Pictures to gif reddit how to#

The internet was awash in garish designs, thanks to websites with noisy wallpaper backgrounds, Comic Sans font, and the ubiquitous Website Under Construction sign. The early days: the internet was under construction, and so was the GIFĪh, the ‘90s. But as the blog Enthusiasms notes, “the story of how is really the story of the internet growing up.” It’s simultaneously a tale of how the internet’s design evolution impacted the GIF, and one of how the GIF impacted the internet’s design evolution. On the surface, it might sound strange that a file format that has essentially remained unchanged since the ‘90s has managed to outlast so many other kinds of higher-level internet tech, from Flash animation to early JavaScript. (The man who invented the GIF, Steve Wilhite, says it with a soft ‘G,’ like Jif peanut butter, but most people on the internet say it with a hard ‘G,’ because a) it’s more fun, b) it avoids confusion with said brand of peanut butter, and c) come on, it’s Graphical Interchange Format, not Giraffe-ical Interchange Format.)

Pictures to gif reddit how to#

The question of how to pronounce the word “GIF” has become a rote topic of cultural debate. These days, the GIF is so ubiquitous as a piece of internet culture that it’s got its own offshoot formats like reaction GIFs, GIF art, and Tumblr GIF sets. My, how far we’ve come since those inauspicious beginnings. The solution: the GIF, a simple, flexible file format for lower-resolution pictures.

Three decades ago, on June 15, 1987, the most beloved image file extension on the internet was birthed by a team of CompuServe developers seeking a way to compress images with minimal data loss. The GIF is officially 30-something, and in the prime of its internet life.