Here is a list of best free animated GIF editor software for Windows. Using these software, you can edit an existing animated GIF and its individual frames. These are featured software which contain all essential tools and options which you can use to modify animated GIFs. Some of the important editing features provided in these software include add or delete frames, change GIF speed, transform animated GIF (rotate, crop, resize, flip, etc.), apply effects and filters, adjust color profile, etc.
Additionally, most of these software provide several drawing tools using which you can manually create diagrams or shapes over animated GIF. The drawing tools provided by these software include brush, shapes, line, pen, pencil, text, lasso, selection, color palette, etc. Most of these are graphics editing software which let you create and edit images in multiple formats such as PNG, JPEG, BMP, ICO, ANI, CUR, TIFF, etc. A few of these software also let you convert a part of a video to animated GIF.
All in all, these are very capable yet user-friendly animated GIF editors. I have mentioned all primary features of each software so that you can select the one which suits your requirement. So, go through the list to find your favorite software to edit animated GIF.
My Favorite Free Animated GIF Editor Software for Windows:
RealWorld Paint is one of my favorites as you can edit individual GIF frames in it. It provides all required features plus it is extremely easy to use.
Instagiffer is another favorite of mine because it also lets you create animated GIFs from video files.
RealWorld Paint
RealWorld Paint is a simple yet effective animated GIF editor for Windows. Using it, you can edit each frame of an animated GIF individually. As you import an animated GIF, you will be able to view its frames below the interface. Now, you can use available editing options and drawing tools to enhance the animated GIF. Let’s talk about the tools you get to edit an animated GIF.
Main Features:
- It lets you resize an animated GIF, rotate it, flip it, mirror it, etc.
- You can add new frames to an animated GIF, remove a specific frame, change/ reverse the order of the frames, change speed of animated GIF, and do more.
- It lets you add circular border, watermark, various masks (blur, grow, shrink, etc.), and more to an animated GIF.
- You can add various effects and filters to enhance appearance of the GIF, including drop shadow, bevel, glow, box blur, radial blur, pixelate, etc.
- It contains a variety of paint tools using which you can draw over animated GIF, such as brush, line, shapes, flood fill, clone, textart, etc.
Additional Features:
- You can create icons, static or animated cursors, and more graphics using it.
- It provides a handy Create filmstrip option which can be used to create an image from all GIF frames.
- Besides generic image formats, it also supports formats including Animated PNG and Animated WebP.
Conclusion:
All in all, it is a great free animated GIF editor with a variety of tools to process graphics and animations.
Instagiffer
Instagiffer is another nice animated GIF editor for Windows and Mac. It is basically a video to GIF converter which lets you create animated GIF from a part of a video. Using it, you can also import an existing animated GIF and then enhance it using various editing options. Let’s see what are the main features of this animated GIF editing software.
Main Features:
- You can change the speed of an animated GIF.
- It lets you insert multiple captions to a GIF while setting up text parameters like text color, font type, alignment, etc.
- You can adjust brightness, frame size, smoothness, and quality of an animated GIF using respective sliders from the main interface.
- An Effects panel is provided in it to apply FX and filters to animated GIFs, such as color fade, sepia tone, burnt corners, nostalgic look, colorize, blur, black and white, edit mask, etc.
- It also provides options to manually crop frames and apply some frame effects including Make It Loop, Reverse, and Crossfade.
Additional Features:
- It lets you import multiple frames to create an animated GIF.
- You can export individual frames of a GIF to PNG images.
- You can even capture your screen video and convert it to an animated GIF.
- It provides an option to upload created animated GIFs to Imgur.
Conclusion:
It is a simple yet effective animated GIF editor software which you can use without paying a penny.
GIMP
GIMP is a free open source GIF animation editor software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. It is a popular image editor which also lets you create and edit animated GIFs. It provides a feature rich set of tools which let you enhance animated GIF. You can edit individual frames of an animated GIF in it. Let’s talk about its GIF editing tools.
Main Features:
- It lets you add new frames to GIF, delete an existing one, reorder frames, etc.
- You can transform GIF frames with options like rotate, flip, crop, scale, etc.
- It provides a lot of effects and filters to apply over frames of an animated GIF, such as blur, enhance, distort, noise, light and shadow, edge detect, artistic, etc.
- You get a wide number of painting tools to manually draw over animated GIF, like pencil, blend, paintbrush, eraser, text, selection tools, etc.
- It lets you change GIF animation speed too.
How to edit animated GIF in GIMP:
Since the process of editing an animated GIF in GIMP is slightly tricky than other software, so I am mentioning the steps which you need to follow:
- Import an animated GIF and you will be able to view its frame in its Layers window.
- Now, edit the GIF by using above mentioned tools.
- To preview edited GIF, use its Animation > Filters > Playback option. From here, you can also adjust the playback speed of animated GIF.
- Finally, go to File > Export As option and save the edited GIF. While saving animation as GIF, don’t forget to enable “As Animation” checkbox.
Conclusion:
It is great software to edit animated GIF and any graphics file like PNG, JPG, BMP, EPS, etc.
VideoSolo Video to GIF Converter
VideoSolo Video to GIF Converter, as the name suggests, is a free video to animated GIF converter for Windows and Mac. Using it, you can also edit existing animated GIF. In it, you have to import an animated GIF and then use the Edit option present at the top toolbar. It provides some selective GIF editing tools which are mentioned as follows:
Main Features:
To edit animated GIF, these are the features provided in it:
- It lets you rotate or flip animated GIF.
- You can crop the GIF using by specifying options including crop area size, position of crop area, and zoom mode.
- It lets you make adjustment to brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue.
- You can add watermark to the animated GIF in text or image form.
- You can customize more output GIF settings which include frame rate, resolution, etc.
- It lets you preview both original and edited versions of an animated GIF in real time to view comparison.
Additional Features:
- You can create animated GIFs from a wide number of video files including MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, MOV, MKV, VOB, etc.
Conclusion:
It is a very nice software to create and edit animated GIFs. Plus, it has a clean and intuitive GUI which helps you complete your task easily.
Chasys Draw IES
Chasys Draw IES is a feature rich animated GIF editor software for Windows. It is a software suite which provides various graphics-related software to create and edit graphics, convert images, and view graphics. Using its Chasys Draw IES Artist software, you can easily edit an animated GIF.
Main Features:
Here are the key features of Chasys Draw IES Artist which are required to edit animated GIF:
- It contains a Toolbox with drawing tools like Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Effect Brush, Pattern Brush, Custom Shape, Smudge, Snip, Razor, Opaquer, Spray Gun, Texture Mapper, Text Art, and more. Using these tools, you can manually draw over a GIF.
- You can apply various effects to the animated GIF including emboss, oilify, noise, median noise, blur, posterize, duo tone, negative, sharpen, etc.
- It lets you transform animated GIF, change frame duration or overall GIF speed, insert new frames, delete existing frame, etc.
- You can edit an individual frame in a separate window with all the mentioned tools and options.
- The real time preview of edited GIF can be viewed on its interface.
- It provides layers panel to edit and manage individual frames and elements of an animated GIF.
- You get a Color Palette to select colors for editing.
Additional Features:
- You can create graphics in various formats including JPG, ICO, CUR, ANI, PNG, WEBP, TIFF, TGA, etc.
- It lets you create object and frame animations from scratch.
- It supports plugins and automation scripts.
Conclusion:
It is a great animated GIF editor with all essential as well as advanced tools to enhance an animated GIF.
Express Animate
Express Animate is the next free animated GIF editor for Windows. It is basically an animation maker software which also lets you import and enhance an existing animated GIF. You can edit animated GIF using a number of tools provided by it. Plus, you can create a new animated GIF too. Let’s see what are the tools offered in this software.
Main features of this free animated GIF editor software:
- It lets you set speed, adjust scale, apply rotation, and modify opacity of an animated GIF.
- You can add shapes, images, cliparts, dummy objects, and more to the animated GIF.
- It also lets you add customized text to the GIF.
- Several effects are present in it to apply to the animated GIF, such as noise, posterize, negative, sepia, pixelate, blur, two tones, tiles, etc.
- It lets you enable animation for an added object in the GIF.
Additional Features:
- It contains inbuilt clipart and sound libraries from where you can download and add cliparts and music to the animation.
- Besides animated GIF, it lets you save animation in a wide number of video formats including AVI, MOV, MP4, OGV, WebM, WMV, 3GP, FLV, HTML5, and more.
Conclusion:
Overall, it is a good animated GIF editor software with a clean GUI.