Animated gifs in Preview?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Animated gifs in Preview?

Each time I wanna look at an animated gif, I've got to open it in Photoshop or similar to see it in it's animated form...

Preview just shows the gif file's individual frames... Is there any way to show the full, animated version in preview?

20" iMac G5 (isight), Mac OS X (10.4.3), 500GB Hard Drive, 2.5GB RAM

Posted on Jun 5, 2006 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 5, 2006 8:13 AM in response to winstano

Why not just use a web browser? Use File>Open in any browser and you can see the animation play.

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Answer 2

winstano Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 5, 2006 1:08 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

I was just wondering if Preview played animated gifs really... I could set it so that Firefox is the default program that opens gifs I guess...

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Answer 3

Jun 5, 2006 1:29 PM in response to winstano

No, AFAIK, the best you can do in preview is to view it as a slideshow, with each frame in the GIF as a separate slide.

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Answer 4

winstano Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 6, 2006 4:01 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

OK, thanks =)

I was informed that the animated gif feature was taken out of Preview for the release of OSX, as it was in OS9?

Either way, Firefox is now my port of call for animated gifs =)

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Answer 5

Jun 6, 2006 6:45 AM in response to winstano

Preview does not exist in OS 9.

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Answer 6

Jun 6, 2006 7:07 AM in response to winstano

As said in this topic, preview does not show animation as is supposed to, I ca't figure out why don't they update Help resources, I lost 10 minutes until I found that topic!!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Preview/3.0.1/en/pv18.html

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Answer 7

ali brown

Level 7

26,493 points

Jun 6, 2006 7:32 AM in response to winstano

winstano, et al,

I'm still using Panther, but I can see the animation using Preview.
There is a Play option on the Toolbar, that when clicked, starts the animation.
If it's not there, from the View menu, select Customize Toolbar, and drag it in.

Was this function removed in Tiger?

ali b

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Answer 8

Jun 6, 2006 7:42 AM in response to ali brown

Not removed, but it doesn't work, ali. It's never worked on my G5 imac, which came with 10.4.2. Currently I have Preview 3.0.6 and it only shows one gif layer at a time, not the animation. It's a bug rather than a feature decision, though, I think, because the little arrow to collapse and play the GIF is still there.

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Answer 9

ali brown

Level 7

26,493 points

Jun 6, 2006 7:52 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Hi Barbara!

Thanks!, But what a bummer!
Another reason I guess I'm glad I haven't gone to Tiger!

ali b

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Answer 10

Jun 6, 2006 3:04 PM in response to winstano

you can try control-clicking the gif and opening it with quicktime.

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Answer 11

Jun 6, 2006 3:05 PM in response to enrageddan

Does that work for you? When I do that, I get a very fast slideshow, but not a layered animation.

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Answer 12

Jun 6, 2006 3:39 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

yep it works for me

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Answer 13

Jun 7, 2006 11:48 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

To get the "layered animation":

Open Quicktime.

Make sure you have the QT alias in your dock.

Drag the gif to the QT alias.

Go to View>Loop=If you want to preview the animation.

OR

Loop Back & Forth=If you want the full layered animation.

PS: The above works with Quicktime Pro. Not sure if it works w/the regular one.

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Answer 14

ali brown

Level 7

26,493 points

Jun 7, 2006 12:03 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

Hi Baby Boomer, et al!

In QT Player 6.5.2 (not PRO), using Panther 10.3.5, if I open a animated GIF, and select Loop from the Movie menu, then click the play triangle, it does play the animation!

ali b

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Answer 15

Jun 7, 2006 2:27 PM in response to ali brown

Ali, When I was in the OS 8 & 9.x enviroment, I've always used QT (not PRO) and/or my browser to play my gifs. Unknown why Barbara is unable to get her QT to play her gifs correctly.

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