What is an animated gif?

Animated GIF is a popular digital image type. As the name suggests, the animated GIF is images in the GIF file format that seems to move or change. Animated GIF is often used for banner ads instead of much larger video files with full movement and as interesting accents on the home page. Due to the standards of this format, the animated GIF must use an 8 -bit palette. This pallet size results in only 256 colors for the image, but also means that most GIF images take much less memory than images in other formats.

Animated GIF works in the same way as the traditional animation of cartoon cartoon. The image file actually has multiple images stored inside, called frames. The images are shown in order and can provide the appearance of movement in the same way as the animated cartoon does. Animated GIF may seem like anything from an animated cartoon figure to a rotating advertising on a banner, depending on how fast they are tjsshown frames. Most web browsers even display animated GIF as recurring images, so animation may never be seen stopping.

Animated GIF can be created using a number of different programs. The GIF Ulead® System animator is an older program, but is one of the most popular and also considered one of the simplest uses. Photoshop® Elements (PE) elements can be used to create animated GIF and has the advantage that PE layers can be set to function as GIF frames. In fact, almost every program that can create a GIF can also create animated GIF, but how well you can control animation, differs from program to program.

Compression algorithm used for GIF images was patented in the middle of the 80's. The patent was owned by Unisys Corporation until 1986. They eventually began to charge different types of license fees for its use. In 2003 Expired primary patent in the US. Patents in most other countries followed in 2004. The basic algorithm of compression can now be used without the need to pay license fees.

There are different alternatives to GIF image format. Interlacing can be used in portable network graphics format (PNG) to create very basic animations, although for actual animation the format of network graphics for multiple image (MNG) must be used. The format of a common group of photographic experts (JPEG or JPG) is also commonly used for images, but does not support animation.