Reply #54: I refuse to use gif files

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

In case you weren't aware of it, there was a great controversy surronding Unisys's decision to try to enforce a charge on all web sites that used files in the gif format. This arose from their hold on the LZW compression scheme that is used in various graphic formats, including (mostly) gif and also compressed tiff files.

Although this happened a few years back, and they were never able to really enforce it and collect any money from anybody, many graphics designers abandoned gif. It was made easier when the png format was finalized- it's superior in any case due to the fact that gif only gives you 256 colors when png gives you 24 bit true color.

It's an interesting bit of trivia, in any case.

Read more about it at http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/Gif.html