JIF Not GIF, Says .GIF Image Format Inventor

Now I know that for some of us, it is no big deal when it comes to pronunciation. After all, you say “to-mah-to’, I say ‘to-may-to’, you say ‘po-tah-to’, I say ‘po-tay-to’. Well, some others out there are rather more particular about things, and a certain Steve Whilhite, the very man who invented the Graphics Interchange Format (.gif) while he was still working at CompuServe back in 1987, is rather peeved that the image file format known as GIF has been pronounced wrongly – in his opinion anyways, where it should be pronounced as “JIF” and not “GIF”.

Wilhite said, “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.” Well, when in doubt, always get back to the creator, and you know for sure whether you are on the right track or not. Which particular school of thought do you fall back upon, and do you really think that one should be particular on how the file format is pronounced in the first place? After all, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers