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GIFs are great for adding life to emails, documents, or presentations. Some can be silly or cute. Others are useful for illustrating how something works. Read on for a few things to know about GIFs, whether you’re a novice or a pro.
3 reasons to consider GIFs over images or videos
GIFs can convey motion and emotion. That can make them more engaging than static images and smaller and easier to send than video files.
GIFs play automatically. Unlike videos that require embed codes and a play button, GIFs just work. They’re visible in emails or documents that don’t support video.
GIFs are helpfully brief. Limited to 15 seconds on platforms like Giphy, people will see your entire visual message. Gfycat allows you to host GIFs of up to 60 seconds.
How to make GIFs with Giphy
Giphy is the simplest and most popular tool for creating quick GIFs. I use it as a free library for GIFs I’ve created or collected. To start, visit the GIFmaker page and upload your own video or image files, or paste a YouTube link. (Giphy also has free mobile apps.) Here are some things to try:
Make a GIF out of a series of images. Upload a bunch of images to show how something has changed over time, or to create a simple step-by-step explainer. Or create a GIF to showcase a group. This one shows recent graduates of the Journalism Creators Program I lead. Another shows a slide presentation about developing an entrepreneurial project.
