Graphics Interchange Format

GIF is a bitmap image format that allows a lossless compression by reducing the image to 256 distinct colors. It has been replaced by PNG after fear over patent issues. It is still widely used for animation as it's the only format that supports animation and that is widely supported by browsers.

See the reference side-by-side comparison Common image file formats

	GIF
Developed by	CompuServe
Year	1987 (still) 1989 (animated)
Pros	Simple animations/short video clips Widely supported format Transparency support Lossless compression Smaller file sizes
Cons	Limited to 256 colors (8-bit per pixel). Only binary transparency.
Features
Vector graphics	No
Raster image	Yes
Lossless	Yes
Animation support	Yes
Transparency support	- Only all-or-nothing, no semi-transparency
Layers support	No
HDR	No
Maximum bit depth	8-bit (but only 256 different colors)
CMYK support (for print)	No
Maximum number of channels	1 (palette data)
Commonly used for	Animation Simple web graphics
Browser support (without plugin)
Google Chrome	Yes
Microsoft Edge	Yes
Safari	Yes
Firefox	Yes
Opera	Yes
Internet Explorer	Yes
Additional
File extensions	.gif
Wikipedia	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format