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 solutions that provide GIF support in Java. Our JDeli Java library allows you to read, write and display GIF files. JDeli is the best enterprise-level Java image library for performance and efficiency.
Are you a Java Developer working with Image 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);
What is JDeli?
JDeli is a commercial Java Image library that is used to read, write, convert, manipulate and process many different image formats.
Why use JDeli?
To handle many well known formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF as well as newer formats like AVIF, HEIC and JPEG XL in java with no calls to any external system or third party library.
What licenses are available?
We have 3 licenses available:
Server for on premises and cloud servers, Distribution for use in a named end user applications, and Custom for more demanding requirements.
How does JDeli compare?
We work hard to make sure JDeli performance is better than or similar to other java image libraries. Check out our benchmarks to see just how well JDeli performs.