GIF-Tools

Professional, open‑source desktop suite for fast, high‑quality GIF creation and editing.

Visual Highlights

Dashboard (Home)

Key Tools in Action

• Rearrange Frames: drag-and-drop grid with live preview

  

• Merge (Sequential): perfectly centered sequences with transparency-safe export

  

• Extract → CSV → Combine: preserve original timing and metadata

  

• Free Play (Layer GIFs): click-to-place with anchor positions and canvas control

  

🚀 Features

Core Tools (ready to use)

• Video → GIF: Convert videos with smart auto‑optimization (resolution/FPS/quality)
• Resize: Resize with aspect ratio control and quality settings
• Rotate: 90°/180°/270° rotations with progress feedback
• Crop: Visual crop with drag handles and aspect‑ratio presets
• Split: Media‑player timeline to split or extract ranges
• Merge: Horizontal, vertical, and sequential modes (centered, transparency‑safe)
• Rearrange: Drag‑and‑drop frame reordering with live preview
• Reverse: One‑click reverse and ping‑pong styles

Advanced Toolkit

• Speed Control: Change playback speed with safe per‑frame timing
• Filter Effects: Apply visual filters (blur, sharpen, brightness, contrast, etc.)
• Extract Frames: Export frames to images and CSV with full GIF metadata
• Combine Frames: Rebuild GIFs from CSV (original timing and properties)
• Free Play (Layer GIFs): Click‑to‑place layers with 9 anchor positions and canvas control

Why outputs don’t glitch

All writers use transparency‑safe parameters (e.g., disposal=2, optimize=False, correct transparency) for clean playback across viewers.

📋 Roadmap (next)

• Web API (FastAPI) for server use
• Batch pipelines and reusable presets
• Optional format converters (WebP/APNG) and loop settings
• Optional watermarking and additional effects
• Packaging (Windows installer), downloadable releases

🎨 Desktop Application Features

• Modern GUI - Professional interface built with tkinter
• Split Tool with Media Player - Timeline scrubber, frame navigation, visual selection
• Three Split Modes - Split into Two GIFs, Extract Selected Region, Remove Selected Region
• Visual Crop Tool - Click-and-drag cropping with 15+ aspect ratio presets
• Auto-Loading - Tools automatically load selected GIFs from main dashboard
• Progress Tracking - Real-time progress bars with detailed status messages
• Error Handling - Robust error messages and validation
• Resizable Windows - All tool dialogs are resizable for better workflow
• Aspect Ratio Presets - Free, Square, Classic, Camera, Widescreen, Portrait, Vertical, and more

🌐 Future Web API

• RESTful API for web integration
• Async processing for large files
• Docker containerization ready

📊 Current Development Status

Phase 1: Core Infrastructure ✅ COMPLETED

• Project structure and architecture
• Core library with modular design
• Desktop GUI framework
• Basic tool integration

Phase 2: Basic Tools ✅ COMPLETED

• Video to GIF conversion with auto-optimization
• Resize tool with aspect ratio control
• Rotate tool with progress tracking
• Professional visual crop tool with 15+ aspect ratios
• Advanced rearrange tool with drag-and-drop

Phase 3: Advanced Tools ✅ COMPLETED

• Split tool (media player interface with timeline) ✅ COMPLETED
• Merge tool (horizontal, vertical, sequential modes) ✅ COMPLETED
• Reverse tool (one-click GIF reversal) ✅ COMPLETED
• Free Play tool (multi-GIF layering with positioning) ✅ COMPLETED

Phase 4: Polish & Optimization 📋 PLANNED

• Performance optimization
• Additional effects and filters
• Batch processing
• Web API development

🎉 MAJOR MILESTONE ACHIEVED!

All 9 core tools are now fully implemented and working perfectly! The GIF-Tools application is production-ready with:

• ✅ 9/9 Tools Functional - Every core tool working flawlessly
• ✅ Professional Interface - Clean, intuitive desktop GUI
• ✅ Advanced Features - Multi-GIF layering, transparency support, real-time preview
• ✅ Error Handling - Comprehensive error management
• ✅ Performance - Optimized for production use

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• FFmpeg (for video processing)

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/DandelionBold/GIF-Tools.git
cd GIF-Tools

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate (Windows PowerShell)
./venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1

# Install desktop dependencies
pip install -r requirements/desktop.txt

# Run the desktop application
python run_gui.py

Development Installation

# Install development dependencies
pip install -r requirements/dev.txt

# Install pre-commit hooks
pre-commit install

# Run tests
pytest

# Run linting
flake8 gif_tools desktop_app web_api tests

🛠️ Usage (GUI)

1. Launch the app

python run_gui.py

2. Pick an input and output folder

• Use the dashboard to select the current GIF/video
• Set the Output Directory (all tools will save there)

3. Open a tool (from tabs or menu)

• Video → GIF: convert videos with auto‑optimization
• Resize: change dimensions (maintain aspect)
• Rotate: rotate 90°/180°/270°
• Crop: drag to select; choose aspect ratio
• Split: move the timeline head; split at point or extract a range
• Merge: add multiple files; choose horizontal/vertical/sequential
• Rearrange: select frames; drag to reorder; export
• Reverse: one‑click reverse (or ping‑pong)
• Speed Control: slower/faster playback; timing kept per frame
• Filter Effects: apply effects like blur/sharpen/brightness/contrast
• Extract Frames: export frames (PNG/JPG) + CSV metadata
• Combine Frames: rebuild a GIF from a CSV (original timing)
• Free Play: layer multiple GIFs; click‑to‑place with anchor options

Tip: All exports use transparency‑safe settings to avoid glitches.

Extract → CSV → Combine flow

1. Open Extract Frames, choose method (All / Specific / Range / Interval)
2. Enable “Export frame list to CSV” and Process
3. Open Combine Frames, select the CSV, choose output path, Process

CSV example (header + first frame rows):

# GIF Metadata
total_frames,429
is_animated,True
width,320
height,240
mode,P
format,GIF
loop_count,0
background,0
transparency,0
duration_total_ms,15380
fps,27.89

# Frame Data
frame_number,filename,original_frame_index,file_path,duration_ms,disposal_method
1,frame_0000.png,0,C:/path/frames/frame_0000.png,40,2
2,frame_0001.png,1,C:/path/frames/frame_0001.png,60,2
3,frame_0002.png,2,C:/path/frames/frame_0002.png,20,2

The Combine step restores original timing (per‑frame duration) and key GIF properties (loop, background, transparency).

🧼 Output quality & transparency

• All tools write with transparency‑safe settings to avoid trails/ghosting:
  • disposal=2 (clear to background between frames)
  • optimize=False (prevents palette merges that break alpha)
  • transparency index preserved when applicable
• Sequential merge centers each source on a common canvas to prevent jumpy alignment.
• Free Play and layered exports composite in RGBA before saving to GIF palette.
• Speed and Reverse preserve per‑frame durations; single‑frame GIFs are handled cleanly.

🚀 Performance tips (large media)

🧩 Troubleshooting

• ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'moviepy.editor'

  • Activate venv and install desktop deps: ./venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1 && pip install -r requirements/desktop.txt

• ImportError for a panel (e.g., FilterEffectsPanel)

  • Ensure you are on latest main: git pull and run python run_gui.py

• Glitchy/black artifacts in transparency

  • Re‑export with built‑in tools (they use disposal=2, optimize=False), avoid external optimizers

• Very large video fails (size limit)

  • Use Video → GIF with auto‑optimization, or reduce resolution/FPS

• UI not refreshing during long tasks

  • Wait for background processing; heavy media can take time

• Prefer shorter clips and lower resolutions for long videos (e.g., 720p → 480p)

• Reduce FPS for GIF export (e.g., 30 → 10–15) to cut size dramatically

• Use the Video → GIF tool’s auto‑optimization when files exceed 100MB

• Avoid extreme color effects on very long animations (palette bloat)

• Close other heavy apps while processing to keep UI responsive

🏗️ Project Structure

GIF-Tools/
├── gif_tools/                 # Core processing library
│   ├── core/                  # Algorithms: video_to_gif, split, merge, reverse, etc.
│   └── utils/                 # Utilities: constants, image utils, validation
├── desktop_app/               # Desktop GUI (Tkinter)
│   ├── gui/
│   │   └── tool_panels/       # Each tool panel (Resize, Split, Merge, Free Play, ...)
│   ├── assets/                # Images/icons/fonts for the UI
│   └── main.py                # App entry and dialogs
├── docs/                      # Sphinx docs
├── requirements/              # requirements/*.txt (desktop, base, dev, web)
├── run_gui.py                 # Simple launcher (python run_gui.py)
├── web_api/                   # Future: REST API scaffolding
├── pyproject.toml             # Packaging and tooling config
└── README.md                  # This file

🧪 Testing

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=gif_tools --cov=desktop_app --cov=web_api

# Run specific test categories
pytest -m "not slow"  # Skip slow tests
pytest -m integration  # Run integration tests
pytest -m performance  # Run performance tests

📚 Documentation

• User Guide - How to use the application
• Developer Guide - Contributing to the project
• API Reference - Core library documentation

🤝 Contributing

We welcome improvements and fixes.

• Branch from main using a clear name, e.g. feat/merge-sequential-centering
• Use Conventional Commits, e.g. feat: add sequential merge, fix: preserve transparency
• Keep PRs focused and small; include a brief description and screenshots/GIFs when UI is affected
• After review/merge, clean up feature branches

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Useful links

• Issues: https://github.com/DandelionBold/GIF-Tools/issues
• Repository: https://github.com/DandelionBold/GIF-Tools

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Pillow - Python Imaging Library
• OpenCV - Computer Vision Library
• MoviePy - Video editing library
• FFmpeg - Multimedia framework

📞 Support

• 🐛 Report a bug
• 💡 Request a feature
• 📧 Contact us

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Made with ❤️ by Kamal Nady