GIF - An acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, created originally in 1987 by CompuServe to facilitate the exchange of images between different platforms. The file format is known for its compression and the fact that it can store and display multiple images. The major drawback to GIF is that images can only use up to 256 distinct colors to display their data. For photographic-quality images, this is a significant obstacle. Fortunately, the GIF file format contains a small work-around: the file itself can have a color palette that each stored image uses in addition to the local palettes created for colors custom to those specific images. This means that most images stored as GIFs have access to potentially more than the 256 colors technically allowed by GIF.
However, the GIF file format is still not the best medium with which to display your family photos on the web. Where GIF excels is in storing and compressing text-based images, line and clip art. Because these types of images don't require millions of colors, they can quite easily be stored as GIFs with minimal, if any at all, degradation.
Finally, one of the more popular uses of the GIF file format is that of animation. Built-in natively to the format are controls for image delay, layer transparency, and layer position, among others (layer here refers to each distinct image contained within the file). By cleverly utilizing these features, people on the Web have created some truly astounding animations using the Ulead GIF Animator.
