Steve Welheit, creator of the GIF format, dies

His family announced that Steve Welheit, the inventor of the GIF image format, has died at the age of 74 due to complications related to Covid-19. In 1987, while working at CompuServe, at that time the main American provider of Internet access, he mastered the .gif format, a format that made it possible to distribute compressed images without losing quality, especially convenient broadcasting on the emerging Internet.

In 1989, the team of Mr. Wilhite published a new version of this format, which makes it possible to create animation. This innovation, at a time when it was nearly impossible to stream videos online, made motion picture very popular. The name moved into a popular language in the 1990s to designate the short animation. Millions of animated GIFs, transformations, parodies, and mythical mini clips are still widely used online.

In 2013, Mr. Weilheit gave his answer To a twenty-five-year discussion about the pronunciation of the formula he invented: “The Oxford Dictionary accepts both ‘djif’ and ‘guif’, but they are wrong”then explained to The New York Times. It’s pronounced ‘djif’. » He also said to The New York Times.