GIF creator Stephen Wilhite has died of COVID-19 at the age of 74 with his wife Kathaleen at his bedside, NPR reported. He was working at CompuServe when he developed the Graphics Interchange Format, which would allow photos to be transmitted over slow modem connections. GIFs have since become synonymous with short meme videos, regardless of how you pronounce it (although it’s “JIF” with a soft “G” according to Wilhite himself).
According to his wife, Wilhite practically invented the GIF on his own in 1987. It was conceived as a “graphic image exchange and display mechanism” at a time when internet speeds were freezing compared to today. “He actually did this at home and brought it to work after perfecting it,” Kathaleen told The Verge. “He would figure it all out privately in his head and then go to town to program it on the computer.”
With limitations like 256 colors per animation, the format could have died out long ago. However, it had another trick – it was designed by Wilhite to store multiple frames, making it natural for short animations. According to a Daily Dot explainer, it took on a life of its own after AOL bought CompuServe and let the patent expire, particularly among artists and Tumblr users.
In addition to developing GIFs, Wilhite made other key contributions to CompuServe that helped make the company the Internet juggernaut of its day. “I admired his intelligence and perseverance as he consistently developed software products that were woven into CompuServe’s offering to business, hobbyists and consumers,” said colleague Ty Wait on Wilhite’s obituary page.
Wilhite retired in 2000 to pursue his hobbies and interests, including travel and model trains. However, he always returned to his first love of programming — he still did just weeks before contracting COVID, Kathaleen told NPR. “He was probably one of the kindest, most humble men you’ve ever met,” she said. “I’ve read about it [the responses online] all afternoon, and I can’t even tell you how comforting it is.”
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