WebP to GIF
Many websites and apps save stickers and short animations as WebP files, which a lot of programs will not open, or show only as a still picture. Turn them into GIFs, still moving, on your own device. Nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose the size, and what should happen to see-through areas.
- Choose your WebP files, or drag them onto the box.
- Download each GIF, or all of them together as a ZIP file.
Moving WebPs
Every frame is kept, each is shown for as long as it is in the WebP, and the GIF repeats as many times as the WebP does. A still WebP becomes a still GIF.
Current versions of Chrome, Edge and Firefox hand each frame to the page themselves. In other browsers, including Safari on an iPhone, the page uses ImageMagick, the well-known picture program, running inside your browser; it is about 5 MB and is downloaded only when a moving WebP needs it.
What changes
A GIF can hold at most 256 colours in each frame, where a WebP can hold millions, so photographs and smooth shading may look grainier or show bands of colour. Cartoons, stickers and text usually look the same.
A GIF pixel is either fully see-through or solid, so soft, partly see-through edges become hard edges. If the GIF will sit on a white or a black background, choosing that colour gives smoother edges.
A GIF cannot show a frame for less than a fiftieth of a second, so a very fast WebP may play slightly more slowly.
Limits
Every frame is built in your browser's memory. A very long or very large animation is refused before anything starts, with a suggestion to choose a smaller size, and the limit is lower on a phone.
Questions
Why is my GIF larger than the WebP?
WebP compresses pictures far better than GIF, a format from 1987. Choosing a smaller size is the easiest way to make the GIF smaller.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The work happens inside your web browser, on your own device. Before your file is opened, this page locks itself: from then on your browser refuses to let it fetch, upload or send anything at all. You can check: once the page has loaded, switch off your internet connection and it will still work. How the lock works.