Imgur reinvents the GIF with Project GIFV

The GIF was first introduced to the world by CompuServe in 1987 and despite all of the technological advancements that have occurred since then -- including the creation of the web itself -- the ancient graphics format remains as popular today as ever.

With Project GIFV, Imgur has taken what’s great about animated GIFs, but modernized the format. The platform-wide upgrade will automatically convert uploaded GIF files into MP4 video on-the-fly. The resulting .gifv will offer better quality in a smaller file size and load much faster. But that's not all.

As a result of this upgrade, users will be able to upload much larger animated files to the image site. Imgur currently limits GIFs to 5MB in size, but will shortly begin accepting ones up 50MB. You can see what the difference will be like by comparing this 5MB GIF with this 50MB GIFV.

Imgur says the new format will work everywhere and fully animate on sites like Facebook and Twitter. That image above is a JPG because WordPress doesn't currently accept the new format for security reasons, but that should change in time. Imgur plans to submit a specification to the relevant standards organizations before the close of the year.

"It’s a little known fact, but the GIF format was never intended for animation in the first place," says Tim Hwang, Head of Special Initiatives, Imgur. "With Project GIFV, Imgur is reimagining the looping GIF video with all the richness it deserves as a key piece of internet culture".