| Stands for
Graphics Interchange Format. It's used for pictures that are posted
up on the web. You can tell when pictures use this because their
addresses or file names will end in .gif.
The GIF (the original and
preferred pronunciation is DJIF; it stands for Graphics Interchange
Format) is one of the two most common file formats for graphic
images on the World Wide Web. The other is the JPEG.
On the Web and elsewhere on
the Internet (for example, bulletin board services), the GIF has
become a de facto standard form of image. The LZW compression
algorithm used in the GIF format is owned by Unisys, and companies
that make products that exploit the algorithm (including the GIF
format) need to license its use from Unisys. In practice, Unisys has
not required users of GIF images to obtain a license, although their
licensing statement indicates that it is a requirement. Unisys says
that getting a license from them does not necessarily involve a fee. |
