"Ping"? Ping is something you do to servers to see if they're still alive while you try to remember where in your house you stashed it.

I've never heard someone use it to refer to .png file type, and have only ever heard it as the acronym spelled out: P. N. G.

Same here. Until today, I wasn't even aware that there was an "official" pronunciation for .PNG. "Ping" just sounds stupid if you're not referring to pinging a server, imo.

I seem to be falling in with the consensus here. Given that .JPG images often use the extension .JPEG instead (with an actual vowel and everything) I've always pronounced either way as "jay-peg" (and "em-peg" for .mpeg formats). .GIF is a tough one for me to nail down my personal preference, since I've used both pronunciations at various times in my life. I think I tend more toward "jif" though, even though I feel slightly stupid while saying it. (To be fair, I feel slightly stupid while trying to pronounce any of these.)

.BMP I just refer to as "that thing which shall not be named" and try to forget it even exists. Never had any use whatsoever for it.

Heh, I just wrote a blag post about "jif" vs "gif" (I'm not strongly opposed to one or the other, but sometimes people try to justify things and I disagree with their justification).

I say "jif" and I say both "ping" and "P-N-G." I also say both "B-M-P" and "Bitmap." I always say "jay-peg" (never "J-P-G" or "J-P-E-G").

I tend to go with whichever is the fastest to say.

-"Ping"

-"Jay peg"

-"Bitmap"

GIF is slightly problematic as even though the format is pronounced "jif" I pronounce the extension "gif" as .jif is an accepted three-letter version of the .jfif (JPEG) extension.

That's one of the reasons I stay with "gif." Stubbornness is the other.

as others have said, i didn't even know png was supposed to be pronounced ping. i'm a Gif, Pee-en-gee, Jay-peg, and bitmap(although sometimes i'll call it B-M-P) guy.

also, no option for those who would call it "Gee-I-ef" ?!

personally, i've never really thought of why i call them what i do, i just do.

PNG = "ping"

BMP = "bee-em-pee"

JPG = "jay-peg"

GIF - "j-if"

Since it's GIF, not GUIF, the correct projounciation is pretty much clear: ?d??f.

I nevertheless pronounce it ???f because that could conceivably be a valid pronounciation in German, and back in the time when I had an Atari ST, there was that program Giffer, which you could use to watch 256-color porn images (it probably worked for non-porn too, but I never saw anyone using Giffer, or GIF for that matter, for something that wasn't porn).

Giffer (???ff?r) rhimes with Kiffer (a person who smokes cannabis), so everybody back then pronounced it that way.

Now, for PNG there is simply no way (no made-up way) of pronouncing it as a word, so it's simply P-N-G.

Jaypeg is pretty common, and well-understood except by university professors.

Jaypeg is pretty common, and well-understood except by university professors.

"Jaypeg" is understood by university professors where I go to school. So even more common than you say, though I suppose location would be a factor.

I phonetically pronounce the letters of the acronym, and sometimes say its full name, like "Graphics Interchange Format" or "Portable Network Graphics" when the situation calls for it. I am strongly opposed to anything but referring to it by the letters that comprise it; too many people disagree on what the pronunciation is, so the most neutral path (simply reading the letters) seems like the most logical route.

It also doesn't help that most people I know that say "gif" or "jif" are nearly illiterate when it comes to computers, and they go "GIF? Oh, that's the animated picture," and my knee-jerk reaction to hearing someone attempt to sound out a file extension is contempt as a result.

Given that .JPG images often use the extension .JPEG instead (with an actual vowel and everything) I've always pronounced either way as "jay-peg" (and "em-peg" for .mpeg formats).

I'm pretty sure every Mac user pronounces it this way too, because we never really had the 3-letter (.jpg) version.

Classic Mac OS didn't care about file extensions, and didn't limit to 3 letters either, so .jpeg was more natural - it matched the going pronunciation.

I don't think there is a right and wrong way to pronounce gif as it is an abreviation and not the name. If the inventer wanted us to pronounce it as jif then he should of called it "jif" and not Graphics interchange format.
I have noticed that it is pronounced differently depending on who is saying it. At work the Spanish and Israeli developers pronounce it "jif" whilst nearly everybody else pronounces it as "gif" and there is one polish guy who pronounces it "jife" to rhyme with Jive.

I have never heard anybody pronounce jpg as anything other than "Jaypeg" ever and I have only ever heard of one person use "p0ing".