GIF

A GIF is a file that contains an image or a short animation. The animation consists of several individual frames that are played one after another — similar to a flipbook. The result plays automatically and usually loops endlessly, without anyone needing to press play. The format was developed in 1987 by the US company CompuServe, so even before the modern internet existed. Nevertheless, people encounter it daily: in chats, social networks, and news articles.

GIFs as a means of communication

GIFs have evolved into their own form of digital communication. A brief reaction — applause, an eye roll, laughter — can be expressed with them more precisely than with an emoji. Platforms like Giphy or Tenor have built libraries containing millions of such clips, which are integrated directly into WhatsApp, Instagram, or X (formerly Twitter).

In news articles and on tech sites, GIFs also serve to show a process for which a still image would be too little and a video too much. A short screencast demonstrating a new feature of an app is easier to embed as a GIF than as an embedded video.

How a GIF is structured internally

A GIF file consists of one or more frames — the term for the individual images of an animation. Each frame additionally stores how long it should be displayed before the next one follows. This sequence creates the motion. A crucial limitation: GIF can only display 256 different colors per image. The human eye can distinguish millions of colors, which is why GIFs often look grainy or blotchy with photos.

By comparison: the more modern WebP format, developed by Google, manages with significantly more colors and produces smaller files with better quality. Nevertheless, GIF has persisted because it works everywhere — every browser, every operating system, and nearly every app can display it without additional software.

A common misconception is equating GIF with video. A video format like MP4 stores motion in a completely different way: it only encodes the differences between consecutive frames, achieving far higher quality at a much smaller file size. Many platforms therefore internally convert uploaded GIFs into silent videos and play these instead — the user sees a GIF, but technically receives a video.

GIFs in everyday life and in tech reporting

In everyday life, GIFs are encountered mainly in messenger apps. Most major services have a built-in GIF search that accesses external databases. A tip on this: the correct format of the file extension is “.gif”, but the pronunciation has been disputed for decades — the inventor of the format insisted on “jif” like the peanut butter brand, while the majority say “gif” with a hard G.

In tech reporting, the word GIF often comes up when new app features or interface designs are presented. Developers use GIFs in documentation and on GitHub, the platform where programming projects are published, to show what a new feature looks like. Here, the format competes with short MP4 clips that achieve the same result but require less storage space.

In the context of AI, GIF has recently become relevant in connection with image generators. Systems like Midjourney or Runway can generate short animated sequences that can be exported as a GIF. This brings things full circle: a format from the early days of the internet becomes the output format of modern AI tools.