Sad news enveloped the world's technology industry. Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image format, died on Monday (14/3/2022) at the age of 74 years.
According to the family's information, the man born on March 3, 1948, died due to complications triggered by Covid-19. Stephen created the GIF image format while he was working at the technology company CompuServe in the 1980s.
At the company, he was part of a team led by Alexander Trevor, CompuServe's former Chief Technical Officer (CTO) on the GIF creation team.
According to Trevor, GIF images were created to reduce the file size of an image, so that the image transfer process via the internet will be faster than other image formats such as JPEG.
In addition, GIF images also allow the static colors in the image to be changed to other colors, allowing the image to change and move like an animation.
"I think the first GIF image we made was an image of an airplane. That was a long time ago," Stephen said of his first GIF image.
Because of his achievements in making GIF images and enlivening the internet world with this image format, Stephen managed to get the "Webby Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2013.
“After 25 years, they finally appreciate Stephen's accomplishments,” said Stephen's wife, Kathaleen, adding that creating GIFs was a matter of pride for her husband.
Currently, GIF itself is known to be one of the popular image formats on the internet which is commonly used to make jokes on the internet (memes), moving images, short animations, and so on.
In an interview, Stephen once admitted that he liked the GIF image of a dancing baby that was circulating on the internet, long before the words "memes" and "virals" were widely used in popular internet terms today.
If there was no GIF image format, maybe the internet atmosphere, especially the process of long-distance communication via WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and various other platforms, might not be as colorful and exciting as it is now. Goodbye, Stephen.