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Convert GIF Image Free

A GIF paints with a box of at most 256 crayons.

Every GIF frame carries a palette, a list of up to 256 colours, and each pixel is just a number pointing into that list. It's why GIFs look posterised, why flat cartoons stay crisp, and why photo GIFs are huge. Shrink the palette and watch.

original · millions of colours

as a GIF16 colours

palette size16

Sunset photoCartoon

the palette

With few colours the smooth sky breaks into stripes, called banding. Photos need far more than 256 colours.

~/why-gifs-are-big

Animation in a GIF is a stack of whole pictures.

A GIF can only skip pixels that stayed exactly the same, and it has no motion prediction at all. So a 5-second clip is dozens of near-complete images. Video formats describe movement instead. Pick a length to compare.

clip length5 s

GIF7.1 MB

animated WebP2.4 MB

MP4 video330 KB

For the same 5-second photo clip at 480 px. Photographic clips are GIF’s worst case: the MP4 is about 22× smaller.

~/why-gif-survives

Outdated in every way except the one that matters: it plays everywhere.

GIF dates from 1987. Newer formats beat it on size and quality, but GIF is the one animation that loops automatically in every email app, forum, and document.

mailEmail newslettersonly choiceGmail, Outlook and Apple Mail all loop GIFs. Video and WebP usually don’t play.

forumForums and old CMSssafestUploads that accept “images only” still let animated GIFs through.

slideshowSlides and docsreliableLoops in PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Docs without a play button.

publicYour own websiteavoidUse a muted looping MP4 or animated WebP: a fraction of the size, better colour.

~/inspect-a-gif

Decode your GIF frame by frame, the way a browser does.

This page walks every block, decompresses every frame’s LZW data itself, and composites the frames with their disposal methods, so you see each frame as stored and as shown. It also checks delays against the rule browsers apply to very short ones. The sample is a real three-frame GIF built in your browser.

uploadOpen GIF

sample.gif (built in your browser) · 454 B

frame1 / 3delay40 csdisposalleaverectangle120×90 @0,0transparentnopaletteglobal 8

GIF89a · 120 × 90

frames3

length as written0.91 s

length in browsers1.00 s

loopforever

global palette8 colours

local palettes0

interlaced frames0

compressed pixel data311 B

comments“Built by FileFormer”

extensionsNETSCAPE2.0

verifiedEvery frame decoded fully and the trailer is present.

timer1 frame has a delay of 0 or 1 hundredths. Browsers show these for 10 hundredths (100 ms), so the GIF plays 1.1× slower than its file says.

fact_checkCross-checked against your browser’s own GIF decoder (ImageDecoder) on the first 3 frames: every visible pixel matches.

#RectangleDelayDisposalColoursLZW

1120×90 at 0,040 csleave8179 B · 0.13 bits/px

228×28 at 20,3050 csleave866 B · 0.67 bits/px

328×28 at 66,301 csto background866 B · 0.67 bits/px

Disposal says what happens after a frame: leave it, clear its rectangle to the background, or restore what was there before. “As stored” shows only the rectangle each frame actually encodes, usually much smaller than the canvas.

~/spec-sheet

GIF at a glance: the technical reference.

Identification, limits and capabilities, from the GIF89a specification.

Full nameGraphics Interchange Formatpronounced “jif” by its creator; most say “gif”

Extension.gifone extension for stills and animation

MIME typeimage/gifregistered since 1996

Magic bytes47 49 46 38 39 61“GIF89a”, or “GIF87a” for the older version

StandardCompuServe GIF89a (1989)first version GIF87a, 1987

Maximum size65,535 × 65,535 px16-bit width and height fields

Colours256 per frameeach frame can have its own local palette

CompressionLossless LZWlossless for the palette, lossy vs the original

Transparency1 colour, on or offno partial transparency, so edges look jagged

Animationyes, with frame delaysdelay in 1/100 s; browsers raise under 0.02 s to 0.1 s

LoopingNetscape extensionnot in GIF89a itself, but supported everywhere

Interlacing4-pass, optionalshows a rough picture while downloading

~/block-by-block

Inside an animated GIF: a header, a palette, then frame after frame.

Each block begins with a one-byte introducer. The looping behaviour everyone relies on isn't in the original standard at all: it comes from a Netscape extension. Click a block.

HeaderGIF89aScreensize, flagsPalette768 bytesNETSCAPEloopGCEdelayFrame 1LZW dataFrame 2…changes onlyTrailer3B

Header · GIF89aSix ASCII bytes naming the format and version. Every GIF starts this way.

47 49 46 38 39 61 "GIF89a"

~/gif-converters

Into GIF for email, out of it for everything else.

Each converter page explains what's kept and what changes.

movieGIF to MP4A fraction of the size for websites and chat.reaction.gif · 4.8 MBarrow_forward.mp4 · 0.4 MB animationGIF to WebPSmaller, with millions of colours.sticker.gifarrow_forward.webp gif_boxVideo to GIFTurn a clip into a loop for email.clip.mp4arrow_forwardloop.gif imageGIF to PNGPull out a single frame.loader.gifarrow_forwardframe-01.png