Graphics Interchange Format
A graphics file format originally designed by CompuServe to display raster images on the Internet. The GIF format is an industry standard that supports up to 256 8-bit colors. The GIF image format includes compression, and the size of the file is dependent on the number of colors used and the sections of colors in the image. For example, large sections of the same color value compress well, making them smaller than those with a gradient of two colors. GIFs can be used on a variety of different computer platforms, and can even be animated via many tools provided on the Internet.