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Turn PNG images into GIFs, with transparent backgrounds kept as on or off.
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PNG to GIF converter that keeps transparency
Convert a PNG to GIF on your device. A GIF holds at most 256 colours and one transparent colour, so a logo with few colours keeps every pixel, while a photo is reduced to a palette of its own and dithered. Soft edges turn hard. Our 512 px test logo became a 47.8 KB GIF.
What 256 colours does to a PNG
A GIF stores each pixel as a number that points into a table of at most 256 colours. A PNG can hold millions of colours, so converting means choosing the table.
ToolHero looks at your whole image first. If it uses 256 colours or fewer (255 when it has a clear background), which many logos, icons, diagrams and screenshots do, the table is exactly those colours and every pixel comes out as it went in. If it uses more, as photos and gradients do, ToolHero builds a 256-colour palette from the picture itself and spreads the difference between a pixel and its palette colour over its neighbours (dithering), so a sky stays smooth instead of breaking into bands.
Transparent backgrounds become on or off
A GIF marks one colour in its table as transparent, so a pixel is either clear or solid. Any pixel of your PNG that is at least half opaque becomes solid, in its own colour, and anything less than that becomes clear. Hard edges survive unchanged; a soft shadow or a feathered edge turns into a stepped one.
On a coloured background the stepped edge can look rough. Give a cut-out a hard edge in your editor first, or keep it as a PNG when the soft edge matters.
One picture in, one picture out
GIFs have been animated since GIF89a, but this page makes a still GIF: one PNG gives one picture. An animated PNG (APNG) is read as its first frame, like every other conversion here. To keep the motion, convert an animated WebP instead.
Why convert PNG to GIF?
How it works
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Step 1:Add your PNG images
Drop in logos, icons, diagrams or screenshots. Graphics with few colours convert without any loss.
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Step 2:Convert
GIF is already picked. Press Convert and each PNG becomes a GIF on your device.
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Step 3:Download
Save the GIFs one by one, or all at once as a .zip.
PNG vs GIF at a glance
How the two formats compare, so you know what to expect.
PNG
Your filesA lossless format that keeps every pixel exactly. Great for screenshots, logos and anything with text or sharp edges.
Best for Screenshots, logos, diagrams, cut-outs with transparency, and master copies you will edit again.
GIF
What you getA veteran format limited to 256 colours, still everywhere thanks to short looping animations.
Best for Simple animations, reactions and memes.
| PNG | GIF | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless | Lossless, 256 colours |
| Transparency | Yes | Basic (on or off) |
| Animation | Rarely (APNG) | Yes |
| Photo file size | Often 3–5× a JPG | Large, dithered to hide the 256-colour steps |
| Opens in | Everywhere | Everywhere |
Questions, answered
Will my PNG look the same as a GIF?
If it uses 256 colours or fewer (255 with a clear background), yes, pixel for pixel. A photo or a gradient loses some shades to the 256-colour limit, and ToolHero dithers it so the steps stay hard to see.
Why is my GIF bigger than my PNG?
It depends on the picture. Our signature scan got smaller, because most of it is white. Photos get bigger, because a GIF compresses noise and gradients poorly and dithering adds more of both.
What happens to the soft edges of my transparent PNG?
GIF has one transparent colour and no partial transparency. Pixels at least half opaque become solid and the rest become clear, so soft edges turn stepped.
Can I make an animated GIF from PNG files?
Not on this page: each PNG becomes one still GIF, and an animated PNG keeps only its first frame. An animated WebP does keep every frame, on the WebP to GIF page.
Are my PNG files sent to a server to be converted?
No. Your browser picks the palette and writes the GIF itself, on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Related conversions
Short loops, 256 colours.To GIF · 256 colours
Convert to
Colours
Up to 256 colours. An image with fewer keeps every pixel; a photo is reduced to a palette of its own and dithered. Transparency is on or off, and an animated WebP keeps all its frames.