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Anonymous
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.
According to the creator of the GIF format, Steve Wilhite, "GIF" is pronounced like the peanut butter brand, Jif, with a soft "g". To fellow employees of CompuServe he would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing commercials for the peanut butter. This pronunciation was also identified by CompuServe in their documentation of a graphics display program called CompuShow. Despite this, many people pronounce the name with a hard "g" (as in "gift"). One reason is that the letters that make up this TLA (Three Letter Acronym) stand for Graphics Interchange Format-- the G in Graphics is a hard G. This makes some geeky humour possible: "Beware of geeks sharing GIFs."
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