![]() ![]() In addition, a sample GIF that was bundled with software released by CompuServe in 1989 contains metadata that includes the following line: "Oh, incidentally, it's pronounced 'JIF'". Steve Wilhite, the engineering lead at CompuServe, said that the intended pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials. The creators of the format at CompuServe pronounced GIF as "jif" with a soft "G" /ˈdʒɪf/ as in "gin". ![]() There is much debate over whether to pronounce "GIF" with a hard or a soft G. The patent in question expired in the US in 2003, and in other countries in 2004, so it is no longer an issue.Īnother attempt at a patent-free format to replace GIF, Jeff's Image Format (JIF), never caught on. However, it took several years for PNG to get widespread support in software, and in the meantime the World Wide Web experienced meteoric growth with GIF still used as the primary graphics format (alongside JPEG), though eventually PNG did become widespread on the Web as well. This made GIF a less-than-free format, spurring a desire on the part of some people for an unencumbered format, which led to the creation of the PNG format. In 1994, it became widely known that the format was encumbered by the use of the patent-protected LZW compression technology, for which its owner, Unisys, was demanding licencing terms and royalties for certain sorts of uses. ![]()
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