for quickly displaying a small amount of information. When used too often or out of context, they can really get ugly and annoying as all heck. I'm talking to you, 90's website designers.

Love them or hate them, they are here to stay and you will find yet another uprising of these wildly fascinating moving pictures uploaded by users on Social Media sites like tumblr and Google+ and most other places where people share things.

I've been known to share a few GIFs myself because lets face it - Many of them are just so gosh darn cool!

Animated GIF example uploaded to Give-A-Chromebook

Photo Credits: Sing Along by Mushon Zer-Aviv BY-NC-SA

                        Animated GIF by Michael Chase