.GIF stands for graphic interchange format and was invented in 1987 by Steve Wilhite. GIFs are the third most popular web image format following PNG and JPEG. They’re the universal web format for displaying animated pictures. It was first incorporated in Netscape 2 which was the most popular browser of the 90’s. According to Wilhite in an interview with The Daily Dot, “Gif would have died in 1998 if Netscape never put it in their browser”.

GIFs are a new medium for artist and Tumblr has become the center hub for all this. The fact Tumblr streamlined the blog creation process for mobile is the reason it has the best community style user base. In 2016 mobile internet passed desktop internet in worlwide usage. Tumblr made it so easy to make a blog from their app, and that’s where other blog platforms fall short. The key is knowing where everyone’s at and giving them the best tools, and Tumblr did just that. Aside from that business rant, if you search “gif art” or “artist on tumblr” you’ll discover an endless plethora of artist some which only use Tumblr for showcasing their art.

As far as format goes .gif is the best for animated pictures. There are a handful of apps on iOS and Android that let you create gifs right from saved photos or videos off your phone. The best one I’ve found is Gif Maker by Brain Craft. It has all kinds of overlay filters and the easiest interface for creating gifs that can be exported and saved on the camera or shared via social apps. I thought I’d take a shot at making my own gif with the app, and I’m happy how it turned out! Thanks for reading!