About the JPG to GIF Converter
Forums, older chat clients, some e-learning packages and a few email templates still ask for GIF specifically. Getting a photograph there means reducing millions of colours to at most 256, and the interesting part is choosing which 256. This tool samples the JPEG, clusters the colours it actually contains and keeps the cluster averages, so a sunset keeps its oranges instead of being forced onto a generic palette.
Choose fewer colours when the picture is graphic rather than photographic: a screenshot of a terminal or a flat illustration can drop to 32 entries with no visible change and a much smaller file. A portrait, by contrast, shows banding in the skin tones as soon as the palette tightens, so leave it at 256.
The result is a still image, not an animation, and it is not a compression trick: for most photographs the GIF ends up larger than the JPEG you started with, because LZW cannot exploit smooth gradients. Convert only when the target really requires the format. When the requirement is small file size instead, PNG to JPG and the JPEG quality dial serve better.
How to use
- Pick the JPG you want converted.
- Set Colours to 256 for photos, or lower for flat graphics.
- Compare the reported size, then download the GIF.
Common questions
- Why is the GIF larger than my JPG?
- GIF compression works on repeated runs of identical pixels, which photographs do not have. JPEG discards detail instead, so it wins on size.
- Can I make an animation from several JPGs?
- Not with this tool. It writes one frame per conversion.
- How is the palette selected?
- By median cut: colours are grouped into boxes, the widest box is split repeatedly, and each final box becomes one palette entry.
- Does lowering the colour count help quality anywhere?
- It helps file size on flat artwork. On photographs it always costs visible smoothness in gradients.