Telset.id, Jakarta – Creator of animated GIF images, Stephen Wilhite died on March 14, 2022 at the age of 74 years. The news of the death of the animation creator Graphics Interchange Format was announced by his wife, Kathaleen Wilhite.
Kathaleen reports that Stephen Wilhite has died of Covid-19. Prior to his passing, the animated GIF creator was surrounded by his extended family.
“He was surrounded by family when he died. With all his achievements, he remains a very humble, kind, and kind man,” Kathaleen said, as quoted by Telset from The Verge on Thursday (24/3/2022).
Also read: How to Download Twitter Videos and GIFs
During his lifetime, Wilhite was a very creative and hardworking person. As a result he managed to find a GIF while still working on CompuServe.
“He invented the GIF alone. He actually did it at home and brought it to work after he perfected it. He would figure it all out personally in his head and then go into town to program it on a computer,” he said.
Meanwhile, while still working at CompuServe, several former colleagues said that Wilhite was a hard worker who had a big influence on the company’s success.
Stephen E. Wilhite was born in the United States on March 3, 1948. He is known as a computer scientist and has a long career at the technology company CompuServe.
At CompuServe he and his team have also developed GIF image files since 1987. The GIF format was adapted from the LZW algorithm belonging to the Unisys company.
Wilhite made various adjustments so that GIFs have the de facto standard of 8-bit animation that has no sound. Unfortunately, although GIFs have been around since the 1990s, these moving images haven’t been widely used until decades later.
As compiled Telset from Wikiwand on Thursday (24/3/2022), the new animated GIF has been widely used as a website design or posting on social media since 2016 until now.
Also read: Recommended 10 GIF Animation Maker Applications
GIFs appear in unique forms and often become funny memes. In fact, because of the variety of GIFs circulating, in an interview Wilhite admitted to having a favorite GIF, namely a dancing baby GIF.
Thanks to GIF, Wilhite also won the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award which he received in 2013. Before his death, the creator of this GIF spent his retirement with his wife in Ohio, United States. (NM/MF)