The fastest GIF does not exist (biphelps.com)

Article summary

The article discusses the issue with GIFs not being rendered according to the specification, particularly with regards to frame delay. It explains how different browsers and programs handle GIFs with low delay values, often clamping them to a higher value. This results in GIFs playing slower than intended, and the article suggests setting a frame delay of 20ms instead of 10ms to achieve the fastest playback. The article also explores the history and quirks of the GIF format.

Main themes

• GIF format limitations
• APNG as a successor
• WebM vs GIF
• Backwards compatibility
• Format evolution
• Animation and video use cases

What commenters say

• The GIF format has limitations and quirks that have been carried forward from its early implementations.
• APNG is a suitable successor to GIF for pixel-perfect animations, but its support is not widespread.
• WebM is a better format for video-like animations and has broader support.
• The main use case for GIFs has shifted from small animations to short video sequences, making WebM a more suitable choice.
• Updating the GIF library to support a modern revision with improved compression and unambiguous behavior could be beneficial.
• Backwards compatibility and the need to support older GIF files make it difficult to introduce breaking changes to the format.
• Some argue that the limitations of GIFs are not a significant issue and that other formats like WebM and APNG can coexist and serve different purposes.
• The lack of support for APNG in some platforms and services is a significant limitation to its adoption.