gif It's pronounced "jif" says GIF creator Steve Wilhite.

[Crisp]

An Honor for the Creator of the GIF

Among the thousands of file formats that exist in modern computing, the GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, has attained celebrity status in a sea of lesser-known BMPs, RIPs, FIGs and MIFFs. It was honored as a "word of the year" in 2012, and Tuesday night, its inventor, Steve Wilhite, will be accepting a lifetime achievement award at The Webby Awards.

Now, almost any fragment of digital culture can be spun up into a grainy, gratifying animation. GIFs provide a platform for nearly everything, it seems ? from rapid-fire political commentary to digital art to small moments of celebrity intrigue.

Has any file format received more attention, more accolades (or had more fun) than the GIF?

Invented in 1987, today the GIF has become the aesthetic calling card of modern Internet culture.

Since retiring in 2001, Mr. Wilhite has led a quieter existence than his creation. He goes on RV trips. He built a house in the country with a lot of lawn to mow. He dabbles in color photography and Java programming. He uses e-mail and Facebook to keep up with family.

He is proud of the GIF, but remains annoyed that there is still any debate over the pronunciation of the format.

?The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,? Mr. Wilhite said. ?They are wrong. It is a soft ?G,? pronounced ?jif.? End of story.?

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[+virtorio MVC]

Good for him.

But he's wrong.

[HoochieMamma]

Good, been calling it that since as long as I can remember.

[compl3x]

It was honored as a "world of the year" in 2012

Damn. Now it's a planet too?

[ctrl_alt_delete]

Hahah me and boss was going at it the other day bout this. He owes me $20 lol

[Crisp]

Damn. Now it's a planet too?

My bad, re-wrote it to avoid the hyperlink. Should of pasted into notepad instead.

[Xahid]

The long mystery is now solved, I was wrong pronouncing it as Gif :(

[Steven P. Administrators]

I always said G-if as well, s'pose I'll have to say Jif from now on lol

[+devHead Subscriber²]

Of course it's pronounced jif. Otherwise, this graphic would have no meaning:

[threetonesun]

It's a hard g, I don't care what this guy says. It's GRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMAT, why on Earth would you abbreviate that as JIF. Next he's going to tell us that JPEG stands for Goint Photographic Experts Group.

[Yazoo]

any other examples where a word starting with 'G' is pronounced as 'J'?

[Lee G. Veteran]

I always pronounced it with a hard g. I didn't know it was meant to be pronounced 'jif' until I read this thread in 2006: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/506611-how-do-you-pronounce-gif-file-acronym

[thealexweb]

I will continue to G-if, J-if just doesn't seen remotely right.

[Lee G. Veteran]

any other examples where a word starting with 'G' is pronounced as 'J'?

Gerbil, giraffe, ginger, gin, Georgia, gym, genuine, gist, gem, gentle...

[Osiris]

Should have spelt it with a j then, GIF with a G 4 life. Gonna get that tatooed up like a boss.

[Jazirian]

any other examples where a word starting with 'G' is pronounced as 'J'?

Gender, giraffe, gym, gymnastics, gem, genes, ginger, gentle, gender, genre, George, Gerald...

[Yazoo]

Gerbil, giraffe, ginger, gin, Georgia, gym, genuine, gist, gem, gentle...

nice, any other abbreviations that follow the same logic?

[Buttus]

nice, any other abbreviations that follow the same logic?

just off the top of my head, GEOS, Graphic environment operating system, sounds like a J

(well, sounds like a G, just has the same sound as GIF)

[Dolan]

This is nothing new to me i learned this 10 years ago in school.

[trip21]

I have a few US friends who pronounce it JIF I just thought it was a regional thing. How does one pronounce "JIF" http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/jif and not have it confused with "GIF"?

[The Laughing Man]

Don't care what the creator says, I will continue to pronounce it with a hard G sound, anything else seems unnatural.

[+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹]

ok, ginger and gym are all good. But GIF will stay GIF for me, not JIF. Hard G as in Graphics Interchange Format, which it is!

[Torolol]

so i was wrong, i should've said JRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMATS.

[Azusa]

thanks to certain countries in the EU we have to call them Cifs (pronounced sif) now.

[+ir0nw0lf Subscriber²]

I think if I told some a file was in a "jif" format with a "jif" file extension, most people would automatically assume .jif and not .gif LOL. Myself and 99% of the people I know have always and will always pronounce it with a hard g. Eff what the creator of the format says. He can go google himself. (pronounced joogle lol!)