About PaintAGIF

PaintAGIF is a free animated GIF maker that runs entirely in your browser. It works like a classic paint program — pen, shapes, fill, eraser, colour picker, layers and photo import — but every frame you draw becomes part of an animation you can export as a GIF, MP4 video or PNG image.

To animate, add a frame and the previous one is copied over (or shown as a faint ghost to trace over, using onion-skinning). Repeat to build up your sequence, hold frames for longer, or loop any run of frames — loops can nest inside other loops. Then compile everything at your chosen frame rate.

Everything happens on your own device. Your drawings, imported photos and exported files are never uploaded to a server — there is no account, no sign-up, no watermark on anything you export, and no ads. PaintAGIF is free to use; if it's useful to you, you can help cover the domain costs with a coffee.

Handy shortcuts: hold right-click and drag to change brush size, use [ and ] to nudge it, Ctrl/⌘+Z to undo, and Ctrl/⌘+V to paste an image straight from your clipboard.

A free GIF maker that runs on your device

PaintAGIF is a paint program with an animation timeline attached. You draw a frame with the usual tools — pen, shapes, flood fill, a text tool and as many layers as you need — then add the next frame. The previous drawing is either copied into it so you can nudge things along, or shown as a faint ghost behind a blank canvas so you can redraw the subject while still seeing where it was. That second method is onion skinning, the same technique used in hand-drawn animation.

Once you have a few frames you can hold any of them on screen for longer, loop a run of frames a set number of times, and nest one loop inside another — a four-frame walk cycle repeated six times is four drawings, not twenty-four. Pick a frame rate and export the result as an animated GIF, an MP4 or WebM video, or a single PNG. You can also drop in a video clip and convert it to a GIF without it ever leaving your browser, or bring that clip in as editable frames to draw over.

Everything happens on your own device. Your drawings, the photos and videos you import, and the files you export are never uploaded to a server. There is no account, no sign-up, no watermark, no ads and no paid tier. If it's useful and you'd like to help cover the domain costs, you can buy me a coffee — entirely optional.

Guides

Step-by-step walkthroughs for making, converting and shrinking animated GIFs.

How to make an animated GIF frame by frame

Frames, onion skinning, layers, holds, nested loops and frame rate — the full walkthrough from blank canvas to exported GIF.

How to make a GIF from photos

Turn a burst of photos or a set of drawings into an animation: importing images as frames, ordering them, and timing the result.

How to convert a video to a GIF in your browser

Turn an MP4 or WebM clip into a GIF without uploading it: length limits, trimming, frame rate, width, and importing video as editable frames.

How to add text and captions to a GIF

Use the text tool for captions, meme text and titles — fonts, outlines and shadows, and how to keep text readable at small sizes.

How to make a GIF with a transparent background

Draw on a transparent canvas and export a GIF that shows the page behind it — plus why GIF transparency has hard edges and how to work with that.

How to make a GIF loop smoothly

Seamless loops, matching the first and last frame, walk cycles, and the ping-pong trick for motion that never has to resolve.

GIF or MP4: which should you use?

How the two formats differ on size, quality, colour and autoplay, and a simple rule for picking one for any given place you want to post.

How to make a GIF file smaller

Why GIFs get heavy, and which setting to change first: dimensions, frame rate, length, colours and transparency.

Common questions

Is it really free, with no account? Yes. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to install — it runs in the browser tab you already have open.

Do my images get uploaded? No. Every stroke, video conversion and export runs on your device. Because of that, your work only exists in the open tab, so export before you close it.

Does it work on a phone? Yes, though a larger screen and a mouse or stylus make detailed frames easier. More answers are on the FAQ page.

PaintAGIF — Free Animated GIF Maker

A free GIF maker that runs on your device

Guides

Common questions