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A short history of the GIF
From CompuServe in 1987 to the looping reaction image, and why a format with 256 colors refused to die.
1 min read · Updated October 9, 2026 · GIF maker
A picture format that could download
CompuServe introduced the Graphics Interchange Format in 1987. Modems were slow, so GIF used LZW compression and a palette of at most 256 colors. GIF87a came first. GIF89a, in 1989, added the features people now mean by GIF: animation, looping, and a transparent color.
Steve Wilhite led the work. The format was open enough to implement and small enough to pass around on bulletin boards. That combination is why it outlived the company that shipped it.
The patent years
Unisys held a patent on LZW and, in the 1990s, began asking for licenses. That fight is a large part of why PNG exists. PNG is a better still image in almost every technical sense. It did not replace GIF, because PNG did not do the looping cartoon, and because millions of files were already GIFs.
The relevant LZW patents expired in the early 2000s. After that, GIF was simply old, not legally risky to encode. The memes arrived anyway.
Why it is still here
Reaction GIFs took a format built for spinning logos and made it a way to talk. Platforms then discovered the file was a terrible way to ship video, and started converting uploads to MP4 while still calling them GIFs in the interface.
The format survives where transparency, a dumb loop, or a fussy client matters. Everything else is quietly a video wearing a GIF’s name. That split is the reason Gif Downloader treats download and convert as different steps.