Exporting a GIF

Choose GIF in the first row of the export window.

When to use one

A GIF plays by itself, silently, in places that will not host a video: a README on a code host, a bug report, a documentation page, a support reply, a chat message.

That is the whole list. Everywhere else, an MP4 is smaller, sharper and has sound.

What it costs

A GIF has no audio at all. It has a limited palette, so gradients and photographs band visibly, though flat interface colours survive well. And it is large: a few seconds of full screen video can be bigger as a GIF than the whole MP4 of the same project.

The frame rate is capped at 25 a second whatever the frame rate row says.

Keeping one small

Make it short. Five seconds, not thirty. A GIF is a demonstration of one thing.

Drop the output size. 720p, and often smaller is fine because a GIF is usually shown at a few hundred pixels wide anyway.

Crop it at record time. Record the area that matters rather than a whole screen you will then shrink.

Avoid a photographic background. The flat wallpapers and gradients cost far fewer colours than a photograph does, and the difference in the finished file is large.