https://github.com/lukechilds/gifgen

Simple high quality GIF encoding
https://github.com/lukechilds/gifgen

encoding-gifs ffmpeg gif

Last synced: 8 months ago
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Simple high quality GIF encoding

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/lukechilds/gifgen
• Owner: lukechilds
• License: mit
• Created: 2016-07-03T21:06:41.000Z (over 9 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2023-01-22T12:21:49.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-03-29T03:11:20.264Z (8 months ago)
• Topics: encoding-gifs, ffmpeg, gif
• Language: Shell
• Homepage:
• Size: 1.32 MB
• Stars: 556
• Watchers: 11
• Forks: 31
• Open Issues: 2
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
  • License: LICENSE

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README

          
# gifgen

> Simple high quality GIF encoding

[![GitHub Donate](https://badgen.net/badge/GitHub/Sponsor/D959A7?icon=github)](https://github.com/sponsors/lukechilds)

[![Bitcoin Donate](https://badgen.net/badge/Bitcoin/Donate/F19537?icon=bitcoin)](https://lu.ke/tip/bitcoin)

[![Lightning Donate](https://badgen.net/badge/Lightning/Donate/F6BC41?icon=bitcoin-lightning)](https://lu.ke/tip/lightning)

If you've ever tried encoding GIFs with `ffmpeg` there's a good chance your results came out looking pretty bad. This is because GIFs are limited to a palette of 256 colours and `ffmpeg` just uses a generic palette to be able to cover a wide range of colours.

`gifgen` produces much better results by doing a 2-pass encode. The first pass generates a custom colour palette based on all of the pixels from each frame. The second pass encodes the GIF using this palette instead of the default one bundled with `ffmpeg`.

**ffmpeg default:**

![ffmpeg default](gifs/bbb-default.gif)

**gifgen:**

![gifgen](gifs/bbb-gifgen.gif)

## Usage

```

$ gifgen -h

gifgen 1.2.0

Usage: gifgen [options] [input]

Options:

  -o   Output file [input.gif]

  -f   Frames per second [10]

  -s   Optimize for static background

  -v   Display verbose output from ffmpeg

  -w   Scale output with horizontal resolution

  -b   Begin the clip at a given timestamp (in seconds)

  -d   Duration in seconds of the resulting gif, can be combined with at

Examples:

  $ gifgen video.mp4

  $ gifgen -o demo.gif SCM_1457.mp4

  $ gifgen -sf 15 screencap.mov

  $ gifgen -sf 15 -w 320 screencap.mov

Begin at 3.5 seconds into the video, make the gif using the next 5.5 seconds

  $ gifgen -b 3.5 -d 5.5 screencap.mov

```

## Installation

### macOS

```shell

brew install lukechilds/tap/gifgen

```

### Linux

Just clone this repo and either copy/symlink `gifgen` to your PATH or run the script directly with `./gifgen`. Requires `ffmpeg` to be installed.

### Windows

```

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

```

## Credits

`gifgen` is pretty much just the information from [this blog article](http://blog.pkh.me/p/21-high-quality-gif-with-ffmpeg.html) wrapped up in a shell script. Full credit goes to the original [author](http://ubitux.fr/).

## License

MIT © Luke Childs