June 20, 2003 is the international day of the GIF. Or at least it should be, as in a week’s time the US Patent on LZW compression (essentially read: GIF image format) expires. Woo flippin’ hoo!

What does this mean? It means that the good folk who produce the web development and graphics tools we all use on a daily basis can once again include support for the GIF file format without having to pay Unisys (the owners of the patent) a bucket-load of cash. It means that open source projects that simply don’t have a bucket-load of cash can include support for GIF in their software should they choose. It means that the democratic web won, in a sense. We came through unscathed.

What doesn’t it mean? It doesn’t mean that the GIF format is any better than it ever was, and that PNG is still the format of choice for the future. Unfortunately, PNG support is still incomplete in the browsers most people are using, so GIF wins out through the shear weight of its support.

I was thinking about holding a GIF party next Friday, but that’d be a little geeky, don’t ya think?