How to Make a GIF from Photos (Slideshow or Animation)

To make a GIF from photos, open the GIF Maker, add your pictures, put them in order with the arrows (or Sort by name), and choose how long to Show each picture for. Pick the Shape and Width, tick Fade between pictures for a smooth slideshow, and press Make GIF. The GIF loops forever, ready to share.

Make a GIF step by step

1. Open the GIF Maker.
2. Add your pictures — JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF. Select several at once, or add more later.
3. Put them in order: use the up and down arrows, or Sort by name if your files are numbered.
4. Choose how long to Show each picture for: 0.1 s for animation, 0.5–1 s for quick sequences, 2–3 s for slideshows.
5. Tick Fade between pictures for gentle cross-fades.
6. Choose the Shape — Like the first picture, Square, 16:9, 4:5 or 9:16 — and the Width.
7. Choose what happens to pictures of another shape: Fill (crop) or Fit (add bars) with a bar colour.
8. Press Make GIF, watch the preview, and download it.

Ideas

• Before and after: two photos at 1 s each — a renovation, a haircut, an edit.
• Step-by-step: a recipe, a craft or a DIY job in five or six photos.
• Stop motion: dozens of photos of a toy or drawing moved slightly each time, at 0.1 s each.
• Product spin: photos taken from different angles at 0.15 s each.
• Trip highlights or a birthday slideshow with fades at 2 s each.
• Flipbook from drawings: scan or photograph each drawing and animate them.

Getting good results with photos

Photos have millions of colours; a GIF has at most 256 per frame. The GIF Maker turns on Dithering and Separate colours for each frame by default for this reason — each photo gets its own best palette, and smooth areas look natural. Leave them on for photos; turn them off for cartoons or screenshots to get a smaller file.

Keep the file a sensible size

• Width: 480 px is plenty for chats and social media; 320 px for email.
• Fewer pictures or shorter fades mean fewer frames.
• Fades add frames: five extra frames per transition. Leave them off if size matters.
• Too big? Shrink it with the GIF Compressor.

A quick stop-motion workflow

1. Put your phone on a stand so it doesn't move between shots.
2. Take a photo, move the subject a tiny bit, take another — 20 to 50 photos.
3. Add them all, press Sort by name (camera file names are in shooting order), and choose 0.1 s per picture.
4. Leave fades off — stop motion should snap from frame to frame.

Adding text

Put a title on the first picture or captions on each with Add Text to GIF after making the GIF — it can limit text to a range of frames.

Combining existing GIFs

The GIF Maker is for still pictures. To join animated GIFs one after another — or mix GIFs and photos — use Merge GIFs.

Privacy

Your photos are never uploaded: they're read and turned into a GIF in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

How many photos can I use?

As many as your device's memory allows — dozens are fine. Very large photos are resized to the GIF's width, so they don't need shrinking first.

Can I set a different time for each photo?

The tool uses one time for every picture. To hold one longer, add the same photo twice in a row — or edit individual frame timings afterwards with the GIF Frame Editor.

Will it work with iPhone HEIC photos?

Safari can read HEIC; other browsers may not. If a photo won't open, save it as JPG first (on iPhone, sharing usually converts to JPG).