In what year was the GIF format created?

The GIF format was created in 1987.

CompuServe introduced GIF on June 15, 1987, as a color image format for its online file-download areas. It replaced an earlier run-length encoding format that was limited to black-and-white images. GIF’s combination of portability, color support, and efficient compression made it useful when people were downloading pictures over slow connections.

The first version was called GIF87a. It already supported multiple images within a single data stream, although the format was not originally designed primarily for the looping reaction animations associated with GIFs today. In 1989, CompuServe released GIF89a, adding features such as animation delays, transparent colors, and application-specific metadata.

GIF became especially important during the early web era because browsers and operating systems could display it reliably. Netscape Navigator 2.0 later added support for looping animated GIFs in 1995, helping turn a color-download format into a major web-animation medium. A common mistake is to answer 1989 because that is the year of GIF89a, the enhanced revision—not the year the format itself first appeared.