How to Optimize an Animated GIF for Size and Quality
GIF optimisation works best when you simplify the animation before reducing colours or accepting visible artefacts.
Read guide →Images to GIF
Build an animated GIF from a sequence of images with control over frame delay, loop count, fit mode, and dithering.
Drop images here or click to browse
All images combine into one output.
Reviewed 2026-08-15
Free Images to GIF – how it works
Frames are taken in the order you arrange them and encoded into a single animated GIF. Frame delay is set in milliseconds, so 150 gives roughly seven frames a second and 40 approaches the 25 frames a second that reads as smooth motion.
Images of different sizes have to be reconciled onto one canvas, and the fit mode decides how. Contain scales each frame to fit and fills the remainder with your background colour, which keeps the whole of every image. Cover fills the canvas and crops the overflow. Stretch distorts each frame to the exact dimensions, which is rarely what you want unless the aspect ratios already match.
Dithering is worth a mention because GIF allows only 256 colours per frame. With dithering on, the encoder scatters pixels between palette entries to simulate colours it does not have, which helps gradients and hurts flat graphics by adding visible noise. Leave it off for screenshots and diagrams, turn it on for photographs.
How to use Images to GIF online
- Add your frames in order. Drop in the images and arrange them into the sequence you want. The first image sets the canvas size unless you specify width and height yourself.
- Set timing and fit. Choose a frame delay in milliseconds and a loop count, where 0 loops forever. Pick contain to keep every frame whole, or cover to fill the canvas edge to edge.
- Encode and check the size. Generate the GIF and look at the result. Fewer frames, smaller dimensions, and a longer delay all bring the file size down.
When to use it
- Turn a series of screenshots into a step-by-step animation for documentation.
- Make a simple animation from exported design frames.
- Build a before and after loop from two product photos.
- Assemble a timelapse from stills shot at intervals.
Known limitations
- GIF supports 256 colours per frame, so photographic sequences will show banding even with dithering enabled.
- File size scales with frame count and dimensions together, and GIF has no meaningful compression between frames. Long sequences get large quickly.
- Transparency in GIF is a single fully transparent palette entry rather than an alpha channel, so soft edges from PNG sources will look hard.
Frequently asked questions
What frame delay should I use?
One hundred and fifty milliseconds is a comfortable default for step-by-step sequences. Drop to around 40 to 60 for motion that should look continuous, and go higher than 500 when each frame is something the viewer needs to read.
Should I turn dithering on?
Turn it on for photographs and gradients, where it hides the limits of a 256 colour palette. Leave it off for screenshots, diagrams, and flat colour illustrations, where it just adds speckled noise.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. The work happens in the page using the Canvas API and WebAssembly, so the file is read straight from your disk into the tab. Nothing is transmitted and there is no copy on a server to worry about.
What happens if my images are different sizes?
The fit mode decides. Contain scales each frame to fit inside the canvas and pads with the background colour, cover fills the canvas and crops the excess, and stretch distorts each frame to the exact dimensions.
How do I make the GIF loop only once?
Set the loop count to 1. A value of 0 means loop forever, which is what most viewers expect from a GIF.
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