Steve Wilhite

GIF went on to become the de facto standard for 8-bit color images on the Internet until PNG (1996) became a widely supported alternative.

[3] Known as the inventor or creator of the GIF, Wilhite received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

Its adoption by the earliest web browser in 1991[7] helped make it a few years later in 1995 the most popular image file format.

[8] Twenty years later in 2016, the format still had mainstream use in website design, social media posts, workflow documents and how-to guides.

[9][10] Wilhite remained a CompuServe/AOL employee into the first decade of the 21st century, working on a variety of CompuServe systems.