Guide
From JPG photos to a GIF: animated flip-books or still images
“JPG to GIF” can mean two different things, and this page does both. Most people want an animated GIF made from several photos: a burst from a phone, before-and-after shots, a simple stop-motion. Some need a single JPG saved as a GIF because a website or old system only accepts that format. Choose the mode at the top.
Animated GIF from several photos
Drop the photos and arrange them in playing order. Set the width, the time each frame is shown, and whether the animation loops forever or plays once. If the photos have different shapes, “Fit” keeps each whole picture with a border, “Fill” crops them to the same shape. A live preview runs before you create the file, so you can tune the timing.
A still GIF for each image
In the second mode, every JPG becomes its own single-frame GIF. This is useful for upload forms and legacy systems that demand GIF. For any other purpose, keep photos as JPG, PNG or WebP: GIF is the weakest format for photographs.
How photos fit into 256 colors
A GIF frame can only contain 256 different colors, while a photo has tens of thousands. For each frame, the encoder picks the 256 colors that represent that frame best. Areas with smooth gradients, such as sky or skin, are mapped to the nearest available colors, which shows as visible bands or blotches. Bright, simple scenes survive better than dimly lit, subtle ones.
Keeping the file size reasonable
Size grows with pixels, frames and visual complexity. A width of 480 pixels is plenty for messaging apps and social posts; 320 for small web elements. Fewer frames with a longer time each make a lighter file than many frames shown briefly. For burst photos, picking every second shot rarely hurts the effect.
Timing ideas
Before-and-after loops work well at one to two seconds per frame. A walking or jumping sequence from a burst needs about 80 to 120 milliseconds per frame. A slideshow of product photos might use one second per frame and loop forever.
Preparing the photos first
The smoothest flip-books come from shots taken from the same spot with the same exposure. A phone burst, or photos taken on a tripod or propped against something steady, keeps the background still, so only the subject moves. If the brightness changes between shots, the GIF flickers. Crop the photos to the same framing before adding them, or let “Fill” do it evenly. Strip out blurred or blinking frames, because a single bad shot stands out in a loop that repeats every few seconds.
Choosing a border color
In “Fit” mode, a photo whose shape differs from the first one gets bars around it in the background color you pick. White suits most chat apps and documents. Black works for dark themes and gives a cinematic look. A color taken from the photos themselves makes the bars hardly noticeable.
Where GIFs are still the right choice
Email newsletters, older messaging tools, some forums and presentation software play GIF but not newer formats. For websites and modern apps, an Animated WebP has full color and smaller files, and GIF to MP4 converts a finished GIF into a compact video.
Related tools
The GIF Maker offers the same animation workflow for PNG and screenshot frames. To edit or extract frames from an existing GIF, use the GIF Frame Extractor. Everything runs in your browser; the photos are not uploaded.
Checked against the current version of the JPG to GIF on .