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Graphics Interchange format. Gif files are
interlaced graphics files widely used on the web, especially for simple
computer-generated pictures and animations but also for digital photographs.
Most banners are in gif form. In 1994 compuserve, the
owner of the gif specification, decided to make software developers
pay for the privilege of including gif support in their programs,
which dismayed many who had considered gif a free and open standard.
More recently Unisys, owner of the compression patents on which
gif is based, has tried to extract payment from small software
developers and anyone using " unauthorised" gif files on their sites,
an even less popular move that result in the Burn All gifs campaign
in 1999. Nevertheless, gif is likely to remain an industry standard
despite the technical superiority of alternatives such as png and
jpeg because it is the only common graphics format that supports
animation. |
