Scrub to the part worth repeating, mark the start and the end, and save it as a GIF. The video is played and captured on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded and there is no wait for a queue.
A GIF has no video compression. It stores a complete palette-mapped picture for every frame, which is why a few seconds can outweigh the video it came from. The tool shows the estimated size before it starts, and the three dials that matter — length, width and frame rate — are all in front of you.
GIF also holds only 256 colours per frame. A single palette is built for the whole clip rather than one per frame, because per-frame palettes make the colours crawl under a still background.
How it works
- Choose a video and scrub to the part you want.
- Mark the start and the end, then set the width and frame rate.
- Save as GIF.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my GIF so much bigger than the video?
Because a GIF has no motion compression. A video stores what changed between frames; a GIF stores every frame whole. Ten seconds at 480 pixels and 10 frames per second is over a hundred full pictures. Shorten the range first, then reduce the width, then lower the frame rate — in that order, for the largest saving with the least visible loss.
Why do the colours look flat?
A GIF frame can hold 256 colours, so a gradient or a film shot has to be approximated. That is the format, not the conversion. If the colours matter more than the autoplay, a short MP4 is the better file to share.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The frames are drawn on a canvas in your browser and encoded there. Nothing is sent to Utilark.
Is there a length limit?
The GIF is capped at 600 frames, which is a minute at 10 frames per second and half that at 20. Long before that limit the file becomes too big to send anywhere, which is the real constraint.