19 Best Free GIF Editors
Having understood what a GIF is, it would not be out of place to mention that there is a whole lot of both open source/free and paid GIF Creator programs/software or Meme GIF Makers available today. Following are some points to know about GIFs.
19 Best Free GIF Editors 1. Gifted Motion 2. SSuite Animator 3. ScreenToGIF 4. GIFPAL 5. GIMP 6. Picasion 7. Easy GIF Animator 8. Filmora Meme Generator 9. Imgur 10. GIPHY 11. GIF Me 12. ImgFlip 13. Makeagif 14. Ezgif.com 15. RecordIT 16. Photoscape 17. Microsoft Gif Animator 18. Movavi Video Converter 19. Adobe Photoshop
One can make any image by adding text to it in different styles, colors, and fonts. Such images are known as Graphics Interchange Format or GIFs. In simple terms, GIFs are a sequence of images/short video clips or soundless videos showing some gestures or activity. These images or GIFs are attractive, trendy, and one of the most accepted ways to express or demonstrate something easily on any social media platform. GIFs support both static, as well as animated image files and are available on multiple social networking websites like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
If you are a novice and unable to decide which GIF Creator program is apt for you, we give below a detailed list of the Best GIF Editor Softwares as a ready reckoner for your information and necessary use to assist you in making GIFs easily, as per your needs and requirements. Moreover, read our guide on How to Fix faulty GIFs on Android.
1. Gifted Motion
Gifted Motion is easy to use free GIF animator and is considered in the list of best free GIF editor due to the following reasons:
It is a 72KB light-duty software that supports multiple languages like Italian, Dutch, etc. It is a standalone program that does not require to be installed on your device. It enables you to preview images following the simple Keep It Simple Stupid also known as the KISS approach. Its user-friendly interface makes use of the JAR i.e. Java Archives to help you make GIFs with ease. This portable software, besides previewing, also enables you to edit an existing image. Its frame delay feature enables you to select, move or delete any frame and manage the sequence of images so that you can make several clones of the required images. It has a simple graphical user interface supporting multiple platforms like Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. It supports multiple file formats like JPG, PNG, JPEG, GIF, and more telling a program how to display its contents for example a Microsoft word document saved in the DOC file format can be viewed in Microsoft Word. It does not offer any learning curve for users to help them in developing any skills by learning from their mistakes.
Developed by Onyxbits, this tool works best to preview images. This free GIF editor tool also has its own set of drawbacks or limitations. It takes a lot of time in loading big files. It does not provide any facilities for adding special effects such as sliding, background color, etc. It would also not be out of place to add that this tool offers limited support implying that it does not support formats other than JPG, JPEG, PNG, and BMP. Inspite of the above limitations, it has maintained its position in the list of best free GIF editor softwares. Furthermore, it is still considered amongst the most preferred applications that use the tool right from the base, enabling the user to pour his thoughts out. As such, it undoubtedly, offers a painless GIF creating an experience for the user to help him in making GIFs, with ease.
2. SSuite Animator
SSuite Animator application enables you to make a basic GIF without any inconvenience and is considered in the list of the best online GIF Editor programs due to the following merits:
It enables adjustment of any frame effortlessly allowing you to add, save or remove images without any problems. It is easy to install and one can do so easily from a USB or any memory device. It is a good GIF animation program with a very shallow learning curve meaning that it offers a nice and quick learning process. It can run as a standalone program automatically resizing all the images, slide shows, and even basic videos to one size in a few clicks. It offers time delay and enables you to comfortably position the frame as per your need. It is free to download an application that hardly occupies any space on your PC. This Windows 10 GIF maker, uses minimum resources and has a very simple, no-frills, straightforward graphic user interface that creates high-quality GIFs in no time. As green software, it’s designed for use on both 32- and 64-bit systems. Have an online edition it does not require any registration to work on the internet. It enables you to convert raw files in the form of BMP, JPG, PNG, and JPEG extensions. It also allows you to convert a video file to GIF and share it on social media. This lightweight, interactive and intuitive GUI is good for basic GIF animation.
This free GIF editor tool with so many pros to its credit also has its share of drawbacks or limitations. It is not available on other disk operating systems or groupware and has very few and limited functions that enable you to keep control. It offers restricted support only to the JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP images. Besides, it requires more time and effort to effectively learn understand and operate the software. On the whole, the SSuite GIF animator can without any doubt be considered a good GIF creator for Windows that lets you develop high-quality GIFs with ease. Also Read: How to Download GIF from GIPHY
3. ScreenToGIF
Screen to GIF tool is a pretty nifty and clever program that enables you to make a basic GIF without any hassles and is considered in the list of the best online GIF editor programs due to the following merits:
It enables you to modify and capture your screen, digital sketch board, or webcam. It has a screen recorder that enables you to record and convert your screen into a GIF, in no time. It has an in-built editor that enables you to add existing images or videos, into a project you are already working on. It also vice-a-versa enables you to export your project to GIF, APNG, video, image, PSD, or a ScreenToGif project. It is an open-source, free-to-download application available in 24 different languages. It enables you the freedom to manipulate frames choosing any specific part of the screen rather than the whole screen, as per your requirement. It being portable you do not need to install the application on your device. It is very helpful for professionals enabling them to make shorter videos and GIFs to create engaging presentations for their clients. It also allows you to demonstrate stepwise any form of troubleshooting method for different issues, to your clients. It supports Windows OS.
It also has its quota of limitations, like the many other good applications. Firstly, it is available for use only on Windows and does not support other operating systems like Mac, Linux, etc. Secondly, being slightly complicated as compared to the other software applications it is a bit difficult to understand and learn.
4. GIFPAL
GIFPAL is software that allows you to create GIF animation and is considered to be one of the best GIF editor on the list due to the following reasons:
It is an advanced tool that enables you to select GIF size and load up to 24 images in a click. It offers many customized options enabling you to make animated images with ease. It permits you to use your web camera to upload images using your local drive. It allows you to download files to your computer maintaining total control on the output files. It permits you to change the opaqueness of the images adding the right shapes and perfect colors to produce the best GIFs. It is a simple online GIF creator that offers numerous galleries and effects such as charcoal, ripples, and many more. Although this tool supports the web you can also access it without registering on the internet.
All in all, in keeping with the above traits, we can say that GIFPAL is amongst the most preferred applications to be considered as one of the best free Gif editor Software that helps you to make animated images with ease, using a webcam or a phone camera. Also Read: How to Send GIFs on Android
5. GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and it is an open-source, freeware, and a user-friendly GIF-editor that is regarded as one of the best in the list of best free GIF editor due to the following reasons:
It enables you to enhance your photo using multiple undo and redo options. This image manipulation program offers up to 100 readily available plugins. Its foreground extraction tool helps you to save your files in multiple formats like GIF, JPEG, PNG, etc. The over 2 decades old image editing software provides excellent support to the Window’s platform. This stellar piece of freeware is a highly refined image editing tool providing innumerable transformable selections and paths for optimum results. This indicated open source GIF creator has held its position in the market for more than 25 years. It is considered to be at par with the Photoshop application from Adobe in terms of GIFs creation. It is regarded as the best photo manipulation, artwork creation, and graphic design tool for Mac, GNU/Linux OS besides Windows. This user-friendly GIF maker enables you to manage color efficiently enabling you to compliment a photo in just a few limited efforts.
Inspite of the above benefits it also has its constraints. It is not considered to be very intuitive and is quite a complex program to learn for a newbie. It can be quite confusing for the first-timer trying his hand at this program to learn photo manipulation, artwork creation, and graphic designing. All in all, in keeping with the benefits it has on offer, this GIMP freeware and GIF-making application are still considered to be one of the better free editor programs for creating GIFs, by its users across the globe.
6. Picasion
Picasion, without any bells and whistles, is considered to be one of the best online GIF creators making interesting GIFs for its users due to the following merits it has in its kitty:
It is a very simple, straightforward online tool producing GIFs on the fly. It enables you to easily upload a photo from the URL, Picasa Web, and Flickr or your computer, as compared to the other applications of its kind. It not only enables you to make animated avatars but even gives you the freedom to resize them according to your requirements. It enables you a hassle-free, offline splitting of GIFs and images without having to register on the web. It enables you to share your GIFs across different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, as well as other sites like eBay. It enables you to adjust the speed to fast, normal, or slow while uploading images on the web.
It is said to have limited functionality and cannot make GIFs from a video. It also lacks an up-to-date user interface which is considered to be outdated and clumsy as compared to its competitors. Inspite of these holds, it is still recommended by its users across the globe, as one of the best free GIF editor software. Also Read: 4 Ways to Save GIFs on Android Phone
7. Easy GIF Animator
Easy GIF Animator is a great tool and is considered as one of best free GIF editor for creating animated pictures, banners, buttons, and GIF videos due to the following commendations:
It can easily create animated banners, buttons, cartoons, and pictures with a single click. It enables you to modify animation frames or draw new pictures having unmatched quality. It enables you to resize or crop a whole GIF animation providing visual effects like sparkles, zoom, rotate, etc. It enables you to optimize and rapidly move texts, animated pictures, banners, buttons, and GIF videos making it a favorite amongst animators and designers, the world over. Its built-in image editor enables you to edit images and pictures, draw on them or even convert videos to GIFs just by making use of the fragmented portion of the available video files. It also helps to correct videos and rectify images, for working on the web, by altering the size of the images and managing the frames to obtain matchless image quality.
In totality, this GIF animator, without any doubt, is considered one of the best gif market applications. It not only enables the user to create, draw but also can convert or rectify a wide range of animated pictures, GIF videos, banners, and buttons for web applications.
8. Filmora Meme Generator
Filmora Meme Generator is another online software application in the list of the best-animated videos and best online GIF editor tools and is considered to be an impressive choice of users because of the following advantages it unfolds:
It enables you to make efficient GiFs comfortably and without any inconvenience. It enables you to drag and drop images and add videos, at will. It supports the web and enables you to export various types of files like JPG, PNG, or MP4. It enables you the freedom to edit or alter images and videos easily adding a text caption to an image and an animation effect to a GIF. It enables you to convert a video to a GIF without any hassles with the ability to add more delightful features at any later date if required. It enables you to upload a URL elaborated to read as Uniform Resource Locator which is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web and in normal computer parlance known as a Web address. Its excellent User interface can help process more than 150 file formats in terms of speeding up a video, cropping or adjusting the frame size, and much more.
With so many wonderful features to its credit, it is one of the best free GIF editors and must-have Meme GIF Maker in your kit.
9. Imgur
Imgur is a well-known online GIF editor with its spread reaching over 250 million people per month and billions of views. It is in the list of the best online GIF editor and is a top 15 ranked site by Alexa, due to the many excellent features it unfolds as detailed below:
Its user interface is very user friendly with a huge database of community-generated content. It supports the drag and drop option wherein you can click and upload to share your final images/ video creations and new posts on the web. It also supports GIFs having a maximum time duration of up to 60 seconds. It does not necessitate opening a web page account to use this site and you can use it without creating an account. It enables reaction GIFs typically depicting and expressing a reaction sent or posted in reply to a text message or a social media post or comment It also enables the Auto Expand feature on Desktop that automatically and incrementally increases the size of the archive mailbox providing additional storage of up to 1.5 TB in this mailbox.
Besides the above features, it also has a few snags or weaknesses like it supports only limited file types. Secondly, its editing features are not very robust and may not be able to cope with erroneous input or execution errors. Thirdly, it does not have a fixed loading time of a GIF onto the web. Inspite of the above drawbacks, as stated earlier, it is ranked Fifteenth (15th) by Alexa in the list of the best free Gif Editor Softwares and is considered to be a high-quality GIF maker that enables you to search the web for the funniest, most informative, and most inspiring videos or visual stories, GIFs, and images. Also Read: 10 Best GIF Keyboard Apps for Android
10. GIPHY
GIPHY is one of the best high-quality GIF editor and is rated amongst the top free online GIF animators because of the following benefits it has on offer:
It enables you to pick source material and make a wide range of GIFs with clips from Vimeo and YouTube. It allows you to edit adding titles, animated captions, filters, stickers, and much more to the GIFs. It enables you to make GIFs in different shorter or longer frame sizes and uploads them in any of the file formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, MPF, and MOV. It enables you to modify the image collections into GIFs, ensuring a never-ending supply of already made GIFs. It has on offer about 10+ billion pieces of already made GIFs of varied types for its users. It supports a huge clientele of approximately 700 million, as a rough count, who are logged into the world of GIFs, all across the globe.
With so many GIFs available of different varieties it can be considered as a positive point for some users getting the option to choose from a huge variety of GIFs and images as per their requirement. Then there are others not too sure users for whom it becomes a very big negative issue confusing them to choose the right GIF very tedious and cumbersome.
11. GIF Me
GIF Me is a no-frills Meme GIF editor considered to be in the list of the best Gif Editor Software because of the following merits it has on display for its users as detailed below:
It has an easy-to-use, simple user interface which does not require too much in-depth knowledge and expertise for running this GIF editor app. It is a mobile application that enables you to share your GIFs on social media platforms like Twitter, Giphy, Facebook, Instagram, with ease. It enables you to import 150+ images all-at-once, in one go with a single one click. Its simple interface enables you to apply the filters to create GIFs from imported photos and videos from your camera roll or edit your GIFs using Tenor i.e. by following a specific pattern or a particular character or direction. It enables you to sequence your GIFs as per your priority. It supports the Android platform. It also supports iOS and Windows OS and was at one time considered to be an excellent app for Windows phones that has, as of today, been discontinued.
The few constraints it has been it is not considered to be very intuitive software and although you can apply filters it has limited customizations options for you to edit or modify the GIFs as per your liking.
12. ImgFlip
ImgFlip is also known as ImgPlay is another online tool or app to make free GIF images. This Meme GIF Maker is worth a look due to the following features detailed below that ranks it in the list of the best GIF Makers:
It has a sleek design and excellent editing capabilities, making it a strong choice among users. Its intuitive layout allows you to add text and photos without any trouble It enables you to shoot videos in-app and save them online. It has 30+ filters, stickers, and color correction methods that enable you to make aesthetically pleasing GIFs on your computers or mobile phones. It supports the web. It supports iOS as well as Android operating systems enabling you to combine multiple videos into one from Vimeo, YouTube, and other websites. It allows you to download images to your computer or upload videos or GIF URLs from multiple microblogs on different websites like Vimeo, YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
The ImgPlay editor undoubtedly is considered to be one of the best apps that make GIFs that are worth a look. On the contrary, it also supports ads, which is its major shortcoming as they distract the users, hampering their output by reducing the working speed.
13. Makeagif
The makeagif is an online tool just like Imgur and GIPHY for making GIF images. It hosts quite a lot of community-made GIFs and also allows you to make your GIFs. It is considered to be in the list of the best Gif Editor Software because of the following merits it displays:
It creates GIFs from Facebook and YouTube videos and uploads them right on the homepage It has an intuitive control that enables you to browse readymade images It edits GIF images with ease and allows you to drag and drop them onto the website without any difficulty. It is easy to follow and enables you to arrange images by name or date Its neat and clean user interface allows you to add more than one image, in one go
The application can act glitchy at times not enabling you to use its premium version to access certain stickers. Its free version supports the use of a watermark that may sometimes ruin your images while trying to protect them. On the whole, barring the above problems, it is quite an inspirational site that helps turn your pictures and videos into GIFs without any issues or complications. Also Read: How to Send GIFs in Slack
14. Ezgif.com
Ezgif.com is a GIF maker application that lives up to its name producing high-quality GIFs and as such is considered in the list of the best Meme GIF Makers due to the following credits to its name:
It is easy to use and does not require you to be very tech-savvy to share your creations with other people. It has a tips section that offers great advice enabling you to make animated images and videos instantly This free GIF maker software manages the speed of your GIFs so that you can handle up to 2,000 files with ease It supports multiple layouts enabling you to upload files online in GIF, JPG, PNG, APNG, HEIC, MNG, FLIF, AVIF, WebP, and many more formats. It allows you to resize, crop, and optimize images and automatically store the frames in alphabetical order It has an intuitive user interface that supports the web enabling you to work on the images.
It is a good site that allows you to instantly make animated images. It however lacks, across the board support of many options, to enable you to manipulate the created images. Nevertheless, considering the overall picture, the software meets almost all the needs, taking care of the community aspect of uploading your files and sharing your creations with people across the globe.
15. RecordIT
RecordIT tool in its very unique and easy ways makes life a lot easier to convert your recorded videos to GIFs. It is considered to be one of the best software in the list of the best Gif Editor programs because of the following reasons indicated below:
It gives you the freedom to start or stop the screen recording as and when you want. This animated GIFs freeware enables you to select any portion of the screen to create your video or GIF and use it as Google Picture. It is a very simple application compatible with both the Windows and Mac operating systems. It also sends a notification to the user once a video or GIF has been successfully uploaded onto the server.
RecordIT is free to use and on the whole, is quite an amazing and motivating application that helps turn your pictures and videos into GIFs without any complications.
16. Photoscape
Photoscape is a personal animated GIF maker that offers remarkable abilities to convert a video file to GIF and is considered in the list of the best GIF Makers due to the following reasons as indicated below:
It is an intuitive interface that can operate independently of other programs and run as a standalone program, working on the OpenCandy business model continuing to run even if another software is being installed on your PC. It has an adjustable canvas enabling you to resize or crop an image or a GIF as required. It offers an auto transition feature that helps to maintain the flow of your presentation informing the viewer that you are moving on from one idea to the other giving your presentation a professional touch. It allows photo alignment and also enables you to change the background color of your image or GIF. It supports multiple video formats like MP4, WebM, H. 264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, etc., etc. It allows you to select images of the various formats and drag them to the center panel to display beautiful animated GIFs. It supports multiple applications like photo editing, GIF editing, image converting, and so on. It enables using the drag and drop feature to re-order the frames enabling them to be decompressed in a different order than their display order.
This application because of its advanced features is not easy to use for the beginner and is considered as its drawback by many. It is best suited for the old hands at the game, who are professional GIF editors. Also Read: How to Save GIF from Twitter on Android
17. Microsoft Gif Animator
Microsoft Gif Animator is another best free GIF editor considered in the list of best Gif editor software because of the following main features and advantages it has as detailed below:
It can run as a standalone program operating independently of other programs on your PC. Its user interface facilitates the drag and drop feature enabling the app to copy, reorder or delete items using a mouse. It allows prompt creation of hilarious and appealing GIF files and also enables you to loop and repeat them if you want. It enables you to re-order frames and set a time delay duration for each frame It enables you to add or remove multiple images and vary their dimensions in terms of different frame sizes. It enables you to adjust the transparency of the GIF or image so that you can replace its assigned color with the background color of the browser, whatever so ever it may be. It supports the Windows platform.
It has a rather small interface which can be very frustrating for a user when working on multiple GIF frames simultaneously. Furthermore, it is only available at third-party download sites. This is a major drawback as such software may infect your device with malicious software which may damage and destroy your computer or may pass on control of your device to someone else enabling access of hackers to your contacts, passwords, etc.
18. Movavi Video Converter
Movavi gives the idea of this tool as being a dynamic tool for video conversion and powerful GIF-making software. So it is, without any iota of doubt, and is as such rated in the list of best free GIF editor due to the below-mentioned reasons:
It enables you to extract audio and images from videos in a single click. It allows to rotate, crop, and merge videos, editing and converting the various GIF files, as needed, in the same place. It enables very quick and easy batch conversions of video and media files to over 180 formats at lightning speeds. Its intuitive interface ensures that the contents of the images, videos, or GIFs assessed by the user are of the best quality. It enables you to transfer 200+ presets to any popular platform or device. It is found to be compatible with both the Windows and Mac operating systems.
The downsides of this software are that it does not allow you to add filters and any stickers to the GIFs you create. Secondly, it leaves a watermark in the free trial of the application which may distract the images. This may in turn frustrate shoppers as they can’t see the product clearly without the distracting watermark over it, resulting in the GIFs not receiving the much-required attention. Also Read: 3 Ways to Create a GIF on Windows 10
19. Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is great GIF editing software made by Adobe Inc. and it maintains its place in the list of the best GIF Editor software due to the following reasons:
It enables you to create images, videos, and GIFs with any hick-ups. It also allows you to import GIFs and enables you to modify them as per your wants. It allows you to create a timeline based frame animation and enables you to control the speed of the frame. It enables you to add text, change the colors and alter the effects of an image. It is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems.
In addition to the free trial version it also offers the paid or premium version that comes at a cost depending on the contents of the application. So, it would not be out of place to say that this is not the end-all in the list of the best free GIF editor. In addition to the above GIF editors there are a lot more options available to choose from with more or less similar merits and just to name a few we can include the likes of Piskel, Canava, PickMonkey, PicsArt, Lively, Gickr, and the list can go on. Recommended:
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Last but not the least; GIFs have become an important part of a business too. Those businesses that make the use of GIFs in their social media can deliver their brand’s message and exchange information more effectively and quickly within seconds, across multiple platforms. This is what makes it pertinent to have best GIF editor software that helps to convey a pinpointed message to your targeted audience to ensure that you enjoy a better market penetration and an improved market share impacting growth and prosperity both in-person and in your business too. If you have any queries then feel free to drop your questions or suggestions in the comment section below. Also, let us know what you want to learn next.
