Saving a GIF as a PNG
Drop a .gif and download a .png of it. Your browser decodes the GIF, draws its first frame onto a canvas, and encodes that as a PNG on your own device. Nothing uploads. Several files at once is fine, and they come back individually or as a zip.
Who needs this
- You have a logo stuck in GIF format. Plenty of old brand assets and clip art still ship as .gif, and design tools want PNG.
- You want one frame out of an animation. The first frame becomes a still you can post, print or edit.
- A form or a template rejects GIF. PNG is accepted almost everywhere GIF is not.
- The transparent background has to stay. GIF marks one color as transparent; PNG keeps that area transparent too.
What GIF gives you, and what it cannot
GIF stores at most 256 colors per frame. That limit was set in 1987 and it never moved. Converting to PNG does not undo it: if the original was reduced to 256 colors, your PNG holds those same 256 colors, stored losslessly. A photograph saved as GIF will still show banding in the sky.
PNG transparency is also more capable than GIF transparency. GIF makes a pixel either fully visible or fully invisible, which is what leaves those jagged fringes around a cut-out. PNG supports partial transparency, so future edits can produce smooth edges even though the conversion cannot invent them.
Animation does not survive. A PNG holds one image, so you get frame one.
Frequently asked questions
Is my file uploaded to a server?
No. The whole conversion happens in your browser. Disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded and it keeps working.
Which frame do I get from an animated GIF?
The first one. Nothing later in the animation is included.
Does the transparency survive?
Yes. Transparent pixels in the GIF stay transparent in the PNG.
Will the PNG look better than the GIF?
It will look the same. PNG is lossless, so the conversion copies what is there without adding colors the GIF never had.
Is the PNG bigger or smaller?
Usually a little larger for animations, since you are trading a compressed animation for one uncompressed-quality frame. Small flat graphics often come out about the same, and occasionally smaller than the GIF.
I need a photo format instead. What then?
Use the GIF to JPG converter. It flattens transparency onto white and writes a JPEG that upload forms accept.