12 Days of Hanutech, Day 11
Giphy
This month, I've received a lot of questions about the animated gifs I put in my emails, so I thought I'd share! Ordinarily, a magician doesn't reveal how they do their illusions, but since we're all on the same team, I'm happy to let you peek behind the curtain!
This month, I've received a lot of questions about the animated gifs I put in my emails, so I thought I'd share! Ordinarily, a magician doesn't reveal how they do their illusions, but since we're all on the same team, I'm happy to let you peek behind the curtain!
Magic!
A "gif" is a type of image file developed in the mid-1980s, designed to compress the image into a small file size. It's an acronym for "graphic interchange format" and can be pronounced with either a hard or soft "g" sound. (At the risk of starting a nerd war, I prefer to say "gif" as if I left the "t" off of "gift," though many will claim that it should sound like the brand of peanut butter, "Jif.")
Generally, gifs are one of the worst forms of image file, because the compression technique makes the images look grainy. You wouldn't want to store treasured family vacation photos in gif format! But in the mid-2000s, people started appreciating another feature built into gif: animation.
Enjoying the technology of the 1920s, today!
A single small gif file can hold a loop of a few seconds of repeating image. This made it great for what we now call "reaction gifs" that allow a writer/texter/blogger to show surprisingly nuanced emotions in a post. (If you are interested in modern linguistics, I recommend the fascinating book Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch, who explores how texting and the internet are changing how we think of writing.)
"Three days left until vacation" is easier to express with gifs!
When I'm looking to decorate an email, a text message, a slideshow, or whatever, I head over to giphy.com. It has thousands of animated gifs that you can just copy and paste into your digital docs!
[Usually, we say that you should not just copy/paste images from the internet without permission. Giphy is an exception, because it's images are posted specifically for sharing. Additionally, modern copyright interpretation is that the use of gifs is "fair use," and most broadcast/film companies are thrilled to have their gifs get used: free advertising!]
I like Giphy because its search feature is outstanding. You can search for "diversity holiday" or "gratitude" or "homework and pets" and receive surprisingly helpful options!
However, there is one catch: Giphy images are fussy in Gmail. If you try to copy/paste from Giphy to Gmail, you lose the animation. I work around this limitation by going to Giphy, downloading the image to my computer, and then uploading into the email. As long as I don't exceed 25Mb of gifs, I'm OK. The Giphy Chrome Extension also lets me drag/drop a gif into the email message without downloading first, which is pretty handy if you use Giphy a lot.
I was a little excited when figured out how to get gifs into Gmail
A word of caution: Overuse of animated gifs would get pretty tiring in class, and look overly cute and unprofessional in emails (except my emails, of course). Don't include gifs in emails to your lawyer. Don't use animated gifs to break up with someone. Don't use animated gifs on a job application. But if cute and vaguely weird is the look you're going for, head over to Giphy and try it out!
Tom
