It was a monochrome world where everything was text. Graphics, when they existed at all, were confined entirely to computer generated charts such as bar graphs and pie charts. High-resolution scanners made it possible to scan in printed documents and images, but without appropriate computer display hardware available, viewing was confined to low resolution monochrome graphics. Images were typically stored on computer disks as simple bitmaps. This file format has been modified and expanded over the years to accommodate advances in technology, so TIFF images are still with us.
TIFF images comprise the bulk of all image file formats in existence.
As computer display hardware became more advanced, first with 8 and then 24-bit color graphics, file formats capable of storing color and high resolution images were developed. GIF images have 8-bit color and were designed to be viewed on computers with VGA graphics. With GIF images, computers could finally display photographs as well as text, business graphics, and drawings. Display technology now permits computers to display full color images at much higher resolutions than before. Computer applications which used to be restricted to showing simple text files can now do full color still images and video.