How to open a gif file in windows 10. See what “GIF” is in other dictionaries. How to open .GIF files

Gif animation has become a popular way to spread information on social networks. Using small clips from videos, users share funny stories, recipes, and news with each other. Animated GIFs may not play on some Android smartphones. The animation either does not load completely, or the gif freezes and does not play correctly.

GIF format support on Android

Modern smartphones are capable of playing GIF animation in several ways:

In social networking applications, in wall format, playback is carried out automatically or by clicking, depending on the settings;
In mobile browsers, gifs play automatically;
In the gallery - if the user has downloaded a GIF animation to the phone, it will be played through the photo gallery in offline mode.

If the user has problems with playback, it is recommended to install applications on the smartphone to play animation.

Applications for viewing gifs

The applications listed below are free. You can download them on the GooglePlay service; after installation, you can open and view files in gif format through them.

QuickPic

QuickPic file manager allows you to view images and gif animations. The application is light weight and high speed. Many users prefer QuickPic when viewing photos and images instead of the standard Android gallery. Using QuickPic you can perform the following operations:

Hide folders and images from system sets;
View the coordinates where the photo was taken;
Setting gifs or images to the desktop background;
Automatic update of thumbnails after file changes;
Smooth display of enlarged pictures;
Fast playback of GIF animations.

QuickPic does not slow down even on slow or overloaded smartphones.

GIF Player

The application is designed specifically for working with animated gifs. After installing GIF Player, the user has access to:

Plays most gif formats;
Change playback speed, rotation and image size.

GIF Player works smoothly and plays animation without lag or artifacts.

Animated Gif Player

This application is also designed to play GIF animations. If the user has an activated network connection on their smartphone, animated pictures can be found and downloaded through the application.

In this short lesson, let's touch on the topic of viewing images, and specifically talk about viewing gif images in the Windows 7 operating system.

Why format gif and why exactly in Windows 7?

The fact is that in earlier operating systems (for example, in Windows XP) files of this format were opened with a standard image viewer and viewing them did not cause any difficulties or questions, but starting with Windows Vista the situation has changed. In this and subsequent operating systems, gif files are opened by default in the Internet Explorer browser.

For many users who switched to the new Windows, this innovation turned out to be, to say the least, strange and inconvenient, and therefore in this lesson we will look at a couple of options for getting out of this situation.

So, without going into too much detail, GIF is a popular graphic image format that can support transparency and animation.

Here's a simple example:

As you can see, both files have one (the same gif extension), but at the same time they differ from each other (one of them has an animation effect, the other does not). You must understand this!

If we, being in the Windows 7 operating system, click on the icon of an animated gif file, then it will be opened in the browser by default (as mentioned above) and its animation will be saved.

Now let's make sure that gif files are opened in the usual way (a standard image viewer). This is quite simple to do - right-click any GIF file and select the item in the context menu Open with – Select program:

After that, find the required item in this section, select it and click Ok. If you want this file type (gif) to always be opened with a standard viewer, then first check the box Use the selected program for all files of this type:

After this, our file will be opened with a familiar viewer, but...

Keep in mind that in Windows 7, viewing animated gif files in this way will be incorrect - instead of animation, we will see a static image (the first frame). Those. If you open a Christmas tree with blinking garlands in this way, then we will not see any blinking garlands - the picture will be motionless.

Here's a nuance.

If the animation of gif files is not important for you, then you can safely use this viewing option, otherwise you need to leave everything as is and view the gif animation in the browser (as intended by the Windows developers). Over time you can get used to it.

In this situation, I must definitely mention that there is a third (alternative) viewing option - using third-party programs to view images.

There are many such programs and each has its own pros and cons. As an alternative, I can recommend the free FastStone Image Viewer program, which you can download.

This is a small and quite nice program that, in addition to viewing a large number of graphic formats, also allows you to edit images and add various effects to them. Gif files in this program, of course, are displayed correctly. The program can also be easily customized, thereby making viewing images even more enjoyable. Try it!

Well, if you like the program, then if you wish, you can always make sure that all images (all major formats) are opened only using this program. I've already talked about this.

Announcement

GIF Raster image file format

GIF is the most popular file type on the Internet because it allows you to create animated images. GIF files use raster images up to 8 bits/pixel. This resolution allows the use of 256 colors of the RGB palette. It should be noted that not all GIF images are animated. A large number of logos and images with clear, well-defined lines, as well as transparent backgrounds, are saved in GIF format. Compression of files in GIF format occurs without losses, i.e. The size is reduced without reducing image quality. This allows you to convert files to other formats without any significant loss of quality.

Technical information about GIF files

Compuserve created the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) format for use on the Internet. That is why data about him was open to the general public. The 256 colors of the GIF file are capable of using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm, which allows you to compress files while simultaneously removing areas with insufficient data in order to minimize loss of image quality. Raster information is compressed to a minimum size. The number of colors required to construct an image is reduced by removing colors that are not used to form the image. The maximum number of colors is 256, but the image can even have 2 of them - white and black (the minimum requirement for the number of colors in a GIF file). Reducing the number of colors reduces the overall file size.

More information about the GIF format

GIF files are a raster-type graphics format that can be used for both static and animated images. Let's see in which applications you can open GIFs.

Two types of software work with GIFs: image viewers and graphic editors. All of them are divided into installed applications and built into the operating system.

Method 1: XnView

First, let's figure out how to view GIF images in image viewers that need installation on a PC, using XnView as an example.

There is also another option for viewing an object in this program. For this we will use the built-in file manager.

As you can see, having a file manager makes it much easier to find and view the desired object in XnView. The program is cross-platform, that is, it is suitable for viewing GIFs not only exclusively for Windows users. In addition, it has a huge number of different functions and tools that help you view and process pictures, including GIF format. But this is also the “minus” of the application. A large number of rarely used functions can confuse the inexperienced user, and also contribute to the fact that XnView takes up a relatively large amount of hard disk space.

Method 2: Faststone Image Viewer

Another image viewer that needs to be installed first is Faststone Image Viewer. What options are there to watch GIFs in it?

This application also allows you to open a GIF image in two ways: through the menu and through the built-in file manager.

Now let's figure out how to view a GIF not through the opening window, but exclusively using the built-in file manager.

As you can see, Faststone is no less convenient application for viewing GIFs than XnView. Only with Faststone, in any case, even if the launch occurs through a specialized window, to directly open the file you will have to go to the file manager, but with XnView these options are clearly separated. At the same time, the interface of the Faststone window itself is more familiar than that of the previous program. It has equally developed functionality for viewing and processing GIFs.

Method 3: Windows Photo Viewer

Now let's figure out how to view a GIF using the standard Windows photo viewer, which is already built into the operating system by default. Let's consider the work option for the Windows 7 operating system. In other OS versions the steps may be slightly different.

But, if another application for viewing images is installed on the computer, which is associated with the GIF format, and the user wants to launch the GIF using a standard viewer, then this will be quite problematic. This is due to the fact that, oddly enough, the standard viewer does not have its own executable file. However, the problem can be solved by entering the code into the window "Run".

As you can see, opening GIFs with the standard Windows photo viewer is quite inconvenient. It lacks the ability to launch an object through the application interface. Therefore, you have to use the command input through the window "Run". In addition, in comparison with the programs described above, this viewer is very short in functionality, and even with a minimum of image processing capabilities. Therefore, to view GIF images, it is still recommended to install a specialized program, for example, one of those described above.

Method 4: Gimp

Now it's time to move on to a description of opening GIF images in graphic editors. Unlike viewers, they have significantly more tools for editing images, including GIFs. One of the best free graphics editors is Gimp. Let's see how to launch objects with the named extension in it.

In addition, the desired object can be opened by simply dragging it from Windows Explorer into the work area of the Gimp window. To do this, mark the name of the picture in Conductor, hold down the left mouse button and drag the GIF into the Gimp window. The picture will be displayed in the program and will be available for processing as if it had been opened through the application menu.

As you can see, launching a GIF object in the Gimp editor is not particularly difficult, since it is intuitive and similar to similar actions in most other applications. In addition, Gimp has in its arsenal a large set of tools for editing GIFs, which is almost as good as its paid counterparts.

Method 5: Adobe Photoshop

But the most famous graphics editor is still Adobe Photoshop. True, unlike the previous one, it is paid. Let's see how to open GIF files in it.

You can open an object in Photoshop by dragging from Windows Explorer, following the same rules that we talked about when describing actions in the Gimp application. Then the familiar message about the absence of a built-in profile will be launched. After selecting the actions, the picture itself will open.

It should be noted that Adobe Photoshop is still slightly superior to the free Gimp editor in terms of functionality and GIF editing capabilities. But at the same time, this superiority is not very significant. Therefore, many users prefer to make do with the free version instead of purchasing Photoshop.

Method 6: Paint

The Windows operating system has its own standard analogue of the two previous programs. This is a graphic editor called Paint. Let's see how you can use it to open GIF.

You can drag the image from Conductor, as it was done using the example of previous graphic editors: mark the image in Conductor, press the left mouse button and drag it into the Paint window.

But there is another option for launching GIFs in Paint via Windows Explorer, which is not available for other programs. This method is the fastest. Let's go to Conductor to the area where the image is placed on the hard drive. Right-click on the picture. In the context list, select the option "Change". The picture will be displayed through the Paint interface.

In general, Paint, of course, is significantly inferior in functionality to Adobe Photoshop, Gimp and most other third-party analogues. At the same time, it has the necessary basic tools, thanks to which Paint can be considered a full-fledged graphics editor, capable of solving most problems in editing GIF images. The main advantage of this program is that it does not need to be installed, since it is already included in the basic Windows package.

Method 7: File Viewers

In addition, there is a separate group of applications whose purpose is to provide the ability to view files of various, unrelated formats (documents, tables, images, archives, etc.). One such application is File Viewer Plus. Let's determine how to view a GIF in it.

You can drag a picture from Conductor into the File Viewer window.

The good thing about the application is that it can be used not only to view gifs and other types of images, but also to view documents, spreadsheets and other types of files. At the same time, its versatility is also a “minus”, since File Viewer has fewer functions for processing specific types of files than specialized programs. In addition, this application can be used for free for only 10 days.

This is not a complete list of programs that can work with the GIF format. Almost all modern image viewers and graphic editors can handle this. But the choice of a specific program depends on the task at hand: viewing a picture or editing it. In the first case, you should use a viewer, and in the second, a graphic editor. In addition, the level of complexity of the task also plays a significant role. For simple tasks you can use the built-in Windows applications, but for more complex ones you will have to install additional software.

If you don’t yet know what a “GIF” is and how to open a GIF file, then today we will take a closer look at this file and find out how and with what you can open this file format.

First, let's figure out what kind of file this is and what it essentially is. So, GIF is a file that is used to exchange images. This format also supports various types of animation, including transparent ones.

This format is currently often used for any advertising on websites. For example, if you take several photographs and process them in the program, you can make sequential images that will change. You can also make photos cyclical - when the pictures are shown continuously in their sequence, starting from the first picture.

We’ve sorted out the format itself, now let’s move on to the topic of the article, how GIFs are opened.

Opening a gif file through browsers

“GIFs” are always opened either through web browsers or through graphic editors. There are a lot of browsers and editors, so don’t worry, you’ll open the file anyway.

Let's figure out step by step how to open a GIF animation. First we will try to open it through the browser that you have on your computer. For example, I have the Google Chrome browser installed, let's launch it.

Now left-click on the GIF and, without releasing the button, drag it into the open browser window, and then release the button.

This file will now be displayed in the browser. If you have a different browser, try the same steps in it.

XnView program

You can install the program XnView , as the default photo viewer, that is, when you double-click on any image, all the files themselves will automatically open in the XnView program.

When you already have it on your computer, open the program and select “Tools” and “Options” from the menu.

In the options on the left, click "Associations".

Here you need to specify the type of files that will be associated with this program. We look for “CompuServe GIF”, check the box on the left. If you use this program regularly, then indicate other formats that you are going to open using this program.

After all changes have been made, click “OK” to save your actions.

Now double-click on the GIF. If everything was done correctly, this file will open in this program.

I think from this article you understand how to open GIF and that this procedure does not require any technical nuances.

P.S.: Example GIF:

For those who want to experiment a little:

File extension	.gif
File category
Example file	(5.6 MiB) (7.7 MiB) (141.77 KiB) (118.95 KiB)
Related programs	Adobe Photoshop Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery Viewer Apple Preview Corel Paint Shop Pro