Supported by
Those We’ve Lost
Stephen Wilhite, Creator of the GIF, Is Dead at 74
The looping animations known as graphics interchange format quickly became a staple of the internet, although the pronunciation of ‘GIF’ was a frequent subject of debate.
Amanda Holpuch and
Stephen E. Wilhite, the computer programmer best known for inventing the GIF, the looping animation format that became a universal language for conveying humor, sarcasm and angst on social media and in instant messages, died on March 14 in Cincinnati. He was 74.
His death, at a hospital, was confirmed on Thursday by his wife, Kathaleen Wilhite. She said the cause was complications of Covid-19.
In 1987, while Mr. Wilhite was working for CompuServe, the nation’s first online service, he led a team of engineers who revolutionized how people could share video clips on the internet. The format they created was a type of compressed image file with an ease of use that made it enduring. They called it a GIF, short for graphics interchange format.
The technology’s appeal expanded from computers to smartphones, giving the famous and the not-so-famous the ability to share GIFs on platforms like Twitter and Facebook and eventually to create their own loops. The technology inspired the famous “dancing baby” GIF in 1996, which Mr. Wilhite cited as one of his favorites, as well as popular apps like Giphy.
“I saw the format I wanted in my head and then I started programming,” Mr. Wilhite told The New York Times in 2013.
That year, Mr. Wilhite, who was also a former chief architect for America Online, received a lifetime achievement honor at the Webby Awards.
Advertisement