Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, has passed away aged 74.
He died from Covid-19, his wife Kathleen told The Verge, and he was surrounded by his family when he passed.
His obituary reads: “Even with all his accomplishments, he remained a very humble, kind, and good man.”
GIFs were invented in 1987 by Wilhite, who earlier worked as a programmer at CompuServe.
While the format was initially intended for still images, its ability to support animations spurred its widespread use as an expressive shorthand (think how many times you’ve used a GIF instead of typing a response).
Wilhite had hoped GIFs would allow people to share ‘high-quality, high-resolution graphics’ in colour when internet speeds weren’t so reliably quick.
Kathleen said: “He invented GIF all by himself – he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it.
“He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer.”
There is one major area of contention around the GIF, though: its pronunciation. Are you a hard ‘g’ GIF-er, or do you pronounce it like the peanut butter, Jif?
Speaking to The New York Times in 2013, Wilhite made his position abundantly clear: “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘g,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”
While accepting the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for creating the GIF, he also reiterated its correct pronunciation.
During the same interview, he said he’d never made an animated GIF himself, but he particularly liked the one of the dancing baby – yes, the one you probably saw on Bebo back in the day – which dates back to 1996.
Tributes to Wilhite have been flooding in online, with one user writing: “Steve, thank you for your contribution to our society and culture. You will never be forgotten.”
Another wrote: “That’s rough to hear. This dude created an entire legacy of use and new art form in one swoop. Pouring one out to this technological wizard.”
As you’d probably expect, hundreds of GIFs have already been online in memory of Wilhite.
Stephen Wilhite Dies, GIF Inventor Dies of COVID-19,