Read: Best GIF Keyboard Apps for Android 

How to Edit a GIF – Browser

EZGIF is an online editor that lets you edit GIFs without the need for standalone software. So you are free from the hassle of installing software specifically on your PC. Out of the several options that I tried, EZGIF was the best due to two reasons. The first being a simple UI  and the second, plenty of options to play with. It has all the basic toolset which lets you do almost everything you can think of. When you open the webpage it gives options like Video to GIF, Resizer, Optimizer and Gif Maker but you can also select options from the toolbox.  Say you want to resize, you can straightaway select it from the toolbox.

Gif Maker combines multiple pictures and gives you a GIF instantly.  You can set the “Frame Rate” and “Speed”. In addition to that, you can also add “Crossfade” and tweak the transition style. You can also make a GIF out of a video ( Max 100 Mb ) easily and use Resize and Crop to adjust it accordingly.

The optimize tool lets you compress the GIF by using several methods. Color Reduction reduces colors in each frame reducing the file size. Removing frames lets you drop duplicate frames and also gives you the option to drop every second, third or fourth frame.

Effects has plenty of options you can choose from, you can choose a preset, sepia, monochrome out of the many. You can blur or sharpen, change the saturation, brightness, and hue. There is frame option which lets you change the border with solid, rounded, etc.

There are many other features as well, like adding text, splitting frames and overlay but I’ve hardly found a use of these until now. The only caveat with EZGIF is while exporting, it increases the file size which might be an issue for some users.

How to Edit a GIF – Windows

I started with Instagiffer but that didn’t quite make it for me. Though it was simple it was just not responsive enough. There were a lot of features but they weren’t described well. So, I didn’t find it user-friendly. What I did find was another app that put my worries to rest. Enter ScreenToGif. I could actually talk about the diverse capabilities of this software, but maybe some other time. In terms of editing, this one is a total champion. You have Undo/Redo features.  I’m just kidding. First of all, you can drag and drop a GIF straight on the window and it opens the GIF in frames, which makes it so convenient to modify even the slightest details. It’s laden with common features like deleting a frame or multiple frames together.

Remove Duplicate/Reduce Frame Count– It studies every frame in terms of pixels and removes a frame if it matches 90 % with its immediate neighbor. Delete all Previous/Next – It might be important for someone but it comes in handy when you don’t want to manually select the frames to delete. You can select a frame and choose either of these which will delete all the frames before/after the selected frame. Reverse/YOYO – Reverse makes the animation move from the last to the first frame while YOYO will make it go forward and then backward. There is also an option to tweak the delay.  Over-ride, Increase or Decrease or Scale can change the time a frame plays for before moving onto the next one.  The minimum value that can be assigned is 10 millisecond whereas the maximum is 25,500 millisecond. You also get intricate formatting options that let you add text, borders and even a bar that indicated the position of the GIF. Some users might have issues with processing and exporting because the speed is a bit slow.

How to Edit a GIF – Android

Android has plenty of options to choose from but not all of them do the job. I found one which was functional yet simple. GIF Shop is a feature-packed app that has a powerful editor as well. It has all the features that we discussed above,i.e, you can adjust the speed, trim the clip, view and delete frames as well. There is also an Adjust option that lets you change the brightness, contrast, saturation, and other such clip properties.

There are pre-crop frames or you can custom crop it, in addition to that you can also flip it vertically or horizontally. The reverse function does the same job of going from backward to forward. For someone looking for more options, You can add stickers and ascertain their duration. There is also a meme feature that lets you add text on the top and bottom to give it a classic meme feel. Con: Ads pop up at the bottom in some windows. You need to upgrade to premium to remove ads and enable the undo/redo feature.

How to Edit a GIF – iOS

Out of all the options that I experimented with, GIF Maker stood out. There is nothing more, nothing less. It’s exactly what you expect. You can simply open up a GIF and trim it by dragging the red bars.

There is also a playback speed monitor that can be tweaked. You can also add text just in case and there is support for emoji too. Crop and direction are also features that are here which are common to all the Apps we discussed. One unique feature of this specific app is the ability to add music. You can simply select any track from your phone and add it here. Con: Need to upgrade to PRO to disable ads. Get GIF Maker here.

How to Edit a GIF – Mac

GIF Brewery 3 already has a large user base and is famous for fluent GIF editing. The UI is simple with all the major controls at the bottom.  It lets you crop and resizes a GIF. You can also set a frame rate and manually tweak the delay.

Color correction and effects such as Transfer and Noir can be applied to enhance the feel. It also impresses by enabling multiple captions and supports overlays as well. On the top left corner, you have the option to select the canvas height and width in addition to a color palette for background selection.  You can also select the loop type in case of long GIFs to normal, reverse or palindrome. Overall it’s a great app to edit your favorite GIFs on.

Closing Word

Well, these are some of the simplest yet very efficient GIF editing software I shared with you. I know there are alternatives to these, but I feel these apps make the cut for doing the trick without any show-off. Do you know any better alternatives for these which you’d like me to check? Drop a comment below. Read: Best Gif Maker Apps for Android