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GIF

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Introduced by CompuServe in 1987, the Graphics Interchange Format, better known as GIF, is a unique bitmap image format that has the capacity to support animations. This feature was further improved in its 1989 version, known as 89a. The GIF format permits up to 256 colors per image, with each image or frame possessing its own individual color palette. The Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression technique is employed to compress GIFs, effectively reducing file size without any data loss. While its restricted color palette makes it less suitable for color photographs, the GIF format has found extensive use in diverse fields like research and journalism. Nevertheless, its usage has seen a decrease due to issues related to quality and space, with formats like MP4 gaining more popularity. Despite these challenges, GIF continues to be a vital tool for sharing scenes and communicating messages on the internet[1].

Terms definitions
1. internet. The Internet, a global network of interconnected computer systems, utilizes standardized communication protocols, predominantly TCP/IP, to connect devices across the globe. The term 'Internet' has its roots in the 1849 term 'internetted' and was later adopted by the US War Department in 1945. The inception of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s when computer scientists developed time-sharing systems, which eventually led to the creation of ARPANET in 1969. The Internet operates autonomously, without any central control, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages its primary name spaces. It has revolutionized traditional communication methods and has seen an exponential growth, with the number of internet users growing by 20% to 50% every year. In 2019, more than half of the global population was using the Internet. The Internet protocol suite, comprising TCP/IP and four conceptual layers, directs internet packets to their intended destinations. Fundamental services such as email and Internet telephony function on the Internet. The World Wide Web, an extensive network of interconnected documents, serves as a crucial element of the Internet.
GIF (Wikipedia)

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; /ɡɪf/ GHIF or /ɪf/ JIF,) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on June 15, 1987.

GIF
Filename extension
.gif
Internet media type
image/gif
Type codeGIFf
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)com.compuserve.gif
Magic numberGIF87a/GIF89a
Developed byCompuServe
Initial release15 June 1987; 36 years ago (1987-06-15)
Latest release
89a
1989; 35 years ago (1989)
Type of formatlossless bitmap image format
Websitewww.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-gif89a.txt

The format can contain up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It can also represent multiple images in a file, which can be used for animations, and allows a separate palette of up to 256 colors for each frame. These palette limitations make GIF less suitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with color gradients but well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.

GIF images are compressed using the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality.

While once in widespread usage on the World Wide Web because of its wide implementation and portability between applications and operating systems, usage of the format has declined for space and quality reasons, often being replaced with video formats such as the MP4 file format. These replacements, in turn, are often termed "GIFs" despite having no relation to the original file format.

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