Graphics Interchange Format

<graphics, file format> /gif/, occasionally /jif/ (GIF, GIF 89A) A standard for digitised images compressed with the LZW {algorithm}, defined in 1987 by CompuServe (CIS).

Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are service marks of CompuServe Incorporated.

This only affects use of GIF within Compuserve, and pass-through licensing for software to access them, it doesn't affect anyone else's use of GIF.

It followed from a 1994 legal action by Unisys against CIS for violating Unisys's LZW software patent.

The CompuServe Vice President has stated that "CompuServe is committed to keeping the GIF 89A specification as an open, fully-supported, non-proprietary specification for the entire on-line community including the World-Wide Web".

Filename extension: .gif.

File format (ftp://peipa.essex.ac.uk/ipa/info/file-formats).

GIF89a specification (http://asterix.seas.upenn.edu/~mayer/lzw_gif/gif89a.html).

See also progressive coding, animatedGIF}.

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Graphic Language graphics accelerator graphics adapter graphics adaptor graphics card	GIF GIF89 Graphics Interchange Format Graphics Interface Format	Graphics Interface Format Graphics Language Object System graphic workstation Graph-Oriented Object Database graph plotter