The creator of one of the internet's most popular features has died.
Stephen Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format, more commonly known as a ' gif '.
The tech wizard passed away from Covid at the age of 74 and the internet has paid tribute to him with gifs of their own after his wife confirmed his death on March 14.
Gifs are popular ways for people to express themselves online and are frequently used on social media by people hoping to make a clear point without using words.
They can be anything from a famous celebrity moment, to popular lines on TV shows. They are simply just image files similar to a png or jpeg, but create animated images.
How-To Geek explained: "We say "animated images" because gifs aren’t really videos. If anything, they’re more like flipbooks. For one, they don’t have sound (you probably noticed that).
"Also, the gif format wasn’t created for animations; that’s just how things worked out."
Wilhite's death also brought up an old internet debate about the pronunciation of his creation, which the creator attempted to settle years ago.
Who was Stephen Wilhite?
Stephen Wilhite was the inventor of the popular internet image format, the gif, invented in 1987.
He developed the format during the 1980s while employed at CompuServe in the 1980s, before retiring in the early 2000s.
His success meant he spent his retirement building model trains, travelling and camping.
His wife Kathleen told The Verge that Stephen's creativity continued into his retirement and he designed the electrical layout for his trains.
"When we had the house built, we actually had a whole section in the basement for his train room. He always did the designs and electric work for the layout."
When working for CompuServe, Stephen would "go to town" working on programming the gif.
Kathleen said: "He invented gif all by himself — he actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it.
"He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer."
In 2013, he was recognised for his achievements by the popular Webby Awards, winning the Lifetime Achievement Award for his invention.
How do you pronounce gif?
The debate around the pronunciation of 'gif' was supposedly settled in 2013, when creator Stephen Wilhite revealed it is supposed to be said with a 'soft G', like the word 'magic' or the start of 'jiffy'.
Wilhite told the New York Times: "The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story."
Twitter tributes for Wilhite inevitably led to some tasteful jokes, such as "he's with Jod now", and the use of popular internet gifs used by people to convey their sadness at Stephen's passing.
