How To Make A Gif

It is an important thing for many to learn how to make a GIF, or graphics interchange format,  because these image files shave off loading time of web pages. Not only this, but they have many attributes such as animation and selective transparency that are impossible with other image types. Graphic designers, website owners and designers alike all need to know this, but even the casual user may need to have a basic understanding of the process. If your concerns are in that line, then what you need is to learn how to make a GIF.

You will need:

• Computer
• Scanner
• Photo Editing Software

1. Creating a GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, requires having an image to convert to the format. For this, you can either create one from scratch in a graphic programs or scan one onto the computer. Once you have your artwork or picture, you can then open it in your photo editing software and start the process of saving it a GIF.
2. Make necessary changes. Once you’ve got the image loaded into the software, you can make desirable changes such as resizing, cropping and color correction as normal. As you make a GIF, you should have an idea of what you need to do with the result and let the “end result” help you decide what changes need to be made. Due to the small sizes that often result, you will notice loss in color and some details. It may be important to use photographs with fewer colors to reduce these effects.
3. Once all changes on the digital picture have been made, you can then convert the file to make a GIF. The particular process may be different for each software, but the general steps are to click “Save As”, name the file and then select the GIF file extension from a drop down menu. Most programs will ask you for details such as “preserve transparency”, which you will need to decide on depending on the purpose of the image itself.

Tips:

• The process for creating animated GIFs is different for every program. Once you’ve created one per your software, then you will need to tell the computer to save the GIF with the animation rather than as a flat image. To do this, be sure your program has an option for saving files for web and other devices. Use this to save the GIF, and set it to preserve the animation.
• Saving with a simple .gif extension will flatten the image and ruin the animation.