How to make a GIF smaller?
There are so many factors that contribute to managing the overall size of GIFs, such as the number of colors inside the GIF, dimensions of the GIF, and the number of frames included inside the GIF file. If you want to upload and share GIFs more easily, continue to read.
5 Solutions to Make GIF Smaller
- Trim GIF Frames
- Crop Away Extra Space
- Reduce Dimensions
- Color Reduction
- Compress GIF
Method 1. Trim GIF Frames
MiniTool MovieMaker is a free yet professional video editor, which supports the most popular file formats, such as GIF, MP4, AVI, WebM, WMV, MKV, MP3, etc. It enables you to edit GIFs as needed. Therefore, it is an ideal option when you need to trim the unwanted GIF frames to reduce GIF size.
MiniTool MovieMakerClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Here’s how to trim GIF frames with MiniTool MovieMaker.
Step 1. Launch MiniTool MovieMaker.
- Free to download MiniTool MovieMaker and install it on your PC.
- Double-click the desktop icon to open it and shut down the Movie Template window to access the main interface.
Step 2. Import the GIF.
- Click on Import Media Files to import the GIF that you want to trim.
- Drag and drop it onto the timeline or you can simply click the + icon on the thumbnail of the GIF.
Step 3. Trim the GIF.
Option 1. Quick Trim
- Hover your mouse over any edge of the GIF to get a trim icon.
- Drag the icon forward or backward to trim the unwanted GIF frames.
Option 2. Full Trim
- Highlight the GIF on the timeline and then click the scissor icon on the toolbar to select Full Split.
- Once the Split/Trim window pops up, switch to the TRIM tab.
- Move the GIF clip’s start point to the desired place and then click the scissor icon on the Start. Move the end point to the desired place, and then click the scissor icon on the End.
- Click the OK button to save your changes.
Step 4. Edit the GIF.
- Adjust color: Double click the GIF file on the timeline. Then adjust the contrast, saturation, and brightness according to your needs.
- Add text to GIF: Click the Text option from the top toolbar, choose a caption style, and drag it to the text track. Type your text and click OK to save the change.
- Apply effect to GIF: Switch to the Effect tab, choose the desired effect, click the + button to add it to the GIF.
Step 5. Export the GIF.
- When you’re done, click the Export button to open the export window.
- Set the output format as GIF, rename the GIF file, and change the destination folder as you like.
Main Features:
- 100% free and clean, with no ads, watermarks, and bundles.
- Support various file formats – image/audio/GIF/video.
- Quickly split/trim/combine GIF files.
- Add text to GIF.
- Apply popular effects to GIF.
- Add music to GIF.
- Rotate and flip GIF.
- Convert GIF to other file formats.
- Easily make a GIF from images or video clips.
Method 2. Crop Away Extra Space
One of the most useful tricks to make GIF smaller is cropping. GIMP is a free and open-source raster graphics editor, available for almost all operating systems. It is used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks, such as crop GIF.
The following is a guide on how to crop away extra space of a GIF in GIMP.
Step 1. Download, install, and launch GIMP on your computer.
Step 2. After entering the main interface, go to File > Open to import the GIF you want to crop.
Step 3. Then switch to the Tools tab, choose Transform Tools, and select Crop from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can choose to press Shift + C to select the Crop tool or click the crop icon from the left panel.
Step 4. Select the portion of the image you want to keep by clicking and dragging. Then press the Enter key to automatically crop and resize the GIF to the size of your selection.
Step 5. Once finished, click File > Export to save the cropped GIF.
Features:
- A customizable interface.
- Work with various platforms.
- Support various file formats.
- Photo enhancement.
- Ideal for advanced photo retouching techniques.
- Convert between different image formats, such as WebP to JPG.
- Any format can be saved with an archive extension such as ZIP, GZ, or BZ2.
Method 3. Reduce Dimensions
Easy GIF Animator is a powerful GIF editor, which is designed for creating animated pictures, banners, buttons and GIFs. With it, you can easily resize GIF while maintaining the aspect ratio. Besides, it provides extensive editing features for you to optimize GIFs.
Now, let’s learn how to reduce GIF dimensions with Easy GIF Animator.
Step 1. Download the Easy GIF Animator on the web and install it on your computer.
Step 2. After launching it, go to File > Open to import the GIF.
Step 3. Click the Resize Animation button in the lower right corner.
Step 4. Here are two options – Size in Pixels and Size in Percentage. Choose one and enter the value you prefer in the boxes to resize GIF. When you are done, click the OK button to save your change.
Step 5. Navigate to File > Save as to download the resized GIF file.
Features:
- Built-in image editor.
- Create attention-grabbing animated text.
- Add transition and visual effects.
- Convert video to GIF.
- Modify animation frames or draw new pictures.
- Easily create and manage transparent areas of your image.
- Save your animation as SWF or AVI file format.
Method 4. Color Reduction
Another approach to make GIF smaller is to reduce GIF colors. Ezgif is a simple online GIF maker and toolset for basic animated GIF editing. It is useful when you need to reduce GIF file size by reducing the number of colors in each frame.
Let’s check the steps on how to reduce GIF colors with Ezgif.
Step 1. Visit the Ezgif site on your web browser.
Step 2. Click Choose Files to select the target GIF and tap on Upload and make a GIF to start uploading.
Step 3. Tap on the Optimize option above the GIF.
Step 4. From the Optimization method dropdown list, you can select Color Reduction or Color Reduction + dither, and then set a value for Reduce colors to. Alternatively, you can simply choose Use single color table for all frames.
Step 5. Click the blue Optimize GIF button to start the color reduction process.
Features:
- Make a GIF from multiple images or a video.
- Add overlay over animated GIF.
- Add text to animated GIF.
- Add effects to GIF.
- Easily crop, resize, and reverse GIF.
- Convert animated images into individual frames.
- Convert GIF to MP4.
- Change GIF speed.
You might be interested in: 6 Methods to Slow Down GIFs Quickly & Easily
Method 5. Compress GIF
The last method to make GIF smaller is utilizing a professional GIF compressor. Here recommends a free online tool to help you compress GIF animations – GIF Compressor. Within a few simple steps, it will handle lossy GIF optimization for you.
Here’re the steps on how to compress GIF with GIF Compressor.
Step 1. Go to the GIF Compressor site on the web.
Step 2. Click on UPLOAD FILES, and then select the GIF file that you want to compress.
Step 3. Wait patiently until the compression process is complete.
Step 4. Download each file individually or click the DOWNLOAD ALL button to get them all at once in a ZIP archive.
Features:
- Compress multiple GIF files at once.
- Upload GIFs up to 50MB in size.
- Convert GIF to MP4.
- Convert GIF to PNG and vice versa.
Bonus – 4 Best GIF Size Reducers
The above has introduced 4 different methods to make GIF smaller. Actually, some other GIF tools can reduce GIF size as well. Now, let’s see their respective features.
1. GIF Reducer
GIF Reducer is an online professional tool designed to compress GIF on any browser. It is free to use and does not require much expertise. It supports both local and URL files. Unfortunately, the maximum file size you can compress here is 2MB.
2. GIF Resizer
GIF Resizer is a free and user-friendly GIF resizer for Windows, which allows you to maintain the aspect ratio while resizing GIF. More importantly, it can resize GIF images in batches without loss of quality and export them to other image formats.
3. PICASION.com
PICASION.com is a great online site that provides a GIF resizer feature to help you reduce GIF size. You can adjust the quality and effects of GIFs as needed. In addition, it allows you to create GIF, extract GIF frames, as well as crop GIF and other image formats.
4. GIFMaker.me
GIFMaker.me is an all-in-one online GIF editor. The service enables you to reduce GIF size by crop, resize, and compression at ease. Besides, you can use it to rotate, optimize GIF, reverse GIF, combine multiple GIFs into one, or split a GIF into separate frames.
Bottom Line
Have you mastered how to make GIF smaller? If you find this article useful, please share it with your friends. Of course, if you have other better ways to reduce GIF size, please let us know via [email protected] or share them in the comments section below.
Make GIF Smaller FAQ
- Open a web browser on your device.
- Find out the GIF you want to save.
- Right-click on the GIF.
- Tap on Save image as…
- Rename the GIF file and click Save.
- Navigate to the Ezgif site and select GIF Maker from the top toolbar.
- Click the Choose files button to select the images.
- Tap on Upload and make a GIF!
- Make some advanced settings and then hit Make a GIF!
- Trim the unnecessary GIF frames.
- Crop away the extra space of the GIF.
- Reduce the dimensions of the GIF.
- Reduce the number of colors inside the GIF.
- Compress the GIF.