{"id":2220,"date":"2022-03-24T15:19:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/24\/stephen-wilhite-creator-of-the-gif-has-died\/"},"modified":"2022-03-24T15:19:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:19:03","slug":"stephen-wilhite-creator-of-the-gif-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/24\/stephen-wilhite-creator-of-the-gif-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/23\/22992066\/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/23\/22992066\/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies<\/a><br \/>\n<code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<div readability=\"104.51302241066\">\n<p id=\"4EUrFg\">Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from COVID at the age of 74, according to his wife, Kathaleen, who spoke to <em>The Verge<\/em>. He was surrounded by family when he passed. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.megiefuneralhome.com\/obituaries\/Stephen-E.-Wilhite?obId=24311617#\">obituary page<\/a> notes that \u201ceven with all his accomplishments, he remained a very humble, kind, and good man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"fBoV3R\">Stephen Wilhite worked on GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, which is now used for reactions, messages, and jokes, while employed at CompuServe in the 1980s. He retired around the early 2000s and spent his time traveling, camping, and building model trains in his basement.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-left\">\n<aside id=\"SIXuyk\"><q>\u201cIt\u2019s pronounced \u2018jif,\u2019 not \u2018gif\u2019\u201d<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"4Bcmmz\">Although GIFs are synonymous with animated internet memes these days, that wasn\u2019t the reason Wilhite created the format. CompuServe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/Graphics\/GIF\/spec-gif87.txt\">introduced them in the late 1980s<\/a> as a way to distribute \u201chigh-quality, high-resolution graphics\u201d in color at a time when internet speeds were glacial compared to what they are today. \u201cHe invented GIF all by himself \u2014 he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it,\u201d Kathaleen said. \u201cHe would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"iFcSdA\">If you want to go more in-depth into the history of the GIF, the <em>Daily Dot<\/em> has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailydot.com\/upstream\/gif-history-steve-wilhite-olia-lialina-interview\/\">a good explainer<\/a> of how the format became an internet phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p id=\"YiNntK\">While there have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tldr\/2020\/2\/25\/21147389\/jif-peanut-butter-giphy-settle-gif-pronunciation-debate\">long-standing debates<\/a> about the <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5791028\/how-to-pronounce-gif\/\">correct pronunciation of the image format<\/a>, Wilhite was very clear on how he intended for it to be said. In 2013, he <a href=\"https:\/\/bits.blogs.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/21\/an-honor-for-the-creator-of-the-gif\/\">told <em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, \u201cThe Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft \u2018G,\u2019 pronounced \u2018jif.\u2019 End of story.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"6nkpsI\">He reiterated that stance while accepting a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the invention of the GIF later that month, using an animation to give his acceptance speech. (You can watch the whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DUmVvocbrgQ\">clip of him receiving the award here<\/a>.) \u201cAfter 25 years, they finally honored that achievement that he did,\u201d Kathaleen said, adding that creating the GIF was the thing he was most proud of.<\/p>\n<div id=\"OrSf7H\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ofm4XCdZzI4?rel=0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" scrolling=\"no\" allow=\"accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"1sdjQF\">Several messages from former colleagues <a href=\"https:\/\/www.megiefuneralhome.com\/obituaries\/Stephen-E.-Wilhite?obId=24311617#\">on his obituary page<\/a> said that Stephen also made other important contributions during his time at CompuServe, describing a hard worker who had a major influence on the company\u2019s success. <\/p>\n<p id=\"DP9gtz\">After Stephen retired, the couple traveled together. Kathaleen said that one of the most memorable trips was their honeymoon when they visited the Grand Canyon. \u201cI had never seen it before, and he wanted to show it to me,\u201d she said fondly. The couple also went camping \u201call the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"VbzS5L\">While at home, he liked to work on his model train set. \u201cWhen we had the house built, we actually had a whole section in the basement for his train room. He always did the designs and electric work for the layout,\u201d said Kathaleen.<\/p>\n<p id=\"M89H8y\">In the <em>Times<\/em> interview, Wilhite said that one of his favorite GIFs is the <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/gallery\/a-brief-history-of-the-dancing-baby-meme\/\">dancing baby meme<\/a>, which went viral before \u201cmemes\u201d and \u201cgoing viral\u201d were widely used terms. So <a href=\"https:\/\/i.kym-cdn.com\/photos\/images\/newsfeed\/000\/662\/994\/a4a.gif\">here\u2019s to you, Mr. Wilhite<\/a>. Thanks for creating the image format that made downloading color images over dial-up bearable before it turned into one of the internet\u2019s own languages. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n  <span class=\"e-image__inner\"><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23338558\/21_baby_custom1.gif\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-dynamic-image \" alt=\"\" data-chorus-optimize-field=\"main_image\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAUEBAAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs\" data-cid=\"site\/dynamic_size_image-1648131559_9810_679133\" data-cdata='{\"asset_id\":23338558,\"ratio\":\"*\"}'><\/p>\n<p>    <\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"e-image__meta\"><figcaption><em>One of Wilhite\u2019s favorite gifs, according to a 2013 interview.<\/em><\/figcaption><cite>Gif via <em>The New York Times<\/em><\/cite><\/p>\n<p>    <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/23\/22992066\/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/23\/22992066\/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from COVID at the age of 74, according to his wife, Kathaleen, who spoke to The Verge. He was surrounded by family when he passed. His obituary page notes that \u201ceven with all his accomplishments, he remained a very humble, kind, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","category-technology","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/24\/stephen-wilhite-creator-of-the-gif-has-died\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from COVID at the age of 74, according to his wife, Kathaleen, who spoke to The Verge. 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