Convert to GIF
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| File extension | .gif |
|---|---|
| File category | Raster Image file |
| Stands for | Graphics Interchange Format |
| Developer | CompuServe |
| Overview | GIF is an image format which is known worldwide and it is used as a second option after JPEG. It offers high portability between OS(Operating Systems) and applications. Each picture can support up to 8 bits per pixel, as a resultant, it enables an image to have a separate palette of up to 256 distinct colours that are taken from the 24-bit RGB colour space. Furthermore, it is commonly used for web graphics, logos with solid colour and also for animated images. These files are saved as ‘animated GIFs' and it displays general animations on websites. Besides this, this format has the capability to blend varied colour backgrounds due to the presence of transparent pixels. It should be noted that pixels should be either fully transparent or opaque so that it doesn’t result in the faded picture. |
| Technical description | GIF is an inadequate format for colour photographs due to palette limitations. It enables an independent palette of up to 256 colors for a solo frame. These files are compressed using a lossless data compression algorithm known as LZW( Lempel-Ziv-Welch) and this algorithm was created by Abraham Lempel, Jacob Ziv and Terry Welch. It removes the unwanted colours that are not in use to compress raster data. The maximum limit which is permitted for colours is 256 and the minimum is 2 (black and white). Apart from this, it has a fixed-length header which gives the version and pixel dimensions are provided by the ‘logical screen' descriptor. |
| Links | wikipedia.org (opens in new tab - official documentation) |
GIF To Other Extensions
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