Stephen E. Wilhite, a pc programmer who was greatest recognized for inventing the GIF, the looping animations that grew to become a common language for conveying humor, sarcasm and angst on social media and in immediate messages, died in Cincinnati on March 14. He was 74.
His demise at a hospital was confirmed on Thursday by his spouse, Kathaleen Wilhite, who mentioned that the trigger was problems of Covid-19.
In 1987, whereas Mr. Wilhite was working for CompuServe, the nation’s first on-line service, he led a workforce of engineers who revolutionized how folks might share video clips on the web. They known as the format they created a GIF, quick for graphics interchange format, a kind of compressed picture file with an ease of use that made it enduring.
The expertise’s enchantment expanded from computer systems to smartphones, giving the well-known and the not-so-famous alike the flexibility to share GIFs on platforms like Twitter and Fb and finally to create their very own loops. It impressed the well-known “dancing child” GIF in 1996 and well-liked apps like Giphy.
“I noticed the format I wished in my head after which I began programming,” Mr. Wilhite advised The New York Instances in 2013.
That 12 months, Mr. Wilhite, who was additionally a former chief architect for America On-line, obtained a lifetime achievement award on the Webby Awards.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Wilhite’s survivors embody a son, David Wilhite; his stepchildren Rick Groves, Robin Landrum, Renee Bennett and Rebecca Boaz; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
In 2012, Oxford American Dictionaries acknowledged GIF as its “phrase of the 12 months.”
Whereas the usefulness of Mr. Wilhite’s innovation was undisputed, the pronunciation of “GIF” was a frequent topic of debate. Was it pronounced with a tough “G” sound or a gentle one?
“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts each pronunciations,” Mr. Wilhite mentioned. “They’re improper. It’s a gentle ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ Finish of story.”