The creator of the GIF, Stephen Wilhite has passed away due to COVID

Some of you are probably using a lot of GIF images to send to your friends and family on your social apps as a reaction or joke, but do you know who invented the GIF? Well, it was Stephen Wilhite and he recently just passed away last week at the age of 74 due to COVID-19. 

GIF or also known as Graphics Interchange Format was created in the 1980s by a CompuServe team that Stephen Wilhite was part of. According to the Verge, the GIF wasn't meant for memes like nowadays but rather it was designed as "high-quality, high-resolution graphics" in colours. Wilhite's wife, Kathaleen said he invented the GIF all by himself at home and perfected it before bringing it to work.

It was also hotly debated on how GIF was pronounced, some argued it's 'gif' but Wilhite clarified in 2013 that it's a soft 'g' so it's pronounced as 'jif' instead. That year was also when he accepted the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award and according to his wife, creating the GIF was the proudest thing he has done.

After retiring in the early 2000s, the couple would travel often and camp all the time. He also loved to work on his model train set at home, including the designs and electric work. In case you're wondering, Wilhite actually said the dancing baby meme was one of his favourite GIFs and that was the time before memes became a thing.

What's your favourite GIF? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.