Steve Wilhite, American computer scientist, developer of the GIF image format at CompuServe in 1987 (died 2022)

Stephen Earl Wilhite was an American computer scientist who worked at CompuServe and was the engineering lead on the team that created the GIF image file format in 1987. GIF went on to become the de facto standard for 8-bit color images on the Internet until PNG (1996) became a widely supported alternative. The format later became the subject of a patent assertion by Unisys on its use of the LZW compression algorithm. Known as the inventor or creator of the GIF, Wilhite received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on June 15, 1987.

CompuServe, Inc. was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service. It opened in 1969 as a timesharing and remote access service marketed to corporations. After a successful 1979 venture selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to Radio Shack customers, the system was opened to the public, roughly the same time as The Source.

March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 303 days remain until the end of the year.