GIF creator Stephen Wilhite dead at 74

[Shawn Knight]

Legendary: Stephen E. Wilhite, lead creator of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), died last week. The image format probably should have faded into the sunset long ago; instead, GIFs experienced a renaissance of sorts thanks to a built-in animation feature that became popular on the web in the 2000s. The proliferation of smartphones only helped to solidify the GIF's place as a true medium for modern communication.

Wilhite spent much of his career with CompuServe where, in the late 80s, he served as the lead engineer on the team that came up with the GIF image format. GIFs were originally designed as a way to display and exchange "high-quality, high-resolution graphics" at a time when computer hardware was very primitive and transfer speeds were painfully slow.

His wife, Kathaleen Wilhite, told The Verge that her husband invented the GIF all by himself. "He actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it," Kathaleen said. "He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer."

Jason Reed, art director at the Daily Dot, told NPR that without the GIF, the Internet as we know it would be a different place. "It's a tight medium that you can learn alot about storytelling within, especially tuned for the attention span of the internet," Reed added.

Wilhite worked for CompuServe on various projects before retiring in the early 2000s.

Wilhite during his Webby Lifetime Achievement award acceptance speech in 2013 cleared up any misconception about how to correctly pronounce GIF. It's "JIF," as in the peanut butter brand, not "GIF" like a gift.

Wilhite died from complications related to Covid-19 on March 14. He was 74.

Image credit The Webby Awards

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93914-gif-creator-stephen-wilhite-dead-74.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

This man was a God among men.

He literally made it easy to leave comments - whether harassing, bullying or not, without breaking TOS by simply attaching a "motion picture" that conveys the message perfectly and efficiently.

 

[madboyv1]

 

[terzaerian]

I am convinced that the hard G contingent is funded by Google, who have in interest both in making GIF sound stupid and effete when pronounced to boost their own WebM format, as well as favoring the hard G because of their name.

 

[Lew Zealand]

"It's pronounced JIF, not GIF"

LOL when you need to misspell it just to explain the "correct" pronunciation.

 

[scavengerspc]

RIP Mr Wilhite.

But one thing, there is no English dialect on Earth where a hard G is pronounced like a J. But I realize a lot of nerds think things can be true just because they say so. (Like the Trumpists )

Your work still borders on legend, but this guy (not juy) has to go (not jo).

"It's pronounced JIF, not GIF"

LOL when you need to misspell it just explain the "correct" pronunciation.

EDITED to fix misplaced smiley.

 

[MakeMSGreatAgain]

I'm going to make a competing JRFX standing for the made up word jrafiks.... and I'll insist it is pronounced with a hard G.

The guy was obviously an excellent programmer; and I honor him for that. We all know that programmers are terrible at spelling, grammar, and knowledge of the English language in general... so I ignore his insistence that we pronounce it incorrectly.

 

[toxicfiend]

It is pronounced jif "as in I'll be there in a jiffy". Thats how I was told years ago.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

I remember the days before “browsers” when u had to cut & paste together strings of characters and then use a gif-viewer program to see what you just spent hours downloading & concatenating.
Then there was the gif.gl program that allowed one to view an actual video.
Kids today have it too damn easy.

 

[Raunchy]

I am convinced that the hard G contingent is funded by Google

Or maybe that contingent is people who know what GIF stands for: GRAPHICS Interchange Format. So your (and this guy's) contention is that "graphics" is pronounced "jraffics"?

GIF predates Google, genius. It's a hard G because the word that it stands for is a hard G.

 

[Frederf]

I'm going to make a new database format, with a .QQQ file extension.
It will not be called a Q's file.
It will not be called a triple Q file.
it will not be called a "Q" "Q" "Q" file.
It will be pronounced floob.
And it will be pronounced floob, because I say so.

 

[ZedRM]

RIP Mr Wilhite.

But one thing, there is no English dialect on Earth where a hard G is pronounced like a J. But I realize a lot of nerds think things can be true just because they say so. (Like the Trumpists )

Your work still borders on legend, but this guy (not juy) has to go (not jo).

EDITED to fix misplaced smiley.

Twice in one day, damn...

Yeah, this sums it up. Just like "GigaWatt" is not "JigaWatt"...

It's pronounced JIF, not GIF

That would be VERY incorrect. Just throwing it out there Shawn.

 

[merikafyeah]

It's pronounced however you like to pronounce it. Any supposed explanation for why it should be pronounced one way or the other fails to remain consistent with its own logic:

 

[scavengerspc]

Any supposed explanation for why it should be pronounced one way or the other fails to remain consistent with its own logic:

Im sure you are speaking tongue in cheek, but even the logic of the English language?

 

[captaincranky]

RIP Mr Wilhite.

But one thing, there is no English dialect on Earth where a hard G is pronounced like a J. But I realize a lot of nerds think things can be true just because they say so. (Like the Trumpists )

Your work still borders on legend, but this guy (not juy) has to go (not jo).

There are exceptions. Arguably, the "GI", is only "mostly always" a hard G. There is however, at least one glaring exception:

(Notice how cleverly worked a verb with a hard G into that statement)?

But I do advise and consent that the acronym, "GIF", being pronounced as it's spelled. Whereas, "JIF", should be relegated to a brand of peanut butter. which actually IS spelled with a J

 

[merikafyeah]

Im sure you are speaking tongue in cheek, but even the logic of the English language?

I was referring to arguments like "It's GIF because 'graphics' not 'jraphics' being linguistically inconsistent. The video explains why.

 

[scavengerspc]

There are exceptions. Arguably, the "GI", is only "mostly always" a hard G. There is however, at least one glaring exception:

A G is pronounced like a J when the G is followed by E, I or Y. So Giraffe sounding like a J is correct while the G in GIF is just a part of an acronym so the word it represents (graphics) is what counts.

 

[captaincranky]

A G is pronounced like a J when the G is followed by E, I or Y.

So, "jirls" then? My spell checker always hassles me when I spell it the way it's pronounced, "gurlz". The trouble with English is, that it has so many "imported words", you really can't set any hard and fast rules for pronunciation. When I found out that, "gyro", (as in the sandwich), was pronounced, "hero", you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Which reminds me I haven't paid my respects to Mr.Wilhite.

I wonder if the mods will let me get away with it in Spanish:
"Polvo eres, y polvo volveras. Vaya con Dios".

"Pulvis" is "dust" in Latin. Y'all can take it from there.

On a side note, I checked at least 7 other languages, and can't for the life of me, figure out where the hell the Brits came up with "dust".

 

[scavengerspc]

So, "jirls" then? My spell checker always hassles me when I spell it the way it's pronounced, "gurlz". The trouble with English is, that it has so many "imported words", you really can't set any hard and fast rules for pronunciation. When I found out that, "gyro", (as in the sandwich), was pronounced, "hero", you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Which reminds me I haven't paid my respects to Mr.Wilhite.

I wonder if the mods will let me get away with it in Spanish:
"Polvo eres, y polvo volveras. Vaya con Dios".

"Pulvis" is "dust" in Latin. Y'all can take it from there.

On a side note, I checked at least 7 other languages, and can't for the life of me, figure out where the hell the Brits came up with "dust".

No Cap I get what you are saying, it's just that the G doesn't start a word so much as it stands, in an acronym, for graphics.

Anyway, I came here this morning to put up something my daughter found.
Makes things a little more clear, sort of

How to pronounce the letter G - Tarle Speech

Pronounce the letter G as a J sound if the G is followed by the letters E, I, or Y.

tarlespeech.com

 

[captaincranky]

it's just that the G doesn't start a word so much as it stands, in an acronym, for graphics.

But, but, but, I agreed with that a couples of posts ago. I would never pronounce "GIF, as "JIF".

On another side note, a purist veterinarian wouldn't let me turn "Blood, Urea Nitrogen, "b.u.n" as BUN. She kept telling it was Bee, You, En.

And here I thought "BUN", was a tailor made acronym. If I were that stubborn, (which of course I'm not), I would say it's, "Gee, eye, eff", and argue to the death over it. . And to all who would dare disagree with me, I would say, "screw ewe".
.

 

[Lew Zealand]

. And to all who would dare disagree with me, I would say, "screw ewe".

When in Scotland...

 

[captaincranky]

When in Scotland...

A Scottish bolero, live, direct from the pasture.....

You can almost hear them chanting, "GIF, GIF, GIF it to me, implied if not stated... (just trying to keep this on topic)

 

[ZedRM]

I was referring to arguments like "It's GIF because 'graphics' not 'jraphics' being linguistically inconsistent. The video explains why.

The conclusions in that video do not meet with merit and are illogical.

 

[merikafyeah]

The conclusions in that video do not meet with merit and are illogical.

You'll have to be more specific.

I'm saying the argument "graphics not jraphics" is inconsistent because we say "jpeg" not "jfeg". Same with 'laser' and 'scuba', and also how the "I" is pronounced in IMAX (image maximum) or SIM card (subscriber identification module). For "it's graphics not jraphics" to be a valid argument the rule it implies must be consistent everywhere, but it's not, therefore it is invalid. Why such clear-cut logic escapes so many is beyond me.

 

[ZedRM]

Why such clear-cut logic escapes so many is beyond me.

It doesn't escape any us. Our logic is sound. The logic you and your camp are subscribing to is flawed and ignores basic facts which have already been defined. But...

Once again, "GIF" stands for G-raphics I-nterchange F-ormat, pronounced with the hard "G" sound, similar to Green, Globe or Gain.

Any argument against that VERY simple understanding is pedantic and without any factual merit whatsoever.

Stop arguing with your egos and see sense.