How to turn a video into a GIF

GIFs are short looping clips that play everywhere. Keep the clip short and the width small and you will get a good looking GIF with a reasonable file size.

Step by step

1. Trim your video to just the part you want, ideally under 10 seconds.
2. Open the Video to GIF tool and choose that clip.
3. Pick the Width (480 is a good start) and the Frames per second (12 is a good start).
4. Press Start, then Download the GIF.

Why GIFs get big so quickly

A GIF stores every frame as an image and is limited to 256 colours, so it is much less efficient than a video. A 10 second clip can be many megabytes. The two settings that matter most are width and frames per second.

Choosing the settings

For chat apps and social posts, 320 to 480 pixels wide and 8 to 12 frames per second is usually enough. Use a bigger width only when you really need detail, and expect a larger file.

Tips

• Shorter clips make smaller GIFs. Trim first.
• If the GIF is too large to send, lower the width or the frame rate and try again.
• For long clips, a short MP4 video is usually a better format than a GIF.

Questions

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