620 Graphics Interchange Format 89a GIF (1989a) Image (Raster) Full The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a raster image format developed by Compuserve, primarily for use on the internet. A GIF file begins with a Header section and a Logical Screen Descriptor section. This is followed by one or more Image sections, and the file is terminated by a Trailer. GIF supports bit depths between 1 and 8 bits (i.e. up to 256 colours) and supports features such as interlacing and transparency. Images are always stored using lossless LZW compression. GIF 89a introduced a number of new features, including a series of optional Control Extensions, which can be used to control the rendering of images within a file. Binary Little-endian (Intel) 31 Jul 1990 1 Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives 11 Mar 2005 02 Aug 2005 com.compuserve.gif Apple Uniform Type Identifier fmt/4 PUID image/gif MIME gif File extension 17 GIF 1989a header & trailer 1 Absolute from BOF 0 0 474946383961 1 Absolute from EOF 0 4 3B Is subsequent version of 619 Graphics Interchange Format