Skip to main content

Create high-quality GIFs from video files using FFmpeg

Project description

gifmemore

A command-line tool to quickly create high-quality animated GIFs from video files using FFmpeg. You can trim the video, adjust speed and FPS, resize the output, and add custom text overlays.

Now with two-pass encoding for superior quality!

Demonstration

Features

  • Preview your GIF before creating it with built-in ffplay integration
  • Two-pass palette generation for better color quality and smaller file sizes
  • Clip a specific segment from any video file
  • Adjust the speed and frame rate (FPS) of the resulting GIF
  • Resize the output to a specific scale (e.g., 50% of original size)
  • Overlay custom text with control over size, color, and position
  • Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • Clean, modular codebase with proper abstraction

Core Dependencies

This tool uses FFmpeg under the hood for video processing:

  • FFmpeg: The industry-standard multimedia framework (must be installed on your system)
  • Python 3.7+: For the command-line interface and orchestration

Two-Pass Method: By default, gifmemore generates a custom color palette first, then uses it to create the GIF. This produces significantly better quality than direct conversion, with optimized colors for your specific video content

Installation

1. Install FFmpeg (if not already installed):

  • macOS: brew install ffmpeg
  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ffmpeg
  • Windows: Download from ffmpeg.org

2. Install gifmemore:

pip install gifmemore

Usage

gifmemore -f <path_to_video> [options]

Or run as a module:

python -m gifmemore -f <path_to_video> [options]

Examples

Create a simple 5-second GIF from the beginning of a video:

gifmemore -f "my_video.mp4" -d 5

Create a high-quality GIF starting at 10 seconds, with red text at the top left:

gifmemore -f "input.mp4" -s 10 -d 3 -fp 25 -t "Hello World!" -p top_left -c "red" -fs 70

Create a half-sized GIF that runs at 1.5x speed:

gifmemore -f "cool_movie.mkv" -s 65 -d 4 -r 0.5 -sp 1.5

Use single-pass mode for faster (but lower quality) conversion:

gifmemore -f "video.mp4" -m single-pass

Preview before creating (recommended for fine-tuning):

gifmemore -f "video.mp4" -s 10 -d 3 --preview

All Options

usage: gifmemore [-h] -f FILE [-s START] [-d DURATION] [-fp FPS]
                 [-sp SPEEDUP] [-r RESIZE] [-t TEXT] [-p POSITION]
                 [-fs FONTSIZE] [-c COLOR] [--loop LOOP] [-o OUTPUT]
                 [-m {single-pass,two-pass}]

Create GIFs from video files using FFmpeg

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FILE, --file FILE  Input video file
  -s START, --start START
                        Start time in seconds (default: 0)
  -d DURATION, --duration DURATION
                        Duration in seconds (default: 5)
  -fp FPS, --fps FPS    Frames per second (default: 15)
  -sp SPEEDUP, --speedup SPEEDUP
                        Speed multiplier (default: 1.0)
  -r RESIZE, --resize RESIZE
                        Resize factor (default: 1.0)
  -t TEXT, --text TEXT  Text overlay
  -p POSITION, --position POSITION
                        Text position: center, top, bottom, top_left,
                        top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right (default: center)
  -fs FONTSIZE, --fontsize FONTSIZE
                        Font size (default: 50)
  -c COLOR, --color COLOR
                        Text color (default: white)
  --loop LOOP           Loop count, 0 = infinite (default: 0)
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output filename (default: output.gif)
  -m METHOD, --method METHOD
                        GIF creation method: single-pass or two-pass (default: two-pass)
  --preview             Preview the output before creating GIF

Programmatic Usage

You can also use gifmemore as a Python library:

from gifmemore import GIFConfig, GIFCreator

config = GIFConfig(
    input_file="video.mp4",
    output_file="output.gif",
    start=10,
    duration=3,
    fps=20,
    method="two-pass",
    preview=True  # Enable preview
)

creator = GIFCreator(config)
creator.create()

Preview Feature

The --preview flag opens the video segment in ffplay with all your filters applied (speed, resize, text, etc.) before creating the GIF. This lets you:

  • See exactly what your GIF will look like
  • Verify timing, text placement, and effects
  • Adjust parameters without waiting for GIF creation
  • Save time by getting it right the first time

After closing the preview window, you'll be prompted to continue or cancel the GIF creation.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Project details


Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

gifmemore-1.0.1.tar.gz (9.2 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

gifmemore-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (9.0 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file gifmemore-1.0.1.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: gifmemore-1.0.1.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 9.2 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4

File hashes

Hashes for gifmemore-1.0.1.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 47d9c6ea09fb2a3def79bbdd8ff4c13c4d5a49784826ed5d58bba656db6a7210
MD5 3005ceca3a404e6ef7c7bc0091afa601
BLAKE2b-256 a863b779a512767311225d8b85800e57c0ad76f79cd0a72f3495ca07ed9afcea

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file gifmemore-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: gifmemore-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 9.0 kB
  • Tags: Python 3
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4

File hashes

Hashes for gifmemore-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 737c9924d18f531fba7e6c9989e1781cf515beb03d69eed7dcba4874baa19fe6
MD5 fe23ca119d9e16bac2e9d4cddc96a7b0
BLAKE2b-256 fa59de48efe250e18e2c9b5a852dddfec0b45d29a5a1a74a8332e6dc4c51d978

See more details on using hashes here.

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page