Stands for “Graphics Interchange Format.” GIF is an image file format commonly used for images on the web and sprites in software programs. Unlike the JPEG image format, GIFs uses lossless compression that does not degrade the quality of the image.

Alternative Title: graphics interchange format. GIF, in full graphics interchange format, digital file format devised in 1987 by the Internet service provider CompuServe as a means of reducing the size of images and short animations.

A GIF is a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images. It was the standard for 8-bit colour images on the internet until PNG became a viable alternative. You may have seen them used often in email signatures. Animated GIFs are several images or frames combined into a single file.

Unlike the JPEG image format (. jpg), GIFs typically use a compression algorithm referred to as LZW encoding that does not degrade the image quality and allows for easy storing of the file in bytes. The multiple images within a single GIF file are displayed in succession to create an animated clip or a short movie.

Use GIF when your graphic uses a relatively low number of colors, there are hard-edged shapes, large areas of solid color, or needs to make use of binary transparency. These exact same rules apply for 8-Bit PNG’s. You can think of them almost exactly like GIF files.

The animated GIFs only have a maximum colour palette of 256 colours, so, they can look of a poorer quality than the other types of file or image, So, The images will have more blocky colours and also look slightly pixelated.

List of Advantages of Animated GIFs

• Small File Size. One of the main advantages of using animated gifs is the size which can be relatively smaller compared with other file formats.
• Professional Looking Images.
• Convey Messages Better.
• Limited Color Pattern.
• Editing Is Not Possible.
• Internet Connection Matters.

Creating reduced file formats without degrading the visual quality, GIFs are widely used online. Due to the colour limitations, the GIF format makes it unsuitable for reproducing complex colour photographs but it is well suited to simpler images with solid areas of colour.

When asked solely about conveying emotion through animated images, the preference was even greater: Nearly two-thirds of millennials said GIFs did the job better than words, compared to about 40% of those in their golden years.

Combined with the emotional shorthand and cultural references they carry, GIFs allow users to simultaneously express their mood, sense of humor, and identity in a low-effort way like no other digital medium can. The efficiency of its expressiveness is the ultimate power of GIFs and the key to its enduring popularity.

GIFs are not only appealing, but also effective as they help enhance a brand’s message with visual content. It has been observed that people only remember 20% of the text they read without visuals, which reminds us once again why visual power is more important than ever.

GIFs are all about exaggerated emotion If you’re annoyed, If something didn’t go well, GIFS are a way of showing genuine emotion and conveying tone, something that can be a problem in text.

If they send anything with a kissy face emoji, that is a sure sign of a flirt.” Up there with emojis, GIFs can also directly point to flirting, Hoffman says.

Throwing in some visual element makes your communication more engaging. In fact, it’s been found that people’s brains process emoji as nonverbal, emotional communications rather than words. GIFs can tell stories or illustrate points without taking any longer to load or to experience than their text-only equivalents.

The main difference between an animated gif and a meme is that memes tend to be static images that make a topical or pop culture reference and animated gifs are, more simply, moving images. Grab an animated gif and stick some topical words on it et voilà, you have an animated meme.

Steve Wilhite