J.M. Smucker Company, the maker of JIF peanut butter, has taken on the great GIF debate. While JIF peanut butter is obviously pronounced with a soft G sound, people often debate on whether the GIF file format should be pronounced with a soft or hard G sound.
Well now, the debate is finally settled, thanks to a partnership between JIF and GIPHY.
Releasing a double-labeled 40-ounce peanut butter jar, the company states that “animated looping images” have a hard G pronunciation, whereas the creamy peanut butter has a soft G.
While this declaration goes against a 2013 statement by GIF format creator Steve Wilhite, amongst creatives, GIF with a hard G sound is more commonly accepted.
Well, it stands for Graphics Interchange Format, not “Jraphics Interchange Format”.
Says a person who didn’t develop the Graphics Interchange Format…
That’s fair.
I feel that Smucker’s use of Gif on their peanut butter is going to cause people to pronounce GIF like Jif by visual association. Few are going to glance at the image and notice the “hard g”.