What is a GIF?

The GIF visual format is short for Graphics In­ter­change Format and is normally used for moving images such as short videos. GIFs are commonly used as a form of online com­mu­nic­a­tion and can also function as an eye-catching element when designing websites.

GIF is a file or image format that supports both static and moving images (e.g. short videos and an­im­a­tions). It was created in 1987 by Steve Wilhite, an American inventor and computer pro­gram­mer. Unlike other formats, its colour palette is limited to just 256 colours. It can, however, be com­pressed without the quality of the animation or video being sig­ni­fic­antly affected.

There are different types of GIFs: animated GIFs are made up of multiple frames, which are put together in an animation. These an­im­a­tions can be run once or repeated endlessly. If the sequence of images is played at a speed that mirrors reality (i.e. without being sped up or slowed down), it is referred to as a real-time GIF.

Con­sidered visually more appealing than static images, GIFs were ori­gin­ally used as website banners. Nowadays, GIFs are primarily used on social media platt­forms and messaging services such as WhatsApp and WhatsApp al­tern­at­ives.

Users often use GIFs to highlight what they mean in a visual way. They’re mainly used to share an opinion or joke in a way that is often con­sidered more amusing than using just words. Memes are also another form of visual com­mu­nic­a­tion that are extremely popular online.

Online criminals can hide ex­ecut­able EXE files in GIFs and other similar formats such as APNG. While this may pose a security risk, it’s important to know that such files are not executed when a GIF is played. They are simply skipped over as the pixel co­ordin­ates are being read. However, dangerous software was once spread via ad­vert­ising GIFs, after attackers were able to exploit a vul­ner­ab­il­ity in Internet Explorer, one of the best web browsers to date. This problem has since been resolved though.