Animated GIF images flood the internet and they have become a popular medium of expression these days. Gone are the days when still images were used in websites and videos caused websites to load slowly. With the advent of animated GIFs, it is now possible to combine the advantages of images and videos and to deliver impactful results. Animated GIFs are not as big as videos and can effectively portray the main essence of videos by highlighting their best parts without slowing down the website. No wonder why animated GIFs are widely used in websites and social media platforms and have emerged as a strong medium of communication.
The professional level of editing of GIF images is crucial to ensuring desired outcomes and performance. A GIF image that’s edited properly not only looks stunning, but it also conveys the intended message with a stronger impact and clarity. In this article, we have covered a tutorial that would allow beginners to know and understand how they can edit GIF format like a pro and make it suitable for use on diverse web platforms.
Before we start digging more deeper with the article, we should define GIF so that readers get a clear idea about the GIF concept.
What is GIF File Format?
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an image file format that is commonly used to compress images that have solid colors present in large quantities as well as finer details that are found in type, logos, and artworks. This is a file format having a depth of about 8 bits and it is one of the most popular web formats for images mainly because of its frame by frame animation property.
Tips to Optimize Animated GIFs in 10 Easy Ways
We have compiled some of the easiest ways to refine and optimize GIFs and have discussed them in simple terms so that even beginners can find our tutorial to be handy and useful. Let’s get started.
1. How should you trim the animated section?
In the first place, you should open Photoshop and then you open the desired video file from the desired location. In most cases, you actually won’t require the complete series for the animation in a GIF file. In those cases, you may get the video trimmed by selecting the “Timeline” option under the “Window” category. After this, you can activate the ‘Loop’ option and then make an attempt to trim the video by identifying a suitable spot.
2. How can you reduce the size of the image?
You can reduce the size of the image in two ways. First, you can select the ‘Image Size’ under the ‘Image’ option in order to reduce the size of the image. The second alternative is to use the shortcut keys Atl-Control-I together. When you change the size of an image, you should make sure to convert the video layer to “Smart Object”. However, you should note that this will not affect your workflow in any way.
3. How can you save a GIF file in the ‘Save for Web’ format?
When you choose the ‘Save for Web’ option, you can get the image size altered. You can find this option by selecting ‘File’ and then the ‘Export’ option. Alternatively, you can use the shortcut key “Alt-Shift-Control-S”. This is mainly due to the fact that the dialog box for “Save for Web” will perform this task when you choose GIF as the output format. In the right corner of the dialog box’s, you can notice the options of animation. If you wish to reduce the image size further, you can perform this task here.
4. How can you decrease the frame numbers?
In order to decrease the animation size of GIF format tries reopening the saved GIF image in Photoshop. Now, access the Timeline Panel and erase the 2nd or 3rd frame. Next, select the other remaining frames and increase their duration in order to counterbalance the frame-loss. In case you skip this compensatory step, your animation would get portrayed faster than what you want it to be. You can notice the new GIF file will be smaller than the previous GIF file.
5. How can you alter the colors in an Animated GIF?
Check the Color Table and consider the total colors bit used. The maximum number of colors present is 256 bit in the “Color Table” this is mainly due to the 8-bit limitation in terms of depth. It is a good idea to limit the colors to 64; however, to achieve better outcomes you might get the situation to increase the bit colors.
6. How can you opt for the Color Reduction Rule?
Select ‘Perceptual’ to form a personalized color table while giving preference to the colors that generate a greater degree of sensitivity among humans.
Choose ‘Selective’ to form a color table that will resemble the Perceptual color table. Give preference to widespread color sections and to the conservation of web colors. With the color table, you can produce images having the highest level of color integrity.
You must select the ‘Adaptive’ option to form a personalized color table picking up shades from the range that is appearing quite frequently in the mage. For instance, an image that primarily consists of blue and green shades would generate a color table where blue and green shades would be the dominant color. In several images, the colors are found to be concentrated in specific areas of the color range.
With the ‘Restrictive’ option, you will be able to make use of the 216-color, standard, web-friendly color table that is the same as Windows’s and Mac OS’s 256-color panels. With this selection, you will ensure that a browser dither will not get applied to colors if the 8-bit color is used to display an image. If an image contains less than 216 colors, you can consider removing unused colors from this table.
7. How dithering method can decrease file size?
Given the fact that GIF files have restrictions in terms of the number of colors, you can choose to use dithering to emulate the absent colors with the colors that are available. Access the Dither menu and then select an algorithm for the emulation. This method allows users to alter the dither amount. You need not alter anything in the Noise and Pattern algorithms. An increased degree of dithering indicates a large file size. The dithering function adds pixels of different colors closely with each other to replicate secondary colors or smooth color gradations. Certain images do demand dithering to assume a more refined look, but you should avoid dithering as much as possible to limit file sizes to the minimum.
8. How can the Lossy, Transparency, Web Snap, and Interlaced Functions help?
With the ‘Web Snap’ function, you can restrict dithering. This is performed by converting a few colors to web-friendly colors. The greater the availability of web-friendly colors in a GIF, the lesser is the probability of browser dithering. You should note that there will be no change of color with a 0% value whereas all colors will get converted into the web-friendly mode if you choose the 100 % value.
The Lossy compression feature would allow you to remove the graphical data and this effect can decrease the size of the image file.
If an image includes Transparency, click on Transparency to conserve the transparent pixels; unselect the option and use the matte color to cover up completely as well as partially transparent pixels.
Interlaced GIF files work like progressive JPEGs and they are loaded in a browser.
9. How can you evaluate the differences between the actual and the optimized file?
You should use the 2-Up view to compare quality and file sizes between the two files after you are done adding the required changes.
10. How can you use the features such as ‘Save Preset’, ‘Preview’, and ‘Optimize to File Size’?
Consider reviewing the final version of the GIF once you feel that you are satisfied with the settings by using the Preview option. Save the settings in the form of presets. You can determine the limit when it comes to size using Optimize Menu’s additional option. When you apply this effect, Photoshop will do its work of accommodating the best possible file size and the best possible quality.
Final Thoughts
At this point, we assume that you are completely aware of the ways to optimize GIF images. We hope that this article will prove to be useful to you. If you are looking for help with Photoshop services, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.
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