Along with whether or not Al Gore invented the Internet, figuring out the correct pronunciation of GIF is one of the earliest questions of the Internet. I grew up believing it was hard-G GIF.

A GIF image that gradually comes into focus. Instead of displaying a line at a time from top to bottom, lines at various intervals throughout the frame are displayed until all the lines are filled in.

They’re pronounced like a brand of peanut butter. Steve Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve in 1987. On Tuesday, he received a Webby Award for ...