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CompuServe, 1987...
How should we abbreviate our new
Graphics Interchange Format?
Graphics Interchange Format?
G-I-F, but call it “jif!”
Choosy developers
choose “jif,” tee-hee!
choose “jif,” tee-hee!
What about trademark dilution with already well-established products called
“Jif,” like peanut butter in the United States, lemon juice in the United
Kingdom, and cleaning chemicals in other countries, not to mention that the
Joint Photographic Experts Group is already developing a competing format
abbreviated as J-I-F?[1] Nobody in their right mind will see G-I-F and think it's
pronounced “jif.” It doesn't even look like anything pronounced with a soft G.
“Jif,” like peanut butter in the United States, lemon juice in the United
Kingdom, and cleaning chemicals in other countries, not to mention that the
Joint Photographic Experts Group is already developing a competing format
abbreviated as J-I-F?[1] Nobody in their right mind will see G-I-F and think it's
pronounced “jif.” It doesn't even look like anything pronounced with a soft G.
- ⌃ Even though the JPEG Interchange Format (JIF) wasn't published until 1992, the JPEG committee was established in 1986 and already developing JIF by the time CompuServe published its Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) in 1987. Although it's possible that CompuServe was unaware of this at the time, Steve Wilhite's insistence on an unnatural and ambiguous pronunciation of GIF still leads to the uncertainty of whether the speaker means, among other things, a GIF file or a JIF file.
