What is GIF?

What is GIF?

GIF is a lossless, bitmap image format which became popular on the world wide web because it supports transparency and simple animations in browsers. It can support up to 256 different colours from a 24bit range of RGB values. It uses LZW compression (which was subject to patents owned by Unisys). Issues over this in 1990s, led it to be largely replaced by the PNG format in modern usage.

The file name extension for GIF files is: .gif

What does it stand for?

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format.

Is GIF a video or an image?

Although they can move, they are still counted as images, therefore it can be treated as an image.

What is the format used for?

The format is used to show short looping animations, which could be ideal for learning by demonstrating processes and concepts visually.

Issues with the format

While it has its advantages, this file type can become large in size if they have many frames and are in higher resolution. Also the 256-colour limit means that more complex colours results in colour banding.

Is it possible to convert it to another file format?

Yes. You can convert GIF to MOV or GIF to WEBP.

How to open GIF files in Java?

There are several commercial GIF solutions available. Our JDeli Java library allows you to read, write and display GIF files.

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(dicomImageFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(heicImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "heic", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpegImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpeg", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpeg2000ImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpx", outputStreamOrFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "pdf", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(pngImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "png", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(tiffImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "tiff", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(webpImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "webp", outputStreamOrFile);