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The first word that comes to mind when I hear CompuServe is, 'gif'.

I did graphic art and software would always refer to the gif format as 'Compuserve GIF'.

The open-source community was pushing PNG because CompuServe was (right or wrong) being fussy about owning the gif patent and wanted more parties to pay for the pleasure of generating gifs.

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It wasn’t CompuServe that had the patent. The gif format uses LZW, which was patented by Unisys. I remember having to get a special option on some vendor’s toolkit to unlock the GIF handling. Either an add on or you had to go license from Unisys.

Thanks. I knew I was fuzzy on it. That sounds right.

To this day I remember coming across something on Compuserve ~1990 explaining GIF and how it is pronounced. Like the peanut butter.

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