Stephen Wilhite, the creator of gifsone of the most famous graphic file formats in the world, has died at the age of 74 due to a covid-19 infection.
The deceased’s wife kathleen, has confirmed to NPR that his death occurred in a hospital near Milford, Ohio (United States). Specifically, Wilhite died on March 14, as can be seen in his obituary.
Invention of the 80’s
This computer scientist rose to fame when he created the GIF format (acronym for Graphics Interchange Format) in the 1980s, when he provided his services for the company CompuServe, one of the first computer network access services in the United States.
So, Wilhite’s intention was to use them as a way to distribute high-quality, high-resolution graphics in color, at a time when the Internet had just been launched.
He calculated everything in his head
“He invented the GIF at home and took it to work to perfect it. He calculated everything in his head and then he dedicated himself to programming it on the computer,” his wife explained to The Verge.
In 2013, more than a decade after Wilhite retired after a stroke, he was awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for his popular contribution to computing.
Pronunciation
It was at this event that Wilhite took the opportunity to resolve one of the great debates generated as a result of the birth of GIFs about their pronunciation: “GIF is pronounced with a soft ‘G’, similar to ‘jif'”he explained.
Since its inception, these types of files have been used as a alternative form of communication through a succession of small clips.
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One of the most remembered and oldest, Wilhite’s own favorite as he confirmed in an interview with Times magazine, is the meme of a baby dancing on a black background, which has survived to this day.
With the passage of time, GIFs have gone perfecting and they have managed to enter platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp -developed by Meta-, among others, where they are usually used.