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.gif

Not to be confused with .jif or .GIF

MIME type: image/GIF

Is binary? Yes

Is encrypted? Unknown

Can execute dangerous code? No

Related extensions: .jif .gifv .gif_c200

Internet Media types: imagegif

Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) com.compuserve.gif

Type code GIFf

Magic number GIF87a / GIF89a

A .gif file is an 8 bit image file format that supports animated images. It contains 256 colors, but with manipulation, it can support up to 16777216 colors. It is very common on the Internet, and is usable elsewhere.

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Operating system: Any (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, Windows, Windows 9x, Windows NT, Linux, GNU/Linux, Classic MacOS, MacOS, MacOS X, OS X, iOS, Android, ChromiumOS, ChromeOS, OS/2, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, etc.)

Opens with:

Eye of GNOME (GNOME, Linux)

GNOME Image viewer (GNOME, Linux)>

Gwenview (KDE, Linux, Windows)

QuickTime Player (Windows NT, Mac OS X, MacOS 11, MacOS 12)

Mozilla Firefox (all versions)

SeaMonkey (all versions)

Tor (all versions)

IceWeasel/IceCat (all versions)

Konquerer (all versions)

IceRaven (all versions)

DuckDuckGo (all versions)

Dot browser (all versions)

Opera (all versions)

NetScape Navigator (version ? and up)

Nexus (not supported)

Safari (all versions)

Cyberdog (all versions)

Internet Explorer for Mac (all versions)

Microsoft Edge (all versions)

Internet Explorer (version 1 and up)

Samsung Internet (all versions)

Google Chromium (all versions)

Google Chrome (all versions)

Most other web browsers

Other? Unknown

Click/tap here to expand/collapse the definitions for this file

Definition 1: GIF image (still image)

A .gif file is a GIF file. GIF files can be still images, along with animated images.

Definition 2: GIF image (animated image)

A .gif file is a GIF file. GIF files can be animated. Animated GIF files loop endlessly.

Definition 3: Pseudo-extension (null)

A pseudo-extension is a file format that is applied to a file, despite not having a purpose, other than to change the file name (such as animated.gif) however this file extension is rarely used as a pseudo-extension

Alternatives

Alternatives to the GIF image file include:

.apng (Animated PNG)

.gifv (GIF Video)

.svg (animated SVG)

Recommend one

No other definitions

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Limitations and problems

The GIF image file is not perfect. It has several problems, including:

* Inefficient compression - GIF image files are highly bloated. The average GIF file is over 10x larger than its MP4 counterpart.

* Color limitations - GIF image support a palette of 256 colors, out of a 24 bit (16777216) space. Due to this, GIF files lose a lot of color compared to normal image files.

* Audio - GIF image files cannot contain audio. Although this is fine because GIF image files aren't supposed to play audio.

* Lack of playback control - You cannot control the playback of a GIF file.

History

The GIF image file was invented by Steve Wilhite at CompuServe on 1987, June 15th. It is a lossless Bitmap image format. It became popular with the World Wide Web.

GIF images are compressed using the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality. This compression technique was patented in 1985. Controversy over the licensing agreement between the software patent holder, Unisys, and CompuServe in 1994 spurred the development of the Portable Network Graphics (PNG)