In the coming weeks, we have several how-tos scheduled that relate to creating and using animated GIFs. However, before we start those, we felt the need to make one thing clear: How the term GIF is pronounced.
Unless you are on the far right of the bell curve of geekiness, you may not be aware of the long-running (and tongue-in-cheek) debate over how to pronounce GIF, the acronym for Graphics Interchange Format created by Steve Wilhite while working for Compuserve in 1987. Such a debate is common among the tech set, like, for instance, the controversy over how to pronounce the word “Linux” or the controversy over how to pronounce the “X” in OS X. Or, for that matter, they are similar to the controversy over the way “conTROversy” is pronounced in the UK vs. the way “CONtroversy” is pronounced in the U.S.
While we’re firmly in the George and Ira Gershwin School on such matters, we felt it only appropriate to go on the record and say, despite Mr. Wilhite’s authoritative declaration that it sounds like a brand of peanut butter, we go with our lifetime of pronouncing the word “gift” as our guide (or, as Mr. Wilhite would say, “juide.”)
(Photo illustration by SmallBusiness.com: Photo of gift: ThinkStock)