Buzz
Animated images or GIFs are a popular way to share joyful, humorous, or short clips about anything in the world. They are widely used on social media platforms, blogs, software documentation, game development, etc., to quickly express emotions that cannot be conveyed verbally.
Top Linux GIF Creation Software Revealed
Top 4 Best Linux GIF Creation Software
1. FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a command-line tool for converting and recording audio and video files. It is developed with numerous conversion commands with the function to configure the output product according to user requirements.
Install FFmpeg on Ubuntu using the following command:
$ sudo apt install ffmpeg
To convert a video file to GIF in FFmpeg, first, you need to create a color palette from the original video. This palette will accurately represent the main colors selected from the video. You can skip creating the palette and proceed directly to creating the GIF. However, the quality of the output product will not be good as FFmpeg will use an automatically generated palette from 256 available colors. Therefore, always remember to create a palette before creating by executing the following command:
$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex '[0:v] palettegen' palette.png
After creating the palette, execute the command in the following format to convert the original video to GIF:
$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex '[0:v][1:v] paletteuse'
-r 10 output.gif
Where:
- -i palette.png is the name of the palette just created
- [0:v][1:v] represents the order, 0 is input.mp4 and 1 is palette.png
- paletteuse is the filter name used for conversion, must have 2 arguments in the form [0:v][1:v]
- -r 10 is the frame rate of the output GIF file
- gif is the name of the converted GIF file
- Get FFmpeg from here
2. Byzanz
Byzanz is a command-line tool for recording videos and animations on the computer screen. It supports features like time delay relay, recording, and capturing mouse cursor positions.
To install Byzanz on Ubuntu, simply run the command:
$ sudo apt install byzanz
To capture animations, use the following command:
$ byzanz-record --duration=15 --x=100 --y=200 --width=600 --height=800 out.gif
Where:
- -duration is the recording duration, after this time, the video will automatically end
- -x is the X coordinate of the frame you want to capture
- -y is the Y coordinate of the frame you want to capture
- -width is the width of the frame
- -height is the height of the frame
You may encounter difficulties in determining the coordinates and shape of the video, especially when you only want to record the application window and ignore other elements on the screen. However, this issue can be resolved by using a keyboard and mouse emulator application called 'xdotool.'
To install xdotool on Ubuntu, simply use the following command:
- $ sudo apt install xdotool
Once you've identified the shape of the window to capture, proceed with:
- $ xdotool getwindowfocus getwindowgeometry -shell
You will get the following result:
- Get Byzanz from here
3. Peek
Peek is one of the easiest-to-use animation creation software on Linux. This application is primarily designed to record a specific area on the screen. It does not have full-screen recording or audio recording functions.
Peek has some key features such as customizable hotkeys to start and stop recording, support for recording videos at 60 FPS, downsampling technique, and delay timer support.
To install Peek on Ubuntu, you need to add a PPA repository. Execute the following commands in sequence:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/stable
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install peek
- Get Peek from here
4. Gifcurry
Gifcurry is a free and open-source software for converting videos to GIFs. Written in Haskell, this application offers many additional options to customize GIF videos after conversion, such as setting start and end times for the GIF file, support for trimming, resizing videos, and adding titles or captions. You can also use the command-line interface if you prefer.
- Get Gifcurry from here
Above are the top-rated animation creation software on Linux, albeit there aren't many GIF creation tools on this platform. One of the main reasons for this limitation is the availability of numerous websites allowing you to create and edit animations online. One notable example is Ezgif - an online toolkit using FFmpeg to create and edit animations. Additionally, if you're reluctant to install software, you can access the animation creation website here.
