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GIF being used to represent repeating or just video files, while at the same time often times having much worse performance than using compressed video, is one
by encryptluks2 4y ago
GIF being used to represent repeating or just video files, while at the same time often times having much worse performance than using compressed video, is one of the worst decisions of the modern web. The only time I found GIF to be useful was before proper PNG transparency support.
- cr__ 4y agoI agree. What’s funny is that the opposite is true too: lots of pixel art animations and other things that are actually suited to GIF get mangled into lossy mp4s by the social media sites on upload.
- dawnerd 4y agoUnfortunately still waiting for apple to fully support transparent webm. Apngs are often way too big so the solution just ends up being either two different videos with some fallback for apple devices that doesn’t look as good or gifs (or some kind of js animated thing)
- ISL 4y agoI think the reason GIF has thrived has as much to do with safety/malware as it does anything else. Unlike Flash or the perpetual need to download random codecs in the mid-2000s, GIF offers a very small surface-area for exploits.
- Cyberdog 4y agoWell, it's not really a decision of the modern web… it's a decision of the primordial one which has stuck around. Did you know pretty much all modern browsers support <marquee>?
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoThere's a number of reasons I can think of. Ease of use is one; with video you have to consider different video formats for different browsers, unless that one's been solved already. But another one I'm less happy with is removing choice from the user. I hate auto-playing videos so I have that turned off, but this does not apply to gifs. And I don't mind auto-playing videos either if they take the place of reaction gifs.