GIF = Graphics Interchange Format. GIF is used to pack 8-bit images using lossless compression.
GIF comes in two forms:
- GIF87, which is the normal format.
- GIF89a, which adds a single-color transparency.
GIF is quite obsolete by now, and while there are still plenty of GIFs around, you really should be using PNG as its replacement, since it offers much better compression, up to 48 bits colordepth, per-pixel transparency information, and all sorts of other goodies.
Say what you will... but GIFs and JPGs are what most people use. I'm not a techie... and have been living/working on the internet for years (as a user)... and I've never even heard of PNG. -- MatthewSimpson
Well, around here all of the techie population uses PNGs. Perhaps you are hanging around in the wrong techie groups :-).
That's exactly it... I'm not hanging out in techie groups at all... You are right... 70+% of the rest of the world should be using PNG. -- MatthewSimpson
Correct me... I think that GIF is a free format and PNG not or somethink like that.
--Dran+Dane, 30-May-2007
No, you have that backwards. PNG is open, GIF includes a patented algorithm. As it says on Wikipedia's GIF page:
-- MurrayAltheim, 30-May-2007
Note that GIF is now free, as all the relevant patents expired in 2004.
--JanneJalkanen, 30-May-2007