Compress gif file online. Resizing animation in GIF format

Files with GIF animation sometimes take up quite a lot of storage space, so it becomes necessary to compress them. Of course, this can be done using special software, but this is not always convenient. Therefore, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the options for reducing the size of GIFs through online services.

It’s worth noting right away that almost all web resources for compressing animated images will not be able to reduce the size by more than seventy percent, take this into account before starting processing. Next, all that remains is to choose a suitable site; we will look at the two most popular ones and demonstrate how to use them.

If the gif has not yet been downloaded, do so first, and then proceed to follow our guide. You can familiarize yourself with methods for downloading such files to your computer in our other article at the link below.

Method 1: ILoveIMG

The incredibly convenient and free online service ILoveIMG allows you to perform a wide variety of actions with graphic data, including compressing it. This also applies to GIF animation. This procedure is carried out as follows:

1. Go to the ILoveIMG website using the link above and select the section "Compress Image".



2. Proceed to download the file from any available resource.



3. If you are using local storage to add, e.g. hard drive or a flash drive, just select the image with the left mouse button and click on "Open".



4. You can add a few more GIFs if you want to process them all at once. Click on the plus button to open the pop-up menu.



5. Each loaded object can be deleted or rotated by a certain number of degrees.



6. Upon completion of all manipulations, proceed to start the compression.



7. You can download all compressed files or upload them to online storage by clicking on the corresponding button. Besides this it will begin automatic download archive if several images were initially added.

Now you see that there is nothing complicated in reducing the size of a GIF animation, the whole process is completed in just a couple of clicks and does not require a lot of effort or specific knowledge from you, just download the GIF and start processing.

GIF animations are used primarily in website design. These can be advertising banners or simply interface elements. Larger files play slower. This makes it difficult for users to navigate websites. Especially if the computer is not powerful enough or the Internet is weak.

The obvious way is to compress the gif file in Photoshop. But not everyone has installed the program; moreover, it is large in size and requires serious computer resources (RAM, video card, processor). Let's consider alternative ways, how to quickly edit gif.

A few technical points

You need to think about the volume of gifs on the site at the stage of creating animation. The file size depends on the size of the image itself, the number of frames, the duration of the animation, and the quality of the image.

1. Dimensions.

You need to reduce the size of the image itself as much as possible. The most acceptable side size is no more than 640 pixels.

1. Number of frames.

The number of frames played per second also affects the final file size. Basically, the number of frames you reduce by the number of times the gif size will decrease.

In this case, it is recommended to reduce the frames proportionally so as not to damage the image quality. For example, if there are 40 frames in the animation, you need to reduce from the series those frames that can divide this number. For 40 it is 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, etc.

1. Video duration.

Obviously, the longer the animation lasts, the more voluminous it is. Cut out unnecessary scenes and reduce playback time as much as possible.

1. Quality.

The services that we will describe below offer to compress gifs with or without loss of quality. In the first case, the file size will be reduced.

Ezgif.com

A free service where you can compress gifs online. The limit on the size of the source file is 35 MB. Immediately after going to the main page, we are prompted to download a gif file.

The service has many editing tools. What is important to us is the bottom menu - more than a dozen methods for compressing files. Descriptions for them are at home page site. Unfortunately, the descriptions on English, like an interface.

Let's choose the very first method - color compression. There is a line at the bottom where you can set the number of colors. Out of 256, we will leave 200 colors (default value). Strange, but the file size decreased from 0.96 to 1.02 MB. However, there was no noticeable loss in color quality.

But when we compressed the animation, removing every 4th frame from it, the volume decreased by almost 25%.

Basically, for such simple animations any compression method is not critical to quality. Feel free to try different ways and achieve a minimum file size.

IloveIMG

Now let's try a Russian-language service for compressing GIF files. On the initial page we need to select the desired animation.

The service does not offer compression tools like the previous one. Let's see what happens.

Our animation was compressed by 12%. As the service assures, without loss of quality and with the choice of the optimal size. Indeed, we did not notice any changes in quality. The advantage is a very simple interface, fast compression and instant saving to disk.

Online-Conventing

Another site in Russian. You are immediately prompted to upload the file and select the quality percentage by moving the slider.

Unfortunately, the resource does not show results online. You need to download the optimized file and check the compression quality yourself.

Our original animation with Winnie the Pooh weighed a little more than 120 KB. The file, compressed to 80% quality, became almost 99 KB in size. The result is better than the IloveIMG service. But don’t forget that at the same time we lost 20% of quality.

Compressor.io

And again English-language service. On the main page, click Try it!

Let's try to compress a larger GIF file. The resource limits the size of uploaded GIFs to 10 MB. Let's choose the middle one - 4.32 MB in size.

Compression.io reduced our file by 61% - to 1.69 MB! At the same time, we did not notice any significant losses in quality.

An interesting opportunity to compare source file with the received “real time”. You can move the cursor over the image - from the original to the compressed one, and see the changes. It is also suggested to download the file to your computer, Google Drive or Dropbox.

GIF Compressor

The service is interesting because it allows you to compress files up to 50 MB. Let's try to compress the previous file and compare the results with Compressor.io. Surprisingly, this resource also compressed our animation by 61%.

You can view the compression results only by downloading the file to your computer. The advantage of the program is the Russian language, an extremely simple interface, good results in reducing the size of the GIF.

Results

It would be unnecessary to consider third-party software when there is such a variety of online services. We tried the work of five resources - three in Russian and two in English. All services offer approximately the same tools. The only difference is Ezgif.com, where you can choose the compression method (reducing the number of frames, number of colors, etc.).

Of all those reviewed, we personally liked Compressor.io the most:

• simple interface;
• visuality (the ability to view compression results);
• high compression percentage;
• slight loss in quality.

GIF Compressor is suitable for those who need to optimize large GIF animations. In addition, it shows good results similar to Compressor.io. The IloveIMG service is good because it does not reduce the quality of the resulting compressed images. And on the Online-Conventering resource you can select the percentage of quality loss - from 1 to 100.

Animated gifs are very popular on social networks and can often be found on entertainment websites. Using gifs you can show the most successful moment from a video; gif screenshots clearly demonstrate the stages of work in a program or service. Gif screenshots are also used to show the operation of website elements, for example, a drop-down menu. Before downloading files for installation, the user can get acquainted with their work through GIF animation. You can create and upload your own animated funny pictures, for this you will need an Android application

However, GIFs also have a major drawback - large size, in connection with this, the loading speed of the web pages on which they are located significantly slows down. To overcome these shortcomings, I suggest you check out the list of tools that will help you optimize (reduce the size) of GIF animations.

Shrink O'Matic

This simple programs for Windows to optimize gif images. It is also capable of simple actions with images, such as rotating, resizing, changing the file name and its location, batch processing. Available formats for processing: GIF, JPEG, PNG.

ImageOptim

This program runs on the Mac platform. It is designed to compress gifs up to 60-80% and higher without losing quality.

FileOptimizer is an advanced tool for compressing GIF animations. The program has a simple interface, so it can be used by both beginners and experienced users.

Other supported formats: JPEG, PNG, SWF, TIFF, BMP, ICO

Works on platforms: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

FILEminimizer Pictures

Image compression reaches 98% and higher as a result of proprietary optimization technologies. There are 4 levels of compression for gif files. In addition, the program allows you to upload pictures directly to Facebook.

Formats: JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, EMF | Platform : Windows

RIOT

I liked this program more than others. You can control the compression of GIFs, the program shows the size of the source and output files, there is a preview, thanks to which you can visually assess the loss of quality. Disadvantage: An animated gif turns into a regular static image.

GIF Optimizer

A simple program for optimizing GIF animation. The program has only three buttons - open - open a file, optimize - optimize and Save as - save as. You can control compression through the Setting menu.

Animations in GIF format can often be found on the Internet, but sometimes they take up too much space on the media. To solve this simple task, it is not necessary to install specialized software on your device. software, so today we will show you how you can reduce the size and weight of GIF animations using online services.

Before you start, we want to warn you that you will not be able to compress the file by more than 70%. To use the online service, you will need to first download the GIF animation to your device.

Method 1. ILoveIMG

An intuitive and very convenient online service that allows you to perform various manipulations with graphic data, as well as compress them.

1. Use the above link and select the section in the window that opens "Compress image."

3. Among the system files, select your GIF animation and click the button "Open".

Method 2. GIFcompressor

This resource specializes in one single function - compression of GIF files. You can do everything quickly and for free.

1. Go to the online resource and select Russian in the panel on the right for convenience.

A few technical points

You need to think about the volume of gifs on the site at the stage of creating animation. The file size depends on the size of the image itself, the number of frames, the duration of the animation, and the quality of the image.

Dimensions.
You need to reduce the size of the image itself as much as possible. The most acceptable side size is no more than 640 pixels.

Number of frames.
The number of frames played per second also affects the final file size. Basically, the number of frames you reduce by the number of times the gif size will decrease.

In this case, it is recommended to reduce the frames proportionally so as not to damage the image quality. For example, if there are 40 frames in the animation, you need to reduce from the series those frames that can divide this number. For 40 it is 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, etc.

Video duration.
Obviously, the longer the animation lasts, the more voluminous it is. Cut out unnecessary scenes and reduce playback time as much as possible.

Quality.
The services that we will describe below offer to compress gifs with or without loss of quality. In the first case, the file size will be reduced.

A free service where you can compress gifs online. The limit on the size of the source file is 35 MB. Immediately after going to the main page, we are prompted to download a gif file.

PunyPNG - image compression (JPG, GIF and PNG) online

One of these online services– PunyPNG. The PunyPNG service is a free image (photo) optimization tool that can be used to significantly reduce the size of an image file without losing quality.

Support: JPG, GIF and PNG images
The maximum file size is 500 KB. Up to 20 files can be involved in the compression process at the same time.
To compress and optimize an image online, on the main page of the PunyPNG web service, click on the Upload Images button. And choose one or more graphic files, which we want to compress (with JPG, GIF and PNG extension).

After the images begin to be downloaded to the PunyPNG service and after waiting a little, you will receive a compressed image or photo that you can download to your computer by clicking on the Download button.

button to download a group of image files if you have downloaded from 2 to 15 pieces at the same time.
PunyPNG service is one of powerful tools for image compression (JPG, GIF and PNG) online. I recommend using it.

The service has many editing tools. What is important to us is the bottom menu - more than a dozen methods for compressing files. Descriptions for them are on the main page of the site. Unfortunately, the descriptions are in English, as is the interface.

Let's choose the very first method - color compression. There is a line at the bottom where you can set the number of colors. Out of 256, we will leave 200 colors (default value). Strange, but the file size decreased from 0.96 to 1.02 MB. However, there was no noticeable loss in color quality.

But when we compressed the animation, removing every 4th frame from it, the volume decreased by almost 25%.

In principle, for such simple animations, any compression method is not critical for quality. Feel free to try different methods and achieve the minimum file size.

Online-Conventing
Another site in Russian. You are immediately prompted to upload the file and select the quality percentage by moving the slider.

Unfortunately, the resource does not show results online. You need to download the optimized file and check the compression quality yourself.

Our original animation with Winnie the Pooh weighed a little more than 120 KB. The file, compressed to 80% quality, became almost 99 KB in size. The result is better than the IloveIMG service. But don’t forget that at the same time we lost 20% of quality.

Compressor.io
And again English-language service. On the main page, click Try it!

Let's try to compress a larger GIF file. The resource limits the size of uploaded GIFs to 10 MB. Let's choose the middle one - 4.32 MB in size.

Compression.io reduced our file by 61% - to 1.69 MB! At the same time, we did not notice any significant losses in quality.

An interesting possibility is to compare the source file with the received one “in real time”. You can move the cursor over the image - from the original to the compressed one, and see the changes. It is also suggested to download the file to your computer, Google Drive or Dropbox.

Today we reviewed the most popular and convenient online services that will allow you to compress the desired GIF animation by 50% or more for free. We hope our article helped you.

Regardless of how you got your GIF animation, you can reduce its size.

If you have used our service for creating GIF animation from a video, then we recommend using the original for experiments, because... how each conversion can degrade the quality of the resulting file.

All examples will be based on a short clip of FullHD video of 16 seconds and 30 frames per second.

A little theory about GIF

In short: GIF is a maximum of 256 colors (8 bits) + lossless compression (LZW).
Like any lossless compression, it doesn't compress the file too much. As a result, we will reduce the size by no more than 50% (very much depends on the image).

Test video:

We calculate the size of one frame: 1920 * 1080 * 40%-100% = 0.8-2 MB.

Now let’s calculate for 16 seconds of video: 16 sec * 30 frames per second * (0.8-2) mb = 384-960 mb!
Our original file when converted turned out to be 309 MB. Less than calculated, but still big.
Are you surprised? But the size of the original video is only a few megabytes! How can this be?
It’s simple: GIF is a mammoth, yes, it’s cool, but you need to know how to work with it.

Step 1: Shrink GIF. Image Size

Be sure to reduce the size to an adequate size (no more than 640 pixels on the larger side).
In this case the size will be: 640 * 360 * 40%-100% = 90-225 kb.
And video size: 16 sec * 30 frames * 90-225 kb = 42-105 mb.
Our original file when converted turned out to be 38MB. Less than calculated, but still big.
Many? Yes. Let's move on...

Step 2. Number of frames

30 frames is cool, but unfortunately for a GIF it is a lot.
Reduce the number to 10 frames and you reduce the size by 3! times.
We count: 16 sec * 10 frames * 90-255kb = 14-35 mb.

Our original file when converted turned out to be 14.5 MB. Already better.

For example, if your video is 60 frames per second, you can reduce from the following range: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 15, 20, 30.
And if there are 25 frames, then the row will be: 1, 5...
Or 30: 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 15.

Step 3. Decrease the duration of the animation

Reduce/delete scenes you don’t need, the relationship here is simple - cut it by 2 times - you get a size 2 times smaller.

Step 4. Optimize GIF. Choice of quality.

Eat special utilities, for compressing GIF animations, such as GIFsicle.

We made it online especially for you. Just select your file and click optimize.

You can also control the quality of the file.

We made three for you different versions GIF animations to evaluate compression using quality reduction:

• Size at 100% quality: 13.3 MB
• Size at 50% quality: 13.3 MB
• Size at 0% quality: 10.1 MB