GIF Becomes Word of the Year 2012

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GIF Becomes Word of the Year 2012

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 19, 2012 @05:06AM from the in-other-arbitrary-news dept.

mikejuk writes "GIF started out as a humble acronym 25 years ago, entered common parlance as the format used for web graphics and now achieves fame as a verb by becoming Oxford Dictionaries USA Word of the Year 2012. GIF as a noun has always been an all-capital letter noun. Becoming a verb has caused problems concerning the use of capital and lower case letters. The common form is to keep the noun in caps and add the verbal endings in lower case — as in GIFed,GIFing), However, an all lower-case spelling with the f duplicated (giffed, giffing) is also being used."

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But how does it sound? by MrLint · 2012-11-19 05:07 · Score: 2

Are they going to publish it with the incorrect pronunciation that "everyone" says is correct?
1. Re:But how does it sound? by phantomfive · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I came to say the exact same thing, but I clicked through the maze of links first, and found:
  
  Pronunciation: /jif, gif/
  The OED describes, not prescribes.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
2. Re:But how does it sound? by YodasEvilTwin · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 2
  
  You're seriously going prescriptivist on an initialism that exists only because of natural descriptivist language?
3. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I hope they publish it with the hard G so that becomes the accepted pronunciation. Face it, the soft G version just sounds dumb.
4. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:17 · Score: 1
  
  You mean jif?
5. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:20 · Score: 0
  
  http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail51.html
  "Okay, next on the checklist: lots of animated GIFs! or... GIFs... or however you say it. I don't know. I heard a couple of nerds arguing about it one time."
  CAPTCHA: accent
6. Re:But how does it sound? by arth1 · 2012-11-19 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Are they going to publish it with the incorrect pronunciation that "everyone" says is correct?
  When people pronounce it "dchiff", I understand that they refer to "Giraffic Interchange Format".
  Hint to the masses: If something is written in all caps, and you're not sure how or whether it should be pronounced, please don't. Just read each letter.
7. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:22 · Score: 0
  
  Seconded!
8. Re:But how does it sound? by zeroryoko1974 · 2012-11-19 05:29 · Score: 1
  
  I have always pronounced it Gif, even though I know it is wrong, and jif is correct. I figure if people can get away with hair ace ment instead of hair ass ment I can do this :D
9. Re:But how does it sound? by Joce640k · 2012-11-19 05:30 · Score: 0
  
  The first time I head somebody say "jiff format" I had no idea what they were on about. True story.
  It's a 'G'. We say girl, gun, gimp, giga... not jirl, jun, jimp, jigger.
  
  --
  No sig today...
10. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:35 · Score: 0
  
  The act of speaking isn't itself "descriptivist", bro.
11. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:35 · Score: 0
  
  Is that a fancypants way of saying he's going medieval on someone's ass?
12. Re:But how does it sound? by Hadlock · 2012-11-19 05:35 · Score: 1
  
  Cue the gibs vs jibs Quake/John Carmack pronunciation argument from 1996
  
  --
  moox. for a new generation.
13. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:36 · Score: 0
  
  said the giant gigolo.
14. Re:But how does it sound? by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:36 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No, it make sense, because it's the Jiraffics Interchange Format.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
15. Re:But how does it sound? by Baloroth · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I think everyone sees your general gist. Wait...
  
  --
  "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
16. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Giga is pronounced with a hard G? Great Scott...
17. Re:But how does it sound? by pezpunk · 2012-11-19 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  pronounce the following:
  1.21 gigawatts
  
  --
  i could live a little longer in this prison
18. Re:But how does it sound? by FreonTrip · 2012-11-19 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  "Gibs" like "giblets." Simple.
19. Re:But how does it sound? by preaction · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  YES! Now I can say "jif" and NOBODY CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! The world shall soon be mine!
20. Re:But how does it sound? by Samantha+Wright · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  More importantly, it conflicts. JIFF is another (albeit obscure) name for JPEG. (Joint Photographic Experts Group Image File Format.)
  
  --
  Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
21. Re:But how does it sound? by arth1 · 2012-11-19 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  It's a 'G'. We say girl, gun, gimp, giga... not jirl, jun, jimp, jigger.
  Not to mention gift.
22. Re:But how does it sound? by The+Moof · 2012-11-19 05:47 · Score: 1
  
  It's a 'G'. We say girl, gun, gimp, giga... not jirl, jun, jimp, jigger.
  We also say giant, giraffe, and Geoff, not "guy-ant," "ger-aff," and "Go-eff"
23. Re:But how does it sound? by TeknoHog · 2012-11-19 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  There are plenty of words pronounced with a "gentle" G, such as Gentoo. However, I think the logic (hey, another soft g) is that the initial G in GIF stands for graphics, so it should be pronounced the same way.
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
24. Re:But how does it sound? by Lumpy · 2012-11-19 05:51 · Score: 0
  
  as long as you are talking peanut butter..... you got it...
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
25. Re:But how does it sound? by networkBoy · 2012-11-19 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  Damn you...
  Even in his voice and now it's stuck in my head....
  Well played
  [ /hat tip ]
  
  --
  whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
26. Re:But how does it sound? by pezpunk · 2012-11-19 05:54 · Score: 1
  
  "giga" has the same greek root as the word "giant". the soft "g" (as in "gist") is the original and preferred pronunciation of "giga". tech nerds are to blame for getting it wrong with the common pronunciation of "gigabyte".
  
  --
  i could live a little longer in this prison
27. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:55 · Score: 0
  
  The first time I head somebody say "jiff format" I had no idea what they were on about. True story.
  Because you're actually a robot with a particularly poorly-coded and completely intolerant-of-regional-accent voice recognition?
  But really, in all seriousness, I've got this hilarious mental image in my head of an overweight, pimply-faced nerd (most likely with Asperger's) hearing someone call it "jiff", and just staring back with a blank, utterly gobsmacked expression because he's apparently so hardwired in his ideas and completely divorced from any social interaction whatsoever outside his chat channels as to be entirely unable to interpolate what could, by any other reasonable human being, be chalked up to either a regional accent or dialect and understood easily.
  I just get that image in my head, laugh at the pitiful joke of a human being who can't figure this out and decides to brag about this fact as if this were supposed to be a point of pride, and with that on my mind, I can smile to myself and realize that I may not be the super-rich, ultra-trendy nerd that others seem to be, but there are those out there far, far more pathetic than I am.
28. Re:But how does it sound? by Joce640k · 2012-11-19 05:57 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Those either have diphthongs or are bastardized versions of a weird foreign word (giraffe).
  Do you have an example of a word that starts with "gif..." where the 'g' is pronounced like 'j'?
  
  --
  No sig today...
29. Re:But how does it sound? by MrLint · 2012-11-19 05:59 · Score: 1
  
  Giraffe.
30. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:01 · Score: 0
  
  Speak for yourself, you insensitive clod!
31. Re:But how does it sound? by Cyko_01 · 2012-11-19 06:01 · Score: 1
  
  Pronounce it like "gift" but without the "t"
32. Re:But how does it sound? by cayenne8 · 2012-11-19 06:05 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Hmm...more important that pronounciation...
  Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  I've not heard anyone even mention them in decades for the most part...
  Aside from the odd animated gif here and there, I've not really thought I'd encountered one in a LONG time...
  Shocked to see it as word of the year...
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
33. Re:But how does it sound? by Cyko_01 · 2012-11-19 06:05 · Score: 1
  
  Actually I have always pronounced gentoo with a hard G, but that could just be me
34. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:12 · Score: 0
  
  I often pronounce Geoff as JEE-off or GEE-off intentionally because that spelling is weird.
35. Re:But how does it sound? by Dishevel · 2012-11-19 06:21 · Score: 2
  
  This is why OED is dying.
  They have no idea what is going on.
  
  --
  Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
36. Re:But how does it sound? by Vrtigo1 · 2012-11-19 06:33 · Score: 2
  
  I must be right because I gave more examples that you did. GIF
  Gibs
  Giblets
  Giraffe
  Gem
  Ginger
  Gentle
  Gigolo
  Gym
  Gyro
  George
  Germany
  Giant
  Gin
37. Re:But how does it sound? by History's+Coming+To · 2012-11-19 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  Yup, I still use them for block-colour logos, an alternative to Flash adverts and for rendering short (ie a second or so) Blender animations inline. There's always going to be low-bandwidth users on a website, gifs are very good at keeping image sizes down if you're willing to sacrifice a wide colour palette.
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
38. Re:But how does it sound? by Ed_Pinkley · 2012-11-19 06:34 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Here's the thing: If you invent something, you get to name it.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Pronunciation
  " According to Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF format, the original pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, "
  
  --
  "Long time listener, first time caller."
39. Re:But how does it sound? by Lucky75 · 2012-11-19 06:34 · Score: 1
  
  What about Ginger? Gym? Geology? Giraffe? Gem? Gentle? Generate? Germ?
  
  --
  DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
40. Re:But how does it sound? by Milalwi · 2012-11-19 06:34 · Score: 1
  
  That's OK, the first time I heard someone pronounce it with a hard "G", I had no idea what they meant.
  Outside of common (mis-)usage, there isn't any doubt about the correct pronunciation, as it is specificied in the 1987 document defining the format. It's "Jif", as in "jiffy".
  If someone tells you their name is spelled Qwerty, and it's pronounced "Fred", then it's pronounced "Fred"
41. Re:But how does it sound? by Lucky75 · 2012-11-19 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  What the hell is a GigaWatt?
  
  --
  DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
42. Re:But how does it sound? by History's+Coming+To · 2012-11-19 06:36 · Score: 1
  
  Although using "gaol" instead of "jail" is still fairly common in the UK. I'm called Geoff. I don't own a giraffe, gelatinous, ginger, giant or otherwise.
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
43. Re:But how does it sound? by Donkey_Hotey · 2012-11-19 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  I have always pronounced it Gif, even though I know it is wrong, and jif is correct. I figure if people can get away with hair ace ment instead of hair ass ment I can do this :D
  I thought that the new, properly sensitive way of pronouncing it was "harris-ment" rather than the traditional "her-ass-ment" because the the latter was too sexually harassing...
  
  --
  (There is supposed to be a Sarcmark® here, but my $1.99 check hasn't cleared, yet...)
44. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:50 · Score: 0
  
  There's always going to be low-bandwidth users on a website, gifs are very good at keeping image sizes down if you're willing to sacrifice a wide colour palette.
  PNGs should always be smaller than GIFs if properly compressed (see pngcrush and similar utilities that will (losslessy) recompress PNG files if you are finding your PNGs are larger than your GIFs). Also note that PNG does support palettes, so if your image uses few colors, a paletted PNG should work and still be smaller than the equivalent GIF file.
  Of course, if you want animations you are still stuck on GIF because no one can agree on an animated PNG format.
45. Re:But how does it sound? by Abreu · 2012-11-19 06:52 · Score: 1
  
  Tumblr is full of them, I'm afraid.
  
  --
  No sig for the moment.
46. Re:But how does it sound? by HaZardman27 · 2012-11-19 06:53 · Score: 2
  
  They're pretty popular on places like Imgur and Reddit, I believe.
  
  --
  Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
47. Re:But how does it sound? by Abreu · 2012-11-19 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  [clap, clap, clap] Hilarious AND relevant! Well done!
  
  --
  No sig for the moment.
48. Re:But how does it sound? by Johnny+O · 2012-11-19 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  PNG is good if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too!
49. Re:But how does it sound? by whoever57 · 2012-11-19 07:02 · Score: 1
  
  "giga" has the same greek root as the word "giant". the soft "g" (as in "gist") is the original and preferred pronunciation of "giga". tech nerds are to blame for getting it wrong with the common pronunciation of "gigabyte".
  Soft is "g" before "i" or "e"
  and so is "c"
  
  --
  The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
50. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:04 · Score: 0
  
  They don't make a unit of measurement small enough to gauge how little of a shit 99.9% of the population gives about what pronunciation should be used.
51. Re:But how does it sound? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-11-19 07:06 · Score: 1
  
  I guess JPEG should have been more careful, then. Was I the only one who read the readme that came with CSHOW.COM? Bob Berry was quite explicit. It's said that their in-house catch-phrase was "Choosy developers choose GIF".
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
52. Re:But how does it sound? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-11-19 07:07 · Score: 2
  
  Pronounce it like "gift" but without the "t"
  No, don't.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
53. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:07 · Score: 0
  
  If it's named after the species of penguin, it should be soft
54. Re:But how does it sound? by Dogtanian · 2012-11-19 07:11 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  PNG is good if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too!
  Huh? PNG supports 24 and 32-bit colour- more than enough for anti-aliasing- and 8-bit transparency so you're either assuming that the limitations of GIF are those of PNG, or you're using an old browser that doesn't handle transparent PNGs correctly and messes up the background.
  
  --
  "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
55. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:12 · Score: 0
  
  In case there's any doubt, it's "Jif" according to the official docs
  http://www.olsenhome.com/gif/
56. Re:But how does it sound? by pclminion · 2012-11-19 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  Hey wise-ass -- how do you pronounce "laser?" I bet you pronounce the 's' like a 'z' don't you?
  It's STIMULATED emission, not ZTIMULATED! You are pronouncing it wrong!
  Get a life.
57. Re:But how does it sound? by TeknoHog · 2012-11-19 07:21 · Score: 1
  
  If it's named after the species of penguin, it should be soft
  Yes.
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
58. Re:But how does it sound? by osu-neko · 2012-11-19 07:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The OED describes, not prescribes.
  All dictionaries do. They're anthropological documents, really. They document observations of an aspect of human behavior: the words they use and what they mean when they use them. It boggles my mind that anyone gets confused about that, thinking they do anything more...
  
  --
  "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
59. Re:But how does it sound? by TeknoHog · 2012-11-19 07:25 · Score: 1
  
  I'm afraid you are not a real gentooman, then ;)
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
60. Re:But how does it sound? by wcrowe · 2012-11-19 07:26 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'm seeing animated gifs show up a lot in memes lately. It's like a new generation has discovered how to build them.
  
  --
  Proverbs 21:19
61. Re:But how does it sound? by tepples · 2012-11-19 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  so you're either assuming that the limitations of GIF are those of PNG, or you're using an old browser that doesn't handle transparent PNGs correctly and messes up the background.
  What version of Windows Internet Explorer was the first to handle transparent PNGs correctly?
62. Re:But how does it sound? by AwesomeMcgee · 2012-11-19 07:27 · Score: 1
  
  Nah mate, it is prnounced qwerty in that case. I don't care what they say the pronunciation is, in that case I'm calling that fool qwerty because that name is awesome. I officially know what I'm naming my next pet.
63. Re:But how does it sound? by EvolutionInAction · 2012-11-19 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  I will accept that the correct pronunciation is Jif, but I don't think I'll change how I say it any time soon.
  And that's a wonderful analogy. If I am told that Qwerty is pronounced 'Fred' I will accept that it's pronounced Fred, but I will also think that they are making shit difficult just to be difficult.
64. Re:But how does it sound? by osu-neko · 2012-11-19 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  PNG is good if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too!
  Huh? PNG supports 24 and 32-bit colour- more than enough for anti-aliasing- and 8-bit transparency so you're either assuming that the limitations of GIF are those of PNG, or you're using an old browser that doesn't handle transparent PNGs correctly and messes up the background.
  No, he's "assuming" (or rather, correctly noting) that anti-aliasing and other distortions around line are unavoidable in any raster format. Only vector graphics can render to any display at any resolution without highlighting these blocky distortions. PNG is better than GIF, but it still suffers from this problem. Being yet another raster graphics format, is does share the limitations of such.
  
  --
  "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
65. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:31 · Score: 0
  
  Do you have any Ess Sea Ess Aye Adapters? Perhaps I can have one of your old Eh Are Cee En Eee Tee cables to use for my phone?
66. Re:But how does it sound? by dougmc · 2012-11-19 07:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  ...
  Aside from the odd animated gif here and there, I've not really thought I'd encountered one in a LONG time...
  Shocked to see it as word of the year...
  Even in 2012, animated gifs are more common than you give them credit for. People are even doing really neat things with them such as this (and I've got to admit, a 256 color palette is hard to work with, but they've made it look pretty good for the most part.)
  I do concur though, it's odd for it to be the "word of the year" this far after its prime.
67. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:34 · Score: 0
  
  I don't see 'Graphics' in that list. Do you know what the G in GIF stands for?
68. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:34 · Score: 0
  
  Except that 'giant' is a bad example because the 'i' is hard, whereas the base 'gigant' has a soft 'i'. If 'giant' were to be pronounced the same as its base, it would be 'gee-ant'. So you can't rely on the root word for pronunciation.
69. Re:But how does it sound? by Dogtanian · 2012-11-19 07:34 · Score: 1
  
  What version of Windows Internet Explorer was the first to handle transparent PNGs correctly?
  Off the top of my head, couldn't tell you, but I do know that older versions- IE6 certainly- had problems with them. IIRC the problem with GIFs was that they only supported one transparent colour, so you either couldn't anti-alias edges adjacent to the chosen background colour, or they'd have a jaggy/blocky "halo" around them (noticeable if the actual background colour was significantly different from the assumed background colour).
  
  Whether that applies to mishandled PNGs in any browser at all, I can't remember- what I said might not have applied to Johnny O's comment if that was the case (though what he said still shouldn't apply to correctly-handled PNGs).
  
  --
  "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
70. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:38 · Score: 0
  
  US 1 billion watts. UK 1 thousand million watts.
71. Re:But how does it sound? by Culture20 · 2012-11-19 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  I suppose that makes answers to password security questions easier.
72. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:50 · Score: 0
  
  I've always pronounced Gentoo with a soft G. I think this is because every other english word with the form gen- is pronounced with a soft G. Gentlemen, general, gentry, generation, etc
73. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the "correct" spelling/pronunciation of the element with atomic number 13.
  Also, the function of language is communication, not stroking someone's ego. I will name/pronounce things in the manner that I judge to be most likely to communicate accurately. Good luck getting me to pronounce that file format like fucking peanut butter.
74. Re:But how does it sound? by Mal-2 · 2012-11-19 08:12 · Score: 2
  
  Odd animated GIF? There are entire boards dedicated to them, like 4GIFS.com.
  
  --
  How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
75. Re:But how does it sound? by infinitelink · 2012-11-19 08:14 · Score: 0
  
  Then don't be an idiot and use an acronym that includes a word with a contrary initial pronunciation of the shared first consonant: nerds have a problem of trying to be clever in marketing that contradicts established conventions and norms, and only they care: everyone else safely ignores them.
  
  --
  Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
76. Re:But how does it sound? by Phurge · 2012-11-19 08:22 · Score: 1
  
  Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  Getting old? Does Rule 34 mean anything to you?
  
  --
  I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
77. Re:But how does it sound? by History's+Coming+To · 2012-11-19 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  I wasn't aware you could restrict the palette on a PNG, useful tip, cheers!
  
  --
  Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
78. Re:But how does it sound? by lannocc · 2012-11-19 08:25 · Score: 1
  
  Genius.
  
  --
  -IOVAR Web Dev Platform
79. Re:But how does it sound? by Mal-2 · 2012-11-19 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  Similarly, "mob" (a generic name for any creature in a game) is supposed to rhyme with "lobe" since the word is short for "mobile entity". Most everyone I know except myself pronounces it to rhyme with "job".
  
  --
  How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
80. Re:But how does it sound? by cayenne8 · 2012-11-19 08:31 · Score: 0
  
  Getting old? Does Rule 34 mean anything to you?
  I guess I am...had to look up "Rule 34".
  Ok...so, there is pr0n gifs....I guess that is a few steps up from good old ascii pr0n.
  But then again...why go for either of those, when there is much better quality stuff out there all day?
  Or..at least that's what I hear....
  :)
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
81. Re:But how does it sound? by jonadab · 2012-11-19 08:35 · Score: 2
  
  > if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too
  You're thinking of JPEG.
  
  PNG is lossless (for purely two-dimensional images).
  
  GIF is theoretically lossless (in the sense that saving repeatedly does not degrade the image further), but it (generally, in practice) means reducing your colorspace to 8-bit, which entails a significant amount of information loss for most images. Though it would be fine for something with almost no color anyway, e.g., xkcd.
  
  Of course, if you want to preserve editing features (e.g., layers and masks), then you're going to save in a format that supports such things, probably either .psd or .xcf (or a compressed version thereof) in most cases.
  
  But PNG is fine for distribution to people who are just going to look at the image and not edit it -- e.g., for display on a website, or for printing.
  
  --
  Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
82. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:50 · Score: 0
  
  Jif in hell faggot
83. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:53 · Score: 0
  
  Getting to name it doesn't mean 'determining how letter sounds in your native language are derived from placement in a word any way you like' - and making it sound like 'JIF' just shows that idiots shouldn't be in charge of determining how something is pronounced.
84. Re:But how does it sound? by rossdee · 2012-11-19 08:56 · Score: 1
  
  Where I come from, JIF is a brand of bath cleaner
  Anyway, whatever happened to PNG
85. Re:But how does it sound? by janeil · 2012-11-19 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  Anon, you have put that very well, though harshly. When I first heard someone say "giff format," I knew right away what they meant, and that they were simply saying it wrong.
86. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:06 · Score: 0
  
  All English dictionaries do. Some language Academies, however, write dictionaries with the aim of changing the way people speak. They're not very successful, but that doesn't stop them trying.
87. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:14 · Score: 0
  
  As witness Raymond Luxury Yacht.
88. Re:But how does it sound? by PoolOfThought · 2012-11-19 09:24 · Score: 1
  
  Even the giraffes are chuckling... but I went to the zoo this weekend and, well, they smell really bad so who cares they think.
  
  --
  My present is the activity I am currently engaged in with the purpose of turning the future into a better past.
89. Re:But how does it sound? by arth1 · 2012-11-19 09:44 · Score: 2
  
  I think you missed the "and you're not sure how" part. But yes, I much prefer S-C-S-I spelled out than someone trying to pronounce it who doesn't know how. "Sucsai" wouldn't be very helpful.
  I've heard many inventive pronunciations over the years.
  TCPIP = tucpip (or more commonly, but just as wrong, teeceepip)
  SQL = squeal
  CPU = spuu
  PCMCIA = puckmuckia
  HTTP = huttup
  DPI = dippies
90. Re:But how does it sound? by Onymous+Coward · 2012-11-19 09:54 · Score: 1
  
  Roger that.
  I invented a new format, "BIF". It's pronounced "ROO barb soo FLEY".
91. Re:But how does it sound? by Onymous+Coward · 2012-11-19 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, but I should point out that a leading g is often enough a soft g in English that it's not inconceivable that yet another word would have it so.
  Anyone willing to do a frequency check of how leading g's are pronounced in common English words?
92. Re:But how does it sound? by yotto · 2012-11-19 10:04 · Score: 1
  
  Where I come from, JIF is a brand of bath cleaner
  Anyway, whatever happened to PNG
  Where I come from, which and witch are spelled differently and sound alike and nobody has trouble discerning them apart.
  And PNG is alive and well, but I still can't figure out how to make animations in the format. That is (all) that GIF is good for.
  /pronounce it "jiff"
  //also pronounce it "jiggawatt"
  
  --
  Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
93. Re:But how does it sound? by gr8dude · 2012-11-19 10:31 · Score: 1
  
  Languages have a lot of quirks and edge cases, how about 'gist'?
  
  --
  The saddest poem
94. Re:But how does it sound? by ianare · 2012-11-19 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  English is a mix of languages, essentially of Germanic origin (mainly Anglo-Saxon) and of Latin origin (mainly French). Germanic is the core of the language, the grammar is derived from it, as is the "basic" vocabulary. French and in some cases Latin directly were added later on, and most of the "extended" vocabulary derives from it, or in some cases, from Greek.
  The pronunciation of the "G" is therefore largely dictated by the etymology of the word. You'll see that in the most common words: girl, get, together, gift, etc. the "G" is always hard. However, for words borrowed from French, Latin and Greek (often technical, scientific, legal, etc), the "G" follows the French pronunciation: in front of the vowels "e", "i", and "y" it is soft, otherwise it is hard:
  giant (French "géant")
  gentle (French "gentil")
  gymnasium (Latin)
  engine (French "engin")
  vagina (Latin)
  gyroscope (French from Greek words)
  -ogy and -gist (French / Latin): biology, biologist, archeology, archaeologist, etc
  -gyn- (meaning "woman", from Greek): misogyny, androgyny, gynoid, etc
  Exceptions:
  gynecologist, gibbon ...and a favorite topic of debate: giga-, where the logical (heh there's another one from French) pronunciation is "jiga", however the hard version is heard more often.
  Back to GIF: both ways of pronouncing it are correct, and indeed I have heard both styles. Although anecdotally, the soft version is used more often by people over 35-40.
95. Re:But how does it sound? by Kittenman · 2012-11-19 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  as long as you are talking peanut butter..... you got it...
  And when I grew up, Jif was a type of lemon juice that came in a squirty plastic lemon. Great for water fights!
  
  --
  "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
96. Re:But how does it sound? by Darinbob · 2012-11-19 10:51 · Score: 1
  
  I see them a lot now as animated GIFs. Ie, streams in Google+ or Facebook. Though I don't see anyone using the word "GIF" anywhere.
97. Re:But how does it sound? by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-11-19 11:48 · Score: 1
  
  IE7
98. Re:But how does it sound? by Lumpy · 2012-11-19 11:48 · Score: 1
  
  Lemon juice water fights rock!
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
99. Re:But how does it sound? by partyguerrilla · 2012-11-19 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  GNU/Linux
100. Re:But how does it sound? by Goodyob · 2012-11-19 12:10 · Score: 1
  
  I've heard both pronunciations
101. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 12:41 · Score: 0
  
  except the people who actually invented it pronounce it with a soft g
  so i'm going with the inventor, not some dipwads' opinions who probably weren't even born when it was invented...
102. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 13:17 · Score: 0
  
  GIFs can use more than 256 colors (by resetting the color table), it just makes the GIF really big.
103. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 15:16 · Score: 0
  
  Not so. Look at the British name for Aluminum.
104. Re:But how does it sound? by VortexCortex · 2012-11-19 15:42 · Score: 1
  
  And PNG is alive and well, but I still can't figure out how to make animations in the format.
  
  You need APNG format, not PNG. It's an "unofficial" extension to PNG, which I believe Firefox eventually wants to support. Didn't think any other browser is planning on supporting it -- Which is a big deal for "Animated Portable Network Graphics" unless you like "Best Viewed With" banners. None the less, to make animations with it I use GIMP.
  P.S. I have it on good authority that PNG is pronounced like "Peeing". I guess it's a reference to the "Striesand effect"; i.e., "Removing an image from the Internet is like trying to remove pee from a pool."
105. Re:But how does it sound? by tragedy · 2012-11-19 16:47 · Score: 1
  
  What are you talking about? PNG uses non-lossy compression. There are no compression artifacts. You must be thinking of JPEG (the lossy format that pretty much all digital cameras seem to inexplicably use as their output format).
106. Re:But how does it sound? by tragedy · 2012-11-19 16:50 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is, PNGs don't support animation. MNG does, and is a lot more flexible than animated GIF, but suffers from poor/non-existent support in browsers.
107. Re:But how does it sound? by cmarkn · 2012-11-19 17:52 · Score: 1
  
  Spock crushes lemon juice water!
  
  --
  People should not fear their government. Governments should fear their people.
108. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 18:29 · Score: 0
  
  "Sucsai" wouldn't be very helpful.
  Tut-tut, there is no "uh" sound. Skizzy!
109. Re:But how does it sound? by Xest · 2012-11-19 21:45 · Score: 1
  
  "Here's the thing: If you invent something, you get to name it."
  Here's the thing: Just because you invent and name something doesn't mean that that continues to be the commonly accepted pronunciation, nor does it necessarily mean you're competent enough with the language in question to be able to understand why your pronunciation is wrong.
  The fact is, being the inventor of something has no more merit as the "correct" pronunciation than the theoretically correct pronunciation for the language in question or the commonly accepted pronunciation. They're all just as arbitrary and subjective in practice.
110. Re:But how does it sound? by 1u3hr · 2012-11-19 23:59 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm...more important that pronounciation... Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  If OED found enough recent references to make it word of the year; of course.
  e.g: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=tumblr+gif About 3,970,000,000 results for "tumbler + gif"
111. Re:But how does it sound? by 1u3hr · 2012-11-20 00:06 · Score: 1
  
  GIFt
112. Re:But how does it sound? by Jane+Q.+Public · 2012-11-20 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  "Whether that applies to mishandled PNGs in any browser at all, I can't remember- what I said might not have applied to Johnny O's comment if that was the case (though what he said still shouldn't apply to correctly-handled PNGs)."
  No, but the "no" needs qualification.
  
  .png allows transparency via an alpha (multi-bit) channel. So margins can be made transparent... well... transparently.
  
  .gif is a one-bit transparency format, so not only does it have rough edges, you have to sacrifice one of the other 254 available colors to get it. When higher-color-space .gif came around, it just made the problem worse because you never knew which of the colors was assigned to transparency. Load a 32-bit .gif into your favorite graphics program and the "transparent" background might be pink, or puke (I mean puce), or some kind of green or whatever.
  
  .png has a completely separate multi-bit transparency channel, so you don't have to sacrifice some other color, and you can make the transparency a gradient, if you wish, or give different parts of the graphic different transparencies. (Gradient transparency is often not a good idea for Web work, I should add, if anything ever needs to be resized.)
113. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 01:14 · Score: 0
  
  But in Ancient Greek, I'm pretty sure the letter gamma is a hard "g". At least, that's how I was taught it at university.
  So the word for "giant" was pronounced "gigas", not "jijas". Our pronunciation of "giant" is arguably more wrong than the common pronunciation of "gigabyte".
114. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 01:56 · Score: 0
  
  Even worse, some people (including Microsoft employees in certain videos) pronounce SQL "Sequel". Considering that Sequel was the name of the language that came before SQL, that would be like Calling Windows 7 "DOS 7".
115. Re:But how does it sound? by Vrtigo1 · 2012-11-20 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  The pronunciation of "GIF" is specified in the GIF specification to be "jif", as in "jiffy", rather then "gif", which most people seem to prefer.
  
  http://www.olsenhome.com/gif/
116. Re:But how does it sound? by 1u3hr · 2012-11-20 03:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, the guy who invented it wanted to make a pun about peanut butter. Too bad, even inventors of words can't force everyone to go along with their sense of humour.
  Anyway, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, both pronunciations are valid, the hard g being preferred in the USA. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/267439?rskey=uvtY4B&result=1#eid
117. Re:But how does it sound? by bkcallahan · 2012-11-20 05:20 · Score: 1
  
  I've always heard 'ping", but just prefer as separate letters myself.
118. Re:But how does it sound? by bkcallahan · 2012-11-20 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  17. It was released in 2019.
119. Re:But how does it sound? by dacaldar · 2012-11-20 17:04 · Score: 1
  
  This is exactly what I was going to say!
  I was going to go "friend" you due to the coincidence, but then I checked your last few comments, and find your views on global warming (and your admitted part in it) to be selfish and unsettling, so we'll call it even.
  So many of the great things you enjoy today are due to humans that were more than just "live for today" hedonism. And you're content to live off their spoils while the getting is good, but make no effort to make the world a better place for the next generation, if it means you can't do whatever the heck you feel like at all times?
  Blechh.
120. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 22:46 · Score: 0
  
  I came to say the exact same thing, but I clicked through the maze of links first, and found:
  
  Pronunciation: /jif, gif/
  The OED describes, not prescribes.
  Since it's Graphics Interchange Format I've always said 'gif' with a hard 'g' sound. I guess for some older folks, gif is like gin or giraffe, and so 'jif'. It certainly seems like anyone paying any attention at all would say 'gif' though.
121. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-21 04:43 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, the famous 'Jraphics Interchange Format' - who can forget it!
122. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-21 04:45 · Score: 0
  
  .. and my name is "jim', pronounced 'F-r-a-n-k'. Get it wight.
123. Re:But how does it sound? by nobodie · 2012-11-21 04:50 · Score: 1
  
  Where we come from it is spelled "gif" and pronounced /hif/ (with the Dutch /g/ sound which doesn't really have an English variant)
  
  --
  Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.
silly by FalseModesty · 2012-11-19 05:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's 25 years old. How can it be the word of this year?
1. Re:silly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  I'm amazed GIF made it, they haven't even added "sausage" to the dictionary yet.
2. Re:silly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:15 · Score: 0
  
  ...and what, exactly, does it mean "to gif" something?
  "I can't come to the phone right now, I'm giffing"
  "You're on MTV's GIF'd!"
  Is it better to gif or to receif? ...wtf???
3. Re:silly by marcello_dl · 2012-11-19 05:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It's 25 years old. How can it be the word of this year?
  Silly you, we had to wait 'till all patents on it expired.
  
  --
  ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
4. Re:silly by Ossifer · 2012-11-19 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah, GIF was so '89... or maybe it was '89a...
5. Re:silly by MurukeshM · 2012-11-19 05:25 · Score: 1
  
  In football (the association one), it's quite common to have animated GIFs of various match events, a poor man's highlights video. Often enough, these appear during the match itself, much before the videos do. So this is one case where someone might logically ask, "Has that goal been GIFed yet?"
6. Re:silly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:44 · Score: 0
  
  I'm amazed GIF made it, they haven't even added "sausage" to the dictionary yet.
  That is not true: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/sausage?region=us&q=sausage
7. Re:silly by Minwee · 2012-11-19 05:54 · Score: 1
  
  ...and what, exactly, does it mean "to gif" something?
  Well... it involves furries, and you probably don't want to know.
  Waitaminite. It that a 'G'? Then never mind. Pretend you never asked, and try not to find the answer on your own.
8. Re:silly by cbiltcliffe · 2012-11-19 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  Well, how often is Time's Man of the Year a newborn?
  
  --
  "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
9. Re:silly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:10 · Score: 0
  
  It's 25 years old. How can it be the word of this year?
  Hipsters have been around for decades...and yet that general give-a-fuck attitude is now more popular than ever.
  It's fairly easy to regurgitate something as "new" to this generation since they don't remember or care 37 seconds from now.
10. Re:silly by SleazyRidr · 2012-11-19 09:02 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  They still haven't added "gullible."
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
11. Re:silly by ArsonSmith · 2012-11-20 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  In Canada?
  
  --
  Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
12. Re:silly by StikyPad · 2012-11-21 05:37 · Score: 1
  
  Funny you should mention that. Apparently, they're changing the spelling to "jullible" to more correctly reflect the proper pronunciation.
  
  --
  https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Just in time by Arancaytar · 2012-11-19 05:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

Who even uses GIF anymore?
1. Re:Just in time by serviscope_minor · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Who even uses GIF anymore?
  All the young people these days seem to be making funny little animated gifs of things.
  Quite strange. It feels like geocities.
  Now, while you're partying like it's 1999, please get off my lawn.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
2. Re:Just in time by Andr+T. · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I thought gifs couldn't be fun until I saw this: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdqahveJp01qdlh1io1_400.gif
  
  --
  Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
3. Re:Just in time by phantomfive · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  My experience has been that it gives you better compression than PNG, if you can fit your image in 256 colors, and don't need a full alpha channel.
  
  For some reason there's a trend of converting movies to animated gifs.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
4. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 0
  
  Who even uses GIF anymore?
  Everyone, because no other image format supports animation.
5. Re:Just in time by somersault · 2012-11-19 05:18 · Score: 2
  
  It is kind of annoying that they couldn't have settled on a better quality format..
  
  --
  which is totally what she said
6. Re:Just in time by bennomatic · 2012-11-19 05:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The best use I've ever seen of GIFs: If We Don't, Remember Me.
  
  --
  The CB App. What's your 20?
7. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:24 · Score: 0
  
  If you make your PNG only use 256 colors and save it as an 8-bit image, PNG will win more often than not. If only APNG would become a thing.
8. Re:Just in time by arth1 · 2012-11-19 05:28 · Score: 1
  
  Everyone, because no other image format supports animation.
  ORLY now?
9. Re:Just in time by i+kan+reed · 2012-11-19 05:31 · Score: 1
  
  It's pretty much reddit's fault. Still a blight on the internet.
10. Re:Just in time by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  PNG tried, but they had no traction on MNG, so they reworked it into APNG and still had no takers.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
11. Re:Just in time by SourceFrog · 2012-11-19 05:44 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If that's your experience, you're almost certainly using an inferior PNG encoder (yes, PNG compression works in ways that effectively allow 'bad implementations' to create larger files :/ .. one of the big things that held it back was a common misconception that it gave inferior compression due to a popular image manipulation package (Photoshop) that had a shitty PNG implementation. With a proper encoder, basically the only time GIF should give you smaller filesizes, is on very small images (e.g. 10x10 pixels), where the size is anyway usually maybe a couple hundred bytes (though this can make some difference, depending on the scale of your application (e.g. if you were tasked on optimizing the size of something that appears on Google's front page that must be delivered trillions of times), it might still be worth bothering to figure out which is smaller in that case, but usually the difference is negligible).
  
  --
  My other UID is three digits.
12. Re:Just in time by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:55 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is that it is not the default. When you compress something with PNG, more often than not whatever program you're using will decide to use a full 24 bit colorspace with alpha channel added and bloat the file up. With GIF that never happens, so people think GIFs are just smaller. Of course GIFs often look like dithered messes too, so there is a tradeoff.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
13. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:09 · Score: 0
  
  Correction, everyone who wants to show an animated GIF.
  For image quality, I'll take PNG over GIF anytime.
14. Re:Just in time by jones_supa · 2012-11-19 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  In various message boards it seems also to be popular to have some short video clip in as your avatar picture. Usually of a celebrity doing some expression over and over. In every freaking message. To complete the experience you should have the specs of your computer in your signature, down to the RAM timings, in a huge font.
15. Re:Just in time by ThatsNotPudding · 2012-11-19 06:23 · Score: 1
  
  Who even uses GIF anymore?
  4chan
  
  ...or so I'm told.
16. Re:Just in time by Derek+Pomery · 2012-11-19 06:30 · Score: 2
  
  Well, MNG might have had more traction if Firefox had kept support. Even for the "light" version of MNG.
  Initially the accusation was that MNG took up too much space in Firefox (entire kilobytes more!) amusing in this age of slapping in megabytes of libs for the latest camera/microphone HTML5 support.
  Anyway, the MNG guys went and stripped down libmng (minimal support) so that there was no increase in resulting size.
  At that point, the reason changed to concerns about security. Which, is reasonable I guess, although I'd again point to all the libs they are just slapping in.
  MNG had a lot of potential. There was the JNG - can you believe that over a decade ago we had browsers with lossy images with alpha channel?
  Personally I think it was the fact that the people who were most active in killing off https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18574 were those who had created APNG.
  I'd be fine w/ APNG even with the less efficient animation frames if only they hadn't killed off JNG to get it :(
  
  --
  -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
17. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:40 · Score: 0
  
  Anyone who likes to laugh at Shane Victorino.
18. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:48 · Score: 0
  
  Animated GIFS are all the rage no the Internet right now. Seriously.
  Where have you been?
19. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:59 · Score: 0
  
  Well, MNG might have had more traction if Firefox had kept support. Even for the "light" version of MNG.
  That assertion is completely disproven by the fact that APNG got minimal traction, despite 5 years of Firefox (and Opera) support.
20. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:10 · Score: 0
  
  Lots of people. Even Google uses Anmated GIF on their front page from time to time, to mark some holiday,
21. Re:Just in time by grumpy_old_grandpa · 2012-11-19 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  A special style indeed. However, here at Slashdot, we should be careful with pointing fingers. It was only a few days ago an article on the front-page proclaimed that the Nexus 4 had been "rooted". At least the ones with RAM timings in their signature have a clue.
22. Re:Just in time by Derek+Pomery · 2012-11-19 10:36 · Score: 1
  
  I think JNG would have been a bigger selling point.
  APNG doesn't offer much on its own. Heck, I'm better off just using a javascript to animate a PNG sprite sheet in terms of browser support. Also, MNG was already out there with existing implementations. APNG had to start from scratch.
  To summarise, I think APNG took some slow progress at replacing GIF w/ MNG and extending PNG to lossy images, completely squashed it, removed features, caused a bunch of division in the community, and then was all surprised at the loss of progress.
  
  --
  -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
23. Re:Just in time by SourceFrog · 2012-11-19 12:05 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is that it is not the default. When you compress something with PNG, more often than not whatever program you're using will decide to use a full 24 bit
  No, that is not the problem, and you're not understanding the problem at all. The problem is that some common image programs compress the PNG badly, even if the correct colorspace is selected. This has nothing at all to do with the colorspace. You can select the correct colorspace all day long and those applications will still produce poorly compressed PNGs with file sizes that are larger than they are supposed to be if they were compressed properly.
  These application include older versions of Photoshop, as well as MS Paint.
  There are several reasons for these problems (and why it's possible for this to occur); one of them is that PNG includes the possibility to choose from different compression algorithms per scanline. A PNG generating application is supposed to determine the optimal method, but lazy software applications do not bother.
  Other reasons include saving excessive amounts of header information, and then there are specific applications that add even more nonsense (some of the Adobe apps).
  Many people incorrectly blame the PNG format for these inefficiencies.
  There is more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics#File_size_and_optimization_software
  Some programs are more efficient than others when saving PNG files, this relates to implementation of the PNG compression used by the program. Many graphics programs (such as Apple's Preview software) save PNGs with large amounts of metadata and color-correction data that are generally unnecessary for Web viewing. Unoptimized PNG files from Adobe Fireworks are also notorious for this since they contain options to make the image editable in supported editors
  
  --
  My other UID is three digits.
24. Re:Just in time by SourceFrog · 2012-11-19 12:07 · Score: 1
  
  @jandrese: Oops, sorry, I thought the above reply was a reply to my response ...
  
  --
  My other UID is three digits.
25. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 17:33 · Score: 0
  
  I think JNG would have been a bigger selling point.
  Not really. There are better formats out there with alpha channel. Simply putting JPEG inside PNG is lazy thinking.
  If you can't sell JNG on it's own merit, how can you expect it to sell bundled with very complex animation that nobody wants?
  To summarize: MNG suffered from a bad case of creeping featurism. APNG only includes useful features, and nothing else.
26. Re:Just in time by jones_supa · 2012-11-19 19:49 · Score: 1
  
  Agreed, sometimes we are full of crap, too.
27. Re:Just in time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 01:31 · Score: 0
  
  Also a picture or six of said machine from various angles and lighting, at least 800x600.
  And some obscure nerd quotes right below. If at all possible, in various colors.
28. Re:Just in time by Derek+Pomery · 2012-11-20 04:23 · Score: 1
  
  There were no unencumbered jpeg formats w/ an alpha channel out at that time.
  Certainly nothing available in a browser.
  There's some hope now, but not a lot of progress.
  MNG had feature creep, but that's why there was MNG-lc and MNG-vlc.
  Which was successfully integrated into Firefox as a drop-in replacement for libpng.
  APNG is fortunately slowly being picked up. Maybe it'll even someday get accepted despite the mistakes it made and the division caused.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG#History
  It's sad we lost like 12+ years due to some egos back then tho.
  Oh well. Whatever.
  
  --
  -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
wasn't this GIFF by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:09 · Score: 0

am I misremembering it, I thought the original was GIFF - graphics interchange file format.
1. Re:wasn't this GIFF by YodasEvilTwin · 2012-11-19 05:11 · Score: 1
  
  Who cares? No one uses that. Do you use "thou" and "thy" and shit?
2. Re:wasn't this GIFF by jones_supa · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  You are possibly thinking about TIFF.
3. Re:wasn't this GIFF by gmack · 2012-11-19 05:20 · Score: 1
  
  People call it by it's extension and Dos only had 3 letter extensions.
4. Re:wasn't this GIFF by codewarren · 2012-11-19 05:21 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  No one uses that. Do you use "thou" and "thy" and shit?
  Yes to the third one.
5. Re:wasn't this GIFF by Black+Parrot · 2012-11-19 05:24 · Score: 1
  
  Who cares? No one uses that. Do you use "thou" and "thy" and shit?
  Of course, thou shit. Now get thy shit in order.
  
  --
  Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
6. Re:wasn't this GIFF by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:27 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah - Tagged Image File Format.
7. Re:wasn't this GIFF by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:31 · Score: 0
  
  Yes to the third one.
  I think you meant the turd one.
  HTH, HAND
8. Re:wasn't this GIFF by kdemetter · 2012-11-19 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  Aren't you thinking of TIFF ?
  
  --
  Slipping shoelaces ?
9. Re:wasn't this GIFF by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-29 15:46 · Score: 0
  
  It's vs its
  there's vs his
UK word of the year by admcd · 2012-11-19 05:11 · Score: 2

I prefer their UK word of the year: omnishambles.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/11/uk-word-of-the-year-2012/
A bit late by Hentes · 2012-11-19 05:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's been obsoleted by PNG for more thanlike 15 years now. They could just as well choose floppy.
1. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:14 · Score: 0
  
  sure, but animated PNG support is sketchy still and there aren't as many tools available
2. Re:A bit late by YodasEvilTwin · 2012-11-19 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Animated PNGs are a lot more rare than GIFs.
3. Re:A bit late by Eric+S.+Smith · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  People turn little video clips into animated GIFs for joke purposes. Theyâ(TM)re not posting MNG (or whatever the carefully designed and basically unused animated PNG format was called) to their Tumblrs.
  
  --
  Mind the Gap
4. Re:A bit late by Eric+S.+Smith · 2012-11-19 05:18 · Score: 2
  
  Still no Unicode support here at Slashdot, I see, speaking of outdatedness.
  
  --
  Mind the Gap
5. Re:A bit late by Hentes · 2012-11-19 05:19 · Score: 1
  
  Thank God!
6. Re:A bit late by shaitand · 2012-11-19 05:25 · Score: 1
  
  Not often... that is what flash is for.
7. Re:A bit late by kybur · 2012-11-19 05:30 · Score: 2
  
  Not really. People are using GIFs for animation. PNGs don't support that. Many browsers don't support APNGs. Regular PNGs didn't even work correctly in IE6, which took way too long to die.
8. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  Browser support for animated PNGs (MNGs) is piss poor and FARRRRRR from universal.
  Animate a GIF, and everyone will see all of it's frames, and not merely the first frame only.
9. Re:A bit late by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:57 · Score: 1
  
  As far as I understand it, MNG and APNG are not well supported by browsers, and without browser support, the formats are dead.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
10. Re:A bit late by Princeofcups · 2012-11-19 06:00 · Score: 1
  
  It's been obsoleted by PNG for more thanlike 15 years now. They could just as well choose floppy.
  Because it takes several years and must meet several requirements in order to become an "official" English word. Otherwise they would be adding thousands of words every year used for one week and then forgotten.
  
  --
  The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
11. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:07 · Score: 0
  
  The straight single-quote apostrophe is in ASCII. It's on everyone's keyboard.
  There's absolutely no reason to use those Unicode curly quotes. How did you even type such a thing?
12. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:08 · Score: 0
  
  Thank God for that too.
13. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:19 · Score: 0
  
  They could just as well choose floppy.
  You just want the 'Word of the Year' to be about your dick.
14. Re:A bit late by Andrio · 2012-11-19 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  I work at a company that translates major websites, via proxy server (in goes the original site, out comes the translated site). Everything goes through our servers, and I'm often digging through images. GIFs are still very commonly used for graphics, page elements or simple animations (like a spinning progress bar on a mobile site, for example).
  
  --
  The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
15. Re:A bit late by Hentes · 2012-11-19 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Instead, they wait until a word is already forgotten, and then include it.
16. Re:A bit late by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 13:56 · Score: 0
  
  They added miniscule and flaccid to the dictionary a long time ago.
17. Re:A bit late by tragedy · 2012-11-19 17:01 · Score: 1
  
  Why? The various animated relatives of the PNG tend to be a lot more efficient than the GIF format.
18. Re:A bit late by mug+funky · 2012-11-19 17:15 · Score: 1
  
  not for posting short, pithy animated loops on imageboards it hasn't.
next year by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:12 · Score: 1

PNGed!
MILF by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 1

... at least its more contemporary
It sounds like this! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:14 · Score: 0

Graphics Interchange Format is the long form that the acronym replaces... so GIF should sound just like "gift" without a "t."
How's that spelled? by hedgemage · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 1

GIF is a word I use in writing, but never in speech. To this day, I honestly don't know if I should say "ghiff" or "jiff".
1. Re:How's that spelled? by amicusNYCL · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 2
  
  I tend to use the same sound as the word that the letter abbreviates, in this case "graphic".
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
2. Re:How's that spelled? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:16 · Score: 0
  
  The correct pronunciation is "jif", the same as the sound of the letter when reciting the alphabet. The people who are professing butthurtedness at the new dictionary entry's pronunciation probably recite the alphabet as "Ay bee see dee ee eff guh..." and can count to potato.
3. Re:How's that spelled? by Goodyob · 2012-11-19 12:18 · Score: 1
  
  I guess people in the Roman Empire were all counting to potato then
GFE is better by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:17 · Score: 0

I prefer GFE over GIF on my local BP
No gifs for me by paiute · 2012-11-19 05:18 · Score: 1

I prefer to jaypayg my images.

--
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
But but but.... by roc97007 · 2012-11-19 05:19 · Score: 2

But... GIFs are so last century! There used to be a joke "beware of geeks bearing gifs" but not even geeks get it anymore.
Oxford, welcome to the nineties. You might want to check your PC clock. I think the battery died.

--
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
1. Re:But but but.... by sjbe · 2012-11-19 05:31 · Score: 1
  
  There used to be a joke "beware of geeks bearing gifs" but not even geeks get it anymore.
  Maybe you youngsters. Get off my lawn...
2. Re:But but but.... by allcoolnameswheretak · 2012-11-19 06:08 · Score: 1
  
  That's what I was thinking. GIF? Now? Nobody uses GIF's anymore. PNG has all but replaced GIF.
3. Re:But but but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:57 · Score: 0
  
  Don't you mean, "Gif off my lawn"?
4. Re:But but but.... by roc97007 · 2012-11-19 06:58 · Score: 1
  
  There used to be a joke "beware of geeks bearing gifs" but not even geeks get it anymore.
  Maybe you youngsters. Get off my lawn...
  Yeah, but us old pharts were the ones trying to get rid of GIFs. I remember participating in flamefests on Usenet against Unisys, and trying (unsuccessfully) to get PNGs to work on my website when they were first introduced. Man I'm old. Now I'm depressed. I'm gonna get my lawn chair, crack open a Zima and leer at the pretty joggers when they go by.
  
  --
  Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
5. Re:But but but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:19 · Score: 0
  
  If you haven't noticed the resurgence, you're not as web-savvy as you think you are.
6. Re:But but but.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:24 · Score: 0
  
  In my day, we used ASCII written in the dirt!
7. Re:But but but.... by Goodyob · 2012-11-19 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  You might want to check your PC clock. I think the battery died.
  I guess some of us didn't survive Y2K then
Verb form: no by crow · 2012-11-19 05:22 · Score: 2

The issue with the verb form is not how to handle adding suffixes to an upper-case initialism, the issue is that people would thing do verb that noun in the first place. While I've heard lots of people talk about GIFs, I would get all GIFed if I actually heard someone verb "GIF." That's just GIFing stupid.
Seriously, does anyone do that?
1. Re:Verb form: no by amicusNYCL · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  the issue is that people would thing do verb that noun in the first place
  err, what was that?
  First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.
  - Peter Ellis
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 05:23 · Score: 1, Interesting

I've never heard anyone use GIF except to describe an image that is a GIF because they are doing something with graphics. It isn't exactly a day to day word or something laymen use... random teens on Facebook would still have no idea what a GIF is.
1. Re:Seriously? by Mr.+Slippery · 2012-11-19 05:56 · Score: 2
  
  random teens on Facebook would still have no idea what a GIF is.
  Get hep, daddy-o. Animated GIFs are bad. Or whatever the kids call it these days. They're an easy and widely-supported means to get short video clips out.
  
  --
  Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
  You cannot wash away blood with blood
2. Re:Seriously? by Rytr23 · 2012-11-19 06:00 · Score: 1
  
  I beg to differ. I imagine many more random teens than you imagine are aware of what gifs are.. See Reddit.com Well, I guess if your random teens are all white upper middle to upper class ones..
  
  --
  So many injustices..so little time..
3. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah but who uses them? I mean you see them in forum sigs and avatars but everywhere else you see flash used for video clips.
  Animated gifs are slow and not especially easy to make.
4. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  Even if they are aware of what GIFs are how many of them are using the word on a daily basis let alone using GIF as a verb. I'd imagine JPEG and PNG are going to be used far more. Yup, just looking over the Reddit front page, I see two PNG's (and neither was made by the poster) and a gallary full of JPEG's. There is nothing about grabbing images off the net and linking to them or posting them elsewhere that requires knowing what a GIF is. Maybe knowing that some pictures end in .gif but you aren't going to start using the word GIF with any regularly due to that.
  About the only thing GIF is good for these days is animations and GIF animations load slow and are highly inefficient relative to something like flash. Still people do use them for forum avatars and sigs. PNG took a long time to catch on due to IE refusing to support PNG transparency but these days it has pretty much supplanted every other use of GIF.
  Maybe common usage isn't required to be 'word of the year'.
5. Re:Seriously? by Grizzley9 · 2012-11-19 06:41 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah but who uses them?
  
  Reddit (imgur) and 4chan.
6. Re:Seriously? by Rytr23 · 2012-11-19 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  Well, JPEG is pretty much synonymous with image/pic for most "internet savvy" folk. But you're correct, no one, is using "gif" or 'giffing" in daily dialogue. But I think you underestimate the popularity of the short clips. For instance a fairly recent front page entry on Reddit asking "which GIF you would like to be trapped in for eternity" or "What GIF should everyone have saved?" GIFs are good for short, dumb/throw away attempts at memes, attempts at humor, russian car accidents or some quick porn clips judging by what I usually see. They are easy to make and don't require anything from adobe to make. The kids hate flash and adobe.
  
  WOTY looks like its decided by the interwebs..which would explain the recent winners, "App", "tweet" and "occupy". Common on the web seems to be the deciding factor.
  
  --
  So many injustices..so little time..
7. Re:Seriously? by swillden · 2012-11-19 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  random teens on Facebook would still have no idea what a GIF is.
  They think they do. Random teens on Facebook know that a GIF is a short animated video clip that is easier to paste into a post than a YouTube video. My teenagers explained this to me since they were sure their dumb old dad couldn't possibly have any understanding of this cool new video technology.
  
  --
  Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
8. Re:Seriously? by swillden · 2012-11-19 07:50 · Score: 1
  
  Even if they are aware of what GIFs are how many of them are using the word on a daily basis let alone using GIF as a verb. I'd imagine JPEG and PNG are going to be used far more.
  Nope. My kids know what a GIF is, it's an animated picture, and they talk about GIFs as such, and about "giffing" a clip of a YouTube video. JPEG they've heard of, but aren't really sure about. Non-animated images are just called "pictures" or "images". They have no idea what a PNG is.
  
  --
  Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
9. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  I stand corrected. Animated GIFs are apparently making a comeback. They used to be a PITA because they really are bandwidth hogs and there was no standardized tool for making them. Someone mentioned not needing Adobe but Photoshop didn't used to have the ability to make animated GIFs or maybe it did but the tools sucked I can't remember (haven't done web graphics in a while) and that was the problem because everyone used Photoshop usually in pirated form. Now there are dozens of web-based animated GIF creators.
10. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  P.S. There is no way using animated gifs for videos is good for the internet. ;)
11. Re:Seriously? by swillden · 2012-11-19 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  P.S. There is no way using animated gifs for videos is good for the internet. ;)
  I agree!
  
  --
  Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
12. Re:Seriously? by tompaulco · 2012-11-19 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  I deal with images every day and I haven't used the word a couple of times in the last decade. I have NEVER heard anyone use the word GIF as a verb. I think that a prerequisite for word of the year is that it has to be a word that more than 1% of the general population would have heard and uses on a regular basis. I guess all the commonly used words were all copyrighted.
  
  --
  If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
13. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-19 15:14 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly, seems we (professionals who know what a GIF actually is and isn't) are the wrong crowd for this one.
  These are the kinds of things teens are doing: http://www.gifbin.com/ They can set up 4chan threads with 4000 inefficient GIF video clips loading on the fly when you open them. Some phones will even automatically display animated GIF sent in text messages so they get a video text for the price of a picture txt.
  It is an aweful abuse of the GIF. Anyone who remembers that these things load a separate image for each frame and remembers having to trash their overly cool animated GIFs in dial-up days knows that high speed links are just hiding a hog. But w/e, it does seem there is a crowd who has resurrected the GIF.
14. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 17:21 · Score: 0
  
  About the only thing GIF is good for these days is animations and GIF animations load slow and are highly inefficient relative to something like flash.
  GIFs are more efficient than Flash, if you want people to be able to see your animations without installing a plugin first.
15. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-20 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Since it is a plugin required to view most of the web these days it is fair to assume they won't have to install it to view your content.
16. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 09:48 · Score: 0
  
  Most of the web? What are you talking about?
  I don't have flash installed and the only thing I'm "missing" is some ads.
17. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-20 11:54 · Score: 1
  
  How would you know?
18. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-21 06:07 · Score: 0
  
  When I see the text "advertisement" next to a grey box with the text "missing plugin", I think it's safe to assume the missing content is an ad.
  So back to your statement about:
  
  ... it is a plugin required to view most of the web these days...
  What are you talking about?!
19. Re:Seriously? by shaitand · 2012-11-21 13:38 · Score: 1
  
  "When I see the text "advertisement" next to a grey box with the text "missing plugin", I think it's safe to assume the missing content is an ad."
  That would indicate that said imaginary specific and isolated piece of content is likely is an ad, not that there is no other content you aren't seeing.
  "What are you talking about?! "
  Video, games, interactive content. Pretty much everything on the modern internet.
20. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-22 13:35 · Score: 0
  
  "What are you talking about?! "
  Video, games, interactive content. Pretty much everything on the modern internet.
  As far as I know, the biggest video site on the net is YouTube. It works fine without Flash.
  I didn't know games was a required part of the internet, but just so you know, there's a lot of non-Flash games out there. Modern browser-based games are using JavaScript.
  I don't know what interactive content you're talking about, but everything you can do in Flash, can be done in JavaScript too. A lot more people have JavaScript than Flash, so it makes sense to use JavaScript instead of Flash and that's exactly what people are doing.
What a bunch of tossers by TubeSteak · 2012-11-19 05:27 · Score: 1

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/GIF
Pronunciation: /jif, gif/
::twitch::

--
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Nobody uses GIF as a verb by sjbe · 2012-11-19 05:30 · Score: 1

Seriously, does anyone do that?
I can't say it has never happened but I've certainly never heard anyone use GIF as a verb and I'm old enough to remember when GIF images were a new thing. Never even occurred to me that anyone would use it as a verb.
Of course I resolutely refuse to use Google as a verb as well. Google is a company name and the activity I'm usually doing with their website is called "searching" which is a perfectly satisfactory verb that even works when using a website not made by Google.
1. Re:Nobody uses GIF as a verb by amicusNYCL · 2012-11-19 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  I can't say it has never happened but I've certainly never heard anyone use GIF as a verb and I'm old enough to remember when GIF images were a new thing. Never even occurred to me that anyone would use it as a verb.
  I would suggest that the people using GIF as a verb were not around when GIFs were new.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
2. Re:Nobody uses GIF as a verb by SleazyRidr · 2012-11-19 09:08 · Score: 1
  
  I've never heard anyone gif something, jpeg something, png something or tif something. I have heard people pdf things, but that's the only example of which I can think.
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
3. Re:Nobody uses GIF as a verb by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 17:01 · Score: 0
  
  I've never heard anyone gif something, jpeg something, png something or tif something. I have heard people pdf things, but that's the only example of which I can think.
  How about "photoshop"?
4. Re:Nobody uses GIF as a verb by SleazyRidr · 2012-11-20 00:44 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, people use photoshop as a verb, but that isn't a file extension, so it's not really what we're talking about right now.
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
5. Re:Nobody uses GIF as a verb by EdZ · 2012-11-20 01:08 · Score: 1
  
  Being someone who wasn't around when .gifs were new (and barely around when Unisys threw a hissy fit), I too have never seen .gif being verb-ed. Not on reddit, not on 4chan, not on Tumblr, and if you've seen a .gif nowadays it's probably originated from one of those three.
Pronunciation by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:30 · Score: 0

Jiff. As in Giraffics Interchange Format.
Fucken hard G fagets need to accept the truth and shut their fucken faget mouths. Compuserve fuck the world, fagets.
From the article... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:36 · Score: 0

"This annual honor goes to a word that in some way embodies the ethos of the year and is selected by a panel of judges.The choice for 2102 is the verb GIF, meaning to create a GIF file of (an image or video sequence, especially relating to an event) as in he GIFed the highlights of the debate." According to the article the noun GIF is the word of the year. In the year 2102, the verb GIF will be word of the year. Will people still be using that word or the file format in that year?
Goddamned Gawker Media Still by scorp1us · 2012-11-19 05:38 · Score: 1

Uses animated GIFS on Deadspin. MNG anyone?

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limerick by wbr1 · 2012-11-19 05:42 · Score: 4, Funny

Some geeks wanted a way to make glyphs
They named their new standard GIF
Now the formats obsolete
But tweeting the word is l33t
And real dweebs continue to use TIFF

--
Silence is a state of mime.
1. Re:limerick by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:04 · Score: 0
  
  TIFF? What happened to Targa and PCX?
A great rejoicing ... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:43 · Score: 0

... was heard from /b/tards across the world.
GIZ by g4b · 2012-11-19 05:44 · Score: 4, Funny

I say GIZ would be a nice format for zlibbed gif. it would also ease the use as a verb.
1. Re:GIZ by GodfatherofSoul · 2012-11-19 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  I've tried using it, but after 5-10 minutes I'm spent.
  
  --
  I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
How timely by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-19 06:05 · Score: 4, Funny

What's going to be Word of the Year for 2013? "RealPlayer"?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
1. Re:How timely by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:39 · Score: 0
  
  Complete steaming pile of shit realplayer is longer than one word.
2. Re:How timely by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:58 · Score: 0
  
  BonziBuddy
3. Re:How timely by H0p313ss · 2012-11-19 07:16 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Complete steaming pile of shit realplayer is longer than one word.
  While it is pronounced "steaming pile of shit", it is still spelled realplayer and therefore one word.
  
  --
  XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
4. Re:How timely by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:35 · Score: 0
  
  What's going to be Word of the Year for 2013? "RealPlayer"?
  I would suggest delay line.
5. Re:How timely by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:53 · Score: 0
  
  Flash in 2014.
6. Re:How timely by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-19 21:22 · Score: 1
  
  Is that you, Raymond Luxury-Yacht?
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
7. Re:How timely by H0p313ss · 2012-11-20 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  Is that you, Raymond Luxury-Yacht?
  Terribly sorry old sport, I must dash off. My hovercraft is full of eels.
  
  --
  XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Oh GIF me a fucking break! by The+Living+Fractal · 2012-11-19 06:09 · Score: 1

What's the next word of the year? WYSIWYG?

--
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
1. Re:Oh GIF me a fucking break! by G3ckoG33k · 2012-11-19 06:37 · Score: 1
  
  How old are you? 53? ;)
2. Re:Oh GIF me a fucking break! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:40 · Score: 0
  
  Good. We'll finally find out why Wysi has a wig!
So what does the verb mean? by jdavidb · 2012-11-19 06:15 · Score: 1

If I'm reading this right, the word GIF has been around a long time, but it is "word of the year" because of the new usage, as a verb. I've never heard this usage, and I can't for the life of me figure out what it could mean. Does "to gif" mean "to convert an image to GIF format"? Does it mean "to capture an image in GIF format"? Neither one of these sounds like something that would be a very common usage, so I'm sure I'm missing something. What does this new verb mean?

--
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
1. Re:So what does the verb mean? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:59 · Score: 0
  
  From what I've seen, it means to turn something into an animated GIF, either straight conversion of a video clip or something... darker.
What an eyesore by kiehlster · 2012-11-19 06:18 · Score: 1

First of all, you're not suppose to use the word you're describing in the definition, and here they defined it by using its noun form. Secondly, I believe it's a much larger offense to use the technology you're describing to make your announcement about the word, which they've clearly done by 'GIFing' the WOTY announcement. On top of that, I think I've seen far more clever words coined on the Unwords and Urban dictionaries this year.
yay by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:18 · Score: 0

GIF just so happens to be my initials. Awesomesauce!
And also... by AliasMarlowe · 2012-11-19 06:27 · Score: 2

Jif is a brand of lemon juice. Jif is also a brand of Peanut butter. I've always pronounced GIF with a hard G, as in giggling gizmo girth girls give gilded gizzards girdle girder gimmick gifts.

--
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
1. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:43 · Score: 0
  
  Gif, gif, it rhymes with gift...
  Gif, gif, it rhymes with give...
2. Re:And also... by number6x · 2012-11-19 06:47 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You left one very important word out of your list of hard G words: Graphic.
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
3. Re:And also... by pclminion · 2012-11-19 07:26 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
  Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, not Light Amplification by Ztimulated Emission of Radiation. Therefore the 's' in laser is unvoiced and should be pronounced "lay-sir" not "lay-zer."
  Actually, no, that's still not right. The A in Amplification is a short A not a long one, so the word should be pronounced "lah-sir." But wait, the E in emission is long, so it should actually be "lah-seer."
  Or we could admit that that's not how acronym pronunciation works and stop being dumbshits.
4. Re:And also... by Culture20 · 2012-11-19 07:39 · Score: 2
  
  I don't think acronyms work like that, otherwise NASA and PETA would sound totally different than they are currently pronounced. (Nehsah instead of Nasah, Pehtah instead of peetah) Not to mention fubar (fuhbar?).
5. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:47 · Score: 0
  
  You left one very important word out of your list of hard G words: Graphic.
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
  Make me laugh - tell me how you pronounce the letter G.
6. Re:And also... by cstacy · 2012-11-19 07:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, not Light Amplification by Ztimulated Emission of Radiation. Therefore the 's' in laser is unvoiced and should be pronounced "lay-sir" not "lay-zer." Actually, no, that's still not right. The A in Amplification is a short A not a long one, so the word should be pronounced "lah-sir." But wait, the E in emission is long, so it should actually be "lah-seer."
  That's why one always uses finger quotes when referring to a device that I call a "Layzer".
7. Re:And also... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · 2012-11-19 08:11 · Score: 1
  
  Fair enough. Let's pronounce GIF the way it looks -- with a hard G.
  What forkin' dorkling thought it should be pronounced like peanut butter? Let us hook brain monitors to you to find out why a soft G is the default generation for defective brains. "LOOK!!! He's reading GIF but his brain is forming the sound JIF!"
  Wait. I know why. It's because you have a choosey mother.
  
  --
  (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
8. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:50 · Score: 0
  
  Damn! You giffed him, hard.
9. Re:And also... by Z34107 · 2012-11-19 09:09 · Score: 1
  
  Fair enough. Let's pronounce GIF the way it looks -- with a hard G.
  I always thought it looked like "giraffe." (I'm not going to change how I pronounce "SCSI," either.)
  
  --
  DATABASE WOW WOW
10. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:38 · Score: 0
  
  If it has giraffes in it it's YIFF.
11. Re:And also... by Cabriel · 2012-11-19 10:35 · Score: 1
  
  If you're going to be on about how acronym pronunciation does or doesn't work, then "GIF" would never be a word. When reading the written text, you always pronounce the elongated form of the acronym. "The GIF file is in the FS on the HDD" should be orated as "The Graphics Interchange Format file is in the File System on the Hard Disk Drive."
  Strictly speaking, we aren't talking about pronouncing an acronym; we're talking about pronouncing a new word derived from an acronym in which case you would be right to claim pronounciation is different from the etymology.
  Or is this too pedantic?
12. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 11:47 · Score: 0
  
  Or we could just stop being the kind of dumbshits that argue on the Internet about pedantic bullshit with no real world value.
13. Re:And also... by Samantha+Wright · 2012-11-19 14:38 · Score: 1
  
  The inventors coined the slogan "choosy programmers choose GIF." So, yeah—it's deliberate.
  
  --
  Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
14. Re:And also... by cmarkn · 2012-11-19 20:47 · Score: 1
  
  No, not pedantic, simply wrong. What separates acronyms, like GIF, from initialisms, like FS and HDD, is that they are pronounced as words while initialisms are spelled out (eg, eff-ess, aitch-dee-dee). There wouldn't be this distinction if the words were always to be "elongated" as you propose. The only people who would write out the full term are lawyers, who historically got paid by the word and therefore developed the silly, pretentious language of their trade (Lawyer language).
  
  --
  People should not fear their government. Governments should fear their people.
15. Re:And also... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 22:51 · Score: 0
  
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
  Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, not Light Amplification by Ztimulated Emission of Radiation. Therefore the 's' in laser is unvoiced and should be pronounced "lay-sir" not "lay-zer."
  Actually, no, that's still not right. The A in Amplification is a short A not a long one, so the word should be pronounced "lah-sir." But wait, the E in emission is long, so it should actually be "lah-seer."
  Or we could admit that that's not how acronym pronunciation works and stop being dumbshits.
  Actually, people did start out saying LAH-SIR, but the media and a bunch of retarded plebes just started saying LAY-ZER for no reason. Who's the dumbshit now??
What? by Terrasque · 2012-11-19 06:28 · Score: 1

What?
I mean, seriously, What?
This make no sense. None. No matter how I try to think about it. There is no reasoning I can think of that gives this any meaning whatsoever. No sense. None at all. /dev/null.
This is on the same level of sense as a midget clown wearing a hulu skirt jumping out of your closet declaring "I like pancakes!"

--
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
Doctors by painandgreed · 2012-11-19 06:37 · Score: 1

Who even uses GIF anymore?
I see them a lot in healthcare presentations and webpages dealing with such presentations, especially for radiology cine loops. They're made from a series of images anyway and they are pretty much bulletproof, working as intended on any computer in any location and presentation set up. Actual videos have not proved so lucky as if the computer at the distant place you are trying to present doesn't have the proper codec, you're SOL because even if they call in the IT guy, install VNC or whatever really quick, your presentation is shot. GIF may not be the newest or even best, but being older tech makes it pretty much reliable.
IE doesn't support APNG/MNG, but GIF... by G3ckoG33k · 2012-11-19 06:40 · Score: 1

APNG and MNG are both to animated GIFs what PNG is to standard GIF, yet better...
Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-image_Network_Graphics
Still, Interent Explorer doesn't support them...
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie9-windows_7/apng-images-not-animating/92ba64aa-9d7a-e011-9b4b-68b599b31bf5
Why?!
1. Re:IE doesn't support APNG/MNG, but GIF... by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-19 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  Why?!
  Because animated GIFs are bloody annoying and people should be forced to implement the effect with Javascript which will make them think twice before doing it frivolously :)
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
2. Re:IE doesn't support APNG/MNG, but GIF... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:32 · Score: 0
  
  They were probably the only ones coughing up Unisys' licensing fee. Just like they're the only ones to freely license the rectangle with rounded corners from Apple
*Yawn* by Seumas · 2012-11-19 06:42 · Score: 2

The annual list of new words from the OED is just a lame promotional bit filled almost entirely with dumb words. Just ignore them and maybe they'll go away.
Hahaha! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 06:48 · Score: 0

GIF is what everyone used to call porn before JPEGs came along.
1. Re:Hahaha! by macbeth66 · 2012-11-19 07:12 · Score: 1
  
  I thought that was MPG
2. Re:Hahaha! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 07:18 · Score: 0
  
  I mean GIF... before video porn was really do-able (haha) on PCs :)
Really? by TheSkepticalOptimist · 2012-11-19 06:52 · Score: 1

Shows you how irrelevant dictionaries have become.

--
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
GIF is for the deaf by fritsd · 2012-11-19 07:20 · Score: 1

From TFA:

"he GIFed the highlights of the debate."
, and:

The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace.
and:

Blogging for the New York Times, Jenna Wortham called GIFs "the perfect medium for the Olympics."
I wonder if these smart people are aware that GIFs don't actually carry sound. It's still picture or chunky animation, only.
No sound.
Bit difficult to "GIF the highlights of the debate" of people sitting around a table watching their mouths move, unless they're using sign language :-)

--
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
1. Re:GIF is for the deaf by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:08 · Score: 0
  
  People typically add the text to the bottom of the image to convey what is being said. I believe this method of presenting spoken words without an audio track even predates GIFs. And audio tracks themselves. If I were more hip and with it, I would have an appropriate GIF to convey this sentiment.
JFIF by tepples · 2012-11-19 07:27 · Score: 2

I thought the obscure name for JPEG files was JFIF, not JIFF.
1. Re:JFIF by Samantha+Wright · 2012-11-19 07:38 · Score: 1
  
  You're right, but at least one source (filext) supports the existence of .JIFF for JPEG images. Even more zany, JFIF is technically the name of a container for JIF (with just one F) data. So that's quite a mess.
  
  --
  Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Spine, lither, ginger, subtext by tepples · 2012-11-19 07:31 · Score: 1

What about Ginger?

True, the standard pronunciation of that is "djindjer". But I've read reports that "ginger" used as a racial slur against redheads is sometimes pronounced with the hard [g] and rhymes with "singer" or "swinger". (Compare the anagram.)
overheard at oxford dictionaries by Cyko_01 · 2012-11-19 07:49 · Score: 1

APU: hey mike, is GIFed a word?
MIKE: You mean like "I GIVED my kids turkey last nite? Of course it is. I use that word all the time - give, giving, gived
APU: "I GIFed my kids turkey" yea I guess that makes sense. GIF, GIFing, GIFed
...later that day...
APU: hey dave, is it pronounced "jif" or "ghiff"?
DAVE: as "in a jiff"?
APU: yea, like in "a gif"
DAVE: yea, pronounce it like a "j"
MIKE(from across the room): IT'S GHIFF YOU IDIOT!
DAVE: hey, you know our policy - if you are not sure put both
APU: I can't believe that's not in the dictionary already! this should be word of the year! you guys think I should ask the boss?
MIKE & DAVE: nah, its obvious!
Isn't this a little late - like 15 year late? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:15 · Score: 0

Has anyone used the GIF format for anything (except animations) since the 1990s?!
Verbing weirds language by Chelloveck · 2012-11-19 08:48 · Score: 1

I, for one, have never heard "GIF" used as a verb. Maybe I'm just too old. Like the way making simulated 8-bit blocky video games is currently all the rage, maybe "GIFing" is a hip, retro kind of thing now. For me it's not retro, it's just old. Hell, I remember downloading GIF porn back when my modem had a "high speed" light to let me know I was downloading at a blazing 1200 bps! Now, get off my lawn!

--
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Chosen... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:49 · Score: 0

Only because PNG is hard to pronounce as a word with adding an arbitrary vowel.
1. Re:Chosen... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:52 · Score: 0
  
  Of course, that was supposed to be "without".
2. Re:Chosen... by SleazyRidr · 2012-11-19 09:13 · Score: 1
  
  Well, it depends on which vowel you add...
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
For next year... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 08:56 · Score: 0

I submit y2k as my candidate for the word of the year.
Gelatin, e.g. by janeil · 2012-11-19 08:57 · Score: 1

I'm late to this discussion, has the correct of pronunciation of GIF been agreed on yet? The soft g is clearly correct. I will never use the hard 'g' version, and, never use either version as a verb. That's just dumb.
Hundreds of comments later by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 09:24 · Score: 0

And nobody has mentioned "Girls In Files" yet and asked how this relates to the use as a verb...
Geez I feel old. Now gif off my lawn!
1. Re:Hundreds of comments later by HeckRuler · 2012-11-19 10:54 · Score: 1
  
  Haven't you heard? They're in binders now.
I though Omnishambles by mjwalshe · 2012-11-19 10:18 · Score: 1

was the word of the year.
Every year by tbird81 · 2012-11-19 11:25 · Score: 1

Oxford has these stupid press releases with "new words" and "words of the year". It's just to encourage publicity for their flaccid sales. Seriously, who buys a dictionary nowadays?
Alpha PNG with CSS opacity by tepples · 2012-11-19 12:24 · Score: 1

What version of Windows Internet Explorer was the first to handle transparent PNGs correctly?
IE7
Trying to combine alpha PNG with CSS opacity does not work out of the box in IE 7 or 8. Instead of standard CSS opacity, you have to use the proprietary DXImageTransform.
1. Re:Alpha PNG with CSS opacity by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-11-19 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  Arguably, that qualifies as poor CSS opacity support rather than PNG alpha support.
Words for next year! by Lieutenant_Dan · 2012-11-19 12:32 · Score: 1

Kilobyte, Baud, transistor, Rhodesia, and like someone else said "Y2K"
Gawd, GIF?!?!? That's pretty lame.

--
Wearing pants should always be optional.
1995 called... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 01:25 · Score: 0

Someone already made that joke? Nevermind.
I hated the whole patent thing... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 05:19 · Score: 0

I hated the whole patent thing... I switched to PNG as soon as I could, long before most. Any GIFs I had I converted to PNG.