What internet media type identifies GIF files?

The internet media type that identifies GIF files is image/gif. This MIME type, also called an Internet media type, tells browsers and other software that a file uses the Graphics Interchange Format.

The type is normally written in lowercase as image/gif: “image” identifies the broad media category, while “gif” identifies the specific format. Web servers send it in the Content-Type header, and browsers use that information to decide how to handle the file. A GIF’s filename commonly ends in .gif, but the extension and the MIME type are separate identifiers.

GIF was created by CompuServe and introduced in 1987. Its format supports indexed color, with up to 256 colors available for an image or frame, and uses LZW lossless compression. GIF can hold a still image or multiple frames for animation.

The alternatives in this quiz identify different formats: image/jpeg is for JPEG images, image/png is for PNG images, and image/webp is for WebP images. Although animated GIFs are often treated like short videos, their underlying media type remains image/gif.