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GIF Viewer Software for Windows: 6 Best in 2024
5 min. read
Updated onJanuary 8, 2024
updated onJanuary 8, 2024
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Key notes
TheGraphicsInterchange Format a.k.a GIF has been one of the most exciting ways of sharing animated pictures. The support and the portability for the image format lead to the popularity of the GIF.
Cute Cat, Crazy memes, and what not, GIF has almost evolved as an impromptu language much like the emoji.
Despite supporting the GIF file format from Windows XP, the recent versions of the operating system don’t support GIF files on the native picture viewer.
In all likelihood, the GIF pictures will be set to open in abrowserand that’s not exactly helpful if you want to see a bunch load of animations.
At this juncture, Windows is yet to add support for GIFs but in the meanwhile, one can check out the super cool third-party viewers that will bring GIF support toWindows 10.
The list is curated to help you get a hold on the third party GIF viewer for Windows 10.
What are the best GIF viewers for Windows 10 PCs?
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the coresoftwarefor each artist, photographer and graphic designer as it provides a wide range of tools for photo editing.
With Adobe you also can create spectacular GIFs that can be used in marketing, advertising, and, why not, for posting your personal experience on social media.
This tool allows you to create GIFs from a sequence of photos in an easy way by using theCreate Frame Animationtab, where you can find it in Window > Timeline > Timeline panel.
You can compose from individual layers powerful animation frames that can be exported as a GIF.
Moreover, Adobe has a wide range of customized brushes that can add originality to your digital creatives, so you can create 3D text animation GIF or hand-lettering designs.
As well, all drawing tools will give the impression of a new dimension of your work, so you will not be bothered by experimenting with all Adobe Photoshop presets.
Adobe is an advanced software for professional users, but it has a lot of learning materials for those who want to experience their creativity.
Adobe Photoshop is part of Creative Cloud, so if you can combine different apps in order to create the best GIF animation ever.
Adobe Photoshop
FileViewer Plus
File Viewer Plus is a universal file viewer for Windows that can open and display over 400 different file types.
The Graphical Interchange Format files are supported by this viewer. It allows you to open, view, edit, save and convert GIF files as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, JPEG2000.
I was surprised by the straightforward interface that allows you to open files quick and easy, view metadata and file properties or edit images.
This is a good alternative to expensive software that you would need to buy in order to view over 300 file formats. The best thing is that you can try it yourself for free by downloading the fully-functional trial.
Once you’re happy to buy it, you won’t have to bother with subscriptions or recurring fees. It’s all yours, and the flexible license allows you to install it on two computers.
FileViewer Plus
FastStone Image Viewer
To be honest, I had never used the FastStone Image Viewer until now. The Interface is pretty advanced and it does offer a comprehensive set of features.
The left pane comprises of a file directory tree and its here you can open the desired folder.
The good part, however, is that the images are displayed as a thumbnail which is useful for previewing the file without actually opening it.
Theeditingoptions were not that impressive but one can still zoom in, zoom out, and can switch between different images.
⇒Download FastStone Image Viewer
InViewer
If you are on a quest for the most simplistic GIF viewer then theInVieweris one of the best choices out there. The best part is that it still offers the quintessential features despite being employing a simple UI.
Apart from GIF animations and other image formats the viewer also supports popular audio and video formats including AVI, MP4 and MPG.
The Video player comes with the usual set of controls and also offers rudimentary zoom and video playback control features.
Thankfully the application doesn’t hang even while viewing heavy GIF files and neither does it gobble up the computing resources.
⇒Download Inviewer
Irfan Viewer
The Irfan Viewer has been topping the popularity charts for quite some time. I personally don’t find the Irfan Viewer to be very intuitive but again it gets the job gone when it comes to GIF.
Additionally, Irfan Viewer is accomplished enough to handle nearly all the image file formats thrown at it.
The usual set of controls include zoom/in/out and image setting. On the downside the viewer doesn’t offer rotating, resizing, color correction tools.
However, it makes it by offering a feature that lets you extract frames from GIFs.
⇒Download IrfanView
GIF Viewer
I found this GIF Viewer whilst browsing around in Windows Store. The GIF Viewer is by far the most comprehensive viewer I have seen and it is available in both free and paid (pro) version.
With the GIF viewer, one can view a series of files as a movie and the Pro version offers functions like play/pause, resizing, single step forward, or even backward.
The only downside though is that the viewer can get pretty sluggish at times but again this is not something that happens that frequently.
⇒Download GIF Viewer
We’ll end our list here, no matter which GIF viewer for Windows 10 you choose, it will let you enjoy a bunch load of animations on your computer.
If you’ve already used some of them, tell us more about your experience in the comments below.
More about the topics:photo software
Madalina Dinita
Networking & Security Specialist
Madalina has been a Windows fan ever since she got her hands on her first Windows XP computer.
She is interested in all things technology, especially emerging technologies – AI and DNA computing in particular.
Prior to joining the WindowsReport team, she worked in the corporate world for a number of years.
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Madalina Dinita
Networking & Security Specialist
Madalina is a Windows fan since forever, especially interested in AI, emerging technologies, privacy, and security.
