Interlaced GIF

Glossary

Interlaced GIF

A feature of the GIF89a graphics standard, an interlaced GIF displays images in two passes of alternating lines instead of loading them one line at a time. Depending on which graphics viewer or Web browser is being used, interlaced GIFs may produce a "venetian blind" effect or simply a blurry or blocky image that gradually sharpens. Pages using interlaced GIFs let people see at least the outline of an image sooner; thus the pages often appear to load faster than those with noninterlaced graphics. If a browser doesn't support interlaced images, an image will simply appear as a normal (noninterlaced) GIF.