# ImageOptim/gifski

GIF encoder based on libimagequant (pngquant). Squeezes maximum possible quality from the awful GIF format.

Repository: https://github.com/ImageOptim/gifski
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/imageoptim-gifski
Homepage: https://gif.ski
Language: Rust
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: gif, pngquant, gif-animation, gif-creator, gifencoder
Last push: 2026-06-17T02:52:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 65/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 88, release rhythm 16, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3227, "days_push": 77, "days_rel": 416, "gap_med": 118, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5609, forks 178 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:22.976666+00:00)

## What it is
gifski is a high-quality GIF encoder based on pngquant's libimagequant, using cross-frame palettes and temporal dithering to produce smooth animated GIFs with thousands of colors per frame. It ships as a CLI tool with GUI variants for Windows and macOS, and can also be compiled as a C library for embedding in other applications.

## Use cases
- convert a video to an animated gif
- make high-quality gifs from png frames
- compress gif animations under a file size limit
- encode gifs with thousands of colors instead of dithered mess
- embed a gif encoder in an app via C FFI
- resize and downscale gif animations

## When to choose
- you need the best possible quality from the GIF format
- you're converting video clips or PNG frame sequences to GIFs
- you need a scriptable CLI or an embeddable C library

## When to avoid
- you want modern formats like WebP, APNG, or MP4 which offer far better quality per byte
- you only need simple GIF decoding rather than encoding

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: image-processing, video-processing, compression
- domain: media, graphics, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: gif-encoder, pngquant, gif-animation, c-library, rust, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ImageOptim/gifski (main) score 65

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:22.976666+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:55:25.774176+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ImageOptim/gifski (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:22.976666+00:00, sha afaf06e8d1b8)
  - homepage: https://gif.ski (fetched 2026-08-29T08:50:15.090002+00:00, sha 1fc3fbdf5161)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/gifski (fetched 2026-08-29T08:50:15.099031+00:00, sha f832859be5b3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.