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What's the Difference between GIF and PNG?

Animated GIF vs. PNG File

PNG and GIF are two different formats used for compressing files and using less space to store it. Although both are used for the same purposes, they are not the same. Not every file can be compressed/reduced by one format. They differ in many ways and functions. To know more about GIF and PNG formats, read further detailed information.

Part 1. General Knowledge about GIF and PNG
Part 2. GIF and PNG Converter for Windows/Mac

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Part 1. General Knowledge about GIF and PNG

What is GIF?

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) was developed in the 80s, but it is still very popularly used. It is a format file that uses the LZW algorithm to compress files; it works when LZW tracks the colors and reduces the file size. The format file is used widely all over the world due to its strong establishment as the default preference for simple graphics online. Although not being very advanced, it is still a very safe choice over PNG due to its natural uses, especially in writing QA Tips.

What is PNG?

PNG or Portable Network Graphics, developed in mid-1995 soon became very popular till 1998 after W3C strongly suggested it. It is an expandable file format for portable, well-compressed and lossless compression storage for graphics. PNG is a patentless format file, unlike GIF, with much more features like grayscale, true-color images and index-color, and an additional option of the alpha channel. PNG has better compression than that of GIF. PNG is not very acceptable by the old browsers of the web and also lacks support when it comes to transparency.

Comparison Chart

Basis	PNG	GIF
Stands for	Portable Network Graphics	Graphics Interchange Format
Support for multipage	NO	YES
Support for transparency	YES	YES
Rastor/vector	Raster	Raster
Extendable	NO	Yes(GIF89a)
Interlacing Support	YES	YES
Support for layers	NO	YES
Indexed color	Yes (for 1 bit PNGs)	Yes
MIME type	image/PNG	image/GIF
Type of format	Raster graphics image format	raster graphics image format
Compression algorithm	Lossless DEFLATE compression algorithm	Lempel-Ziv-Wilch(LZW)
Uniform Type Identifier	public.png	com.compuserve.gif
Applications compatible	Most productivity series and web browsers	Most productivity series and Web browsers
Magic number	89 50 4e 47 0d 0a 1a 0a	GIF87a/GIF89a
Support for animation	No	YES
File extensions	.png	.gif , .gfa
Color management	Support by including International Color Consortium space profiles	No
Patented	No	No
Support for metadata	Yes	Yes

Part 2. GIF and PNG Converter for Windows/Mac

Wondershare UniConverter is a program with many features used for multiple uses. The primary goal of the converter is video conversion, achieved through powerful software. It claims to convert a video 30 times faster than other converters; it has been noted that this goal is not met with every conversion, but only the smaller ones with less or no significant settings. One hundred fifty-nine formats support device compatibility issues, and more are yet to come. People who are fond of big screens can find a 4K format which would help the massive conversion along with living streaming. You can have access to videos on your TV wireless once you connect your PC network to your chromecast, console or television; this will be an inexpensive approach for you.

Wondershare UniConverter

· Video conversion with thousands of supported formats with premium quality on relatively high speed.
· Video editor with simple and easy steps to edit your video; also downloads any video in HD quality, from thousands of websites to run on any platform (TV, smartphone).
· Provides DVD templates for free, DVD converter from any format to Blu-ray discs and DVD. Also helps in editing DVD files.
· Transports and converts media to Android and Apple devices, external hard drives and USB drives incompatible formats.
· Multi-purpose tool kit with image converter, GIF maker, video compressor, CD burner, screen recorder, and DVD converter.

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How to Convert PNG to GIF in Wondershare UniConverter

Step 1. Download, install, and run the UniConverter.

Step 2. Click the "Toolbox" from the Menu Bar, then select the "GIF Maker-Photos to GIF" section.

Upload PNG file to GIF Maker-UniConverter

Step 3. Upload PNG images and Click the "Create GIF".

Simple operation image conversion software is free to download now! Try Wondershare UniConverter for free!

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Summary

Converters have proved a beneficial application to convert files from one format to another. But keep in mind that different videos support different formats while they are being transformed. The Wondershare Converter is customer-friendly software that can be used for almost all converters. In spite of its failure to convert media files 30 times faster, it is the best you could ask for. It is also compatible in connecting the videos to many devices so that you can watch them on any of them; a single converter does not generally offer features like these. So, it is doing a great job.