GIF history: where they come from and where they are going

Funny, witty, curious... GIFs have already become a regular resource in social networks and messaging applications and have become part of our daily lives and jokes.It is an image format that has evolved significantly throughout its history and is experiencing a new awakening.

In fact, to find its origins, we must go back more than twenty years ago .A moment in which they had little to do with what we know today and an evolution that we could not stop review.So let's find out where they come from and try to catch a glimpse of where they are going.

What is a GIF

The word GIF responds to the acronym of Graphics Interchange Format , or what is the same, graphic exchange format.A term for the graphic format used in the network for both static images and animations.In more concrete terms, it supports 8 bits per pixel and allows you to display images with up to 256 colors simultaneously-limited by a palette of 16 million-.

This particularity makes it a perfect ally of infographics, drawings and illustrations with solid colored areas; but it also limits it when it comes to displaying photographs, which it is forced to adapt.However, its compression system (LZW) does not lead to loss of image quality at the time of reduce the size of a file .

The animations that we know today are a modification of the original format, which needs a CME (Extension of Control Graphics for its acronym in English) to see several images in a single place and same timeline, in short, which creates a sensation of movement.This representation lends itself to being manipulated and to create hundreds of different loops , one of the great reasons for success beyond its technical characteristics.

A little history

The GIFs were born in the late 80s by Steve Wilhite, who invented them when he worked at CompuServe, one of the first online service providers in the United States.They were born as a general exchange format, as a kind of low-weight image and of low resolution that the browsers of the moment soon adopted and that came to replace the RLE format , in black and white.

Its compression possibilities were those that made it take off initially, even in spite of its technical limitations.The slowness of the modems and connections of that time also helped its popularization, since the format allowed users to see the images without having to wait long loading times.This, in fact, made them one of the first web standards .

Their options when it comes to representing funny animations were not long in coming And it was precisely these that saved them despite the multiple detractors that came out in the mid-90s, when they began to be upset by other competitors, such as SWF, PNG and JPG .

They managed to survive as small illustrations on the move thanks to the millions of people who used them to decorate their MySpace and Geocites pages .Sites like Reddit and 4chan also had a lot to do with their evolution.Two decades later, it was precisely the users who led them to this new golden age we are in.In fact, in 2012, the Oxford University Press of the United States chose GIF as "Word of the Year."

A new awakening

We currently find animated GIFs on platforms ranging from instant messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp, to banners and social networks.Even communities such as Facebook have enabled specific buttons to include them during our conversations on Messenger. Twitter arrived in 2014 and on Instagram they were the kings of the mambo for a long time.

There they landed in 2013, the same year that Google Photos began to create them automatically .However, the incursion of Stories and others updates have left them relegated to a discreet background.And even the work utilities like Slack have not hesitated when betting on them.

Others like Flipboard even allow the loop reproduction of their spots to GIF mode, and even Tumblr has dared to go further including a specific search engine for this type of file.Of course, there is no lack of online pages and apps that try to make it a little easier when to create them and find them.Giphy Cam, 5SecondApp, GIFS.com and Imgur are some of the most representative.

And it is not surprising if we consider that they are used to illustrate fun everyday situations, evoke the scene of a famous movie on its anniversary, remember the most famous cats on the network, illustrate information and even to offer a plus to customers .This is just what Booking did a couple of summers ago, when it turned some of the pictures posted on Instagram by its users, into fun holiday GIFs.

Future trends

Finally, we could not stop talking about the more immediate future of GIFs.Yes, the logical tendency will be to continue modifying the format, trying to make it more realistic .It is precisely what happened A few months ago, when we began to see some who had been added a pair of white bands to create an effect of three-dimensionality , as can be seen in the image above.

The inclusion of specific buttons in applications that we use regularly is another of the directions that seems already marked.Not to mention the birth of artists specialized in this type of format , something that is already beginning to happen.We are left with examples like Guillaume Kurkdian, a French graphic designer who uses them in the purest style of infographics .

Rebecca Mock also has a very special way of creating them.Basically he uses them to give movement to "drawings" that represent everyday scenes; perhaps the best example of the additional possibilities of this format that are still to be exploited.ALCrego uses them in a very similar way, although it is based on street photographs.Robin Davey-with his geometric and colorful animations- And James Curran-who creates GIFs of the places he visits-are others that deserve to be included in this list.

Moreover, they are also used to consume porn in a somewhat different way than we are used to.It's just what we found in Yummy Porn For Girls and Porn Gifs for Women.much more concentrated visualization designed for women, although everything is a matter of taste.In short, a way to take advantage of them will only be limited by our imagination.

Images | Flickr: Codex41.

Banksy's most emblematic works come to life in the form of GIFs

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