GIF to APNG

APNG supports 24-bit color and alpha transparency, providing much higher quality animations than GIF.

Every current desktop and mobile browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — plays APNG. Messengers, some document editors and older image viewers, however, often show only the first frame as a still. So use GIF when the file is headed for a chat app, and APNG when it goes on a web page.

Usually yes. APNG can hold up to 16 million colors per frame, so the picture improves but the data grows. Flat icons and simple shape animations may come out similar or even smaller, while a GIF made from real footage often ends up two to four times larger. Where file size is critical, WebM or MP4 is a better fit than APNG.

In a GIF each pixel is either fully transparent or fully opaque, which is why curved edges look like stairsteps. APNG supports 256 levels of partial transparency and can render smooth edges — but converting a GIF that already has jagged edges will not undo them. For a clean outline, export APNG from the original source instead.