We’re excited to announce that you can now use Zamzar to convert GIF files to MP4.
The GIF has been around for over 30 years and its history is similar to many a modern technology success story in that the GIF has gone from being ubiquitous to almost obsolete, and back again. The advent of social media has seen a GIF renaissance and Zamzar now allows you to convert a GIF to an MP4 file using our free online conversion tool.
As the GIF now appears to be anywhere and everywhere – from WhatsApp to SMS – the GIF has become useful for sharing short video clips. However, the GIF behaves like other image file types and so most video editors (and players) don’t allow you to mix in a GIF into your video content. Therefore, the only way to add a GIF to an existing video project is to convert the GIF and that’s where the Zamzar video conversion tool comes in handy.
How did the GIF get so popular?
Created by CompuServe and developer Steve Wilhite, its intended use was to display an image while also saving memory. In 1987, when the GIF was created, the major issue for home computers was space and how to display coloured images without your computer grinding to a halt. The GIF, and the compression algorithm behind it, answered this problem.
Initially, GIFs were used for still images but the file type had been built in such a way that multiple variations of that image could be joined together to create a looping video. When the World Wide Web was created, the GIF was the standard image format but soon the GIF was phased out for better, more efficient (and sharper resolution) image formats such as the JPG or PNG format. The thing that saved the GIF format was that whilst these formats did a better job displaying a static image, they could not support the animated image which GIF seemed to create a market for and then have a non stop stranglehold on.
GIFs have become more easy to find thanks to sites like Giphy and Tenor and once they were built into the fabric of social media – with a user being able to select a GIF on twitter or Facebook – their popularity exploded. As they’ve got more and more popular, and more have been created, so has the need for people to convert them into MP4. Zamzar had already supported MP4 to GIF and are now pleased to be able to support the conversion going the other way.
Go convert your GIFs now!
Happy Converting!
The Zamzar Team
