How To Use GIPHY Capture

The easiest way to take your existing video content and turn it into a GIF is to use the GIPHY Capture tool. 

GIPHY Capture is a free desktop app you can download from the Apple App Store that allows you to capture anything that is happening on your desktop screen and turn it into a GIF. It could be a Youtube video, a local video on your computer, or literally anything else that is happening on your screen. 

Right now GIPHY Capture is for Mac only. If you don’t have a Mac, you can use tools like EZGIF.com or your favorite video editing software like Adobe After Effects to turn video into GIFs.

How to use GIPHY Capture:

1. Download from the App Store and open GIPHY Capture.

2. Adjust the size of your GIPHY Capture frame to fit the video or window you want to record.

3. Record up to a 30-second clip.

4. Edit your clip to your desired length, usually, 2-6 seconds is best practice for a GIF.

5. Choose your desired loop type, pixel size, and frame rate. 

6. Optional: Add a caption - you can change the animation and color of the caption text.

7. Upload directly to your GIPHY account or save the GIF locally to your computer as either a .gif or .mp4 file.

Right now the only place to get GIPHY capture is the App Store. Once you download the app you’ll want to open it on your desktop.

Once you’ve opened GIPHY Capture - open up your browser, video, or whatever you want to record. Adjust the size of your GIPHY capture frame by grabbing any of the sides or corners and stretch to your desired frame size. 

After your frame is set up, you’ll want to record a clip by pressing the red circle button. After 30-seconds (or less if you stop the recording sooner) the raw footage will be saved on the bottom of your GIPHY Capture window. This footage will be saved indefinitely, so if you close the app and reopen it at a later date you can pick up where you left off. However, if you delete the GIPHY Capture app from your computer, your videos will be deleted too.  

You can take this 30-second clip and edit the length. It’s best to keep the GIF between 2-6 seconds if the intention is for the GIF to be shared in messaging apps and on the web. If you are making a “how-to” or tutorial GIF for an app or workflow you may need to make the length longer than 6 seconds.

You can choose to edit the loop type, pixel size, and frame rate. Changing these can affect the quality and file size of your GIF. In most cases leaving the standard preset options works best.

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Under the Captions tab, you can easily add captions to your GIFs. Your captions can either have regular or italicized text and come with a few preset options for changing the text color. You can edit the animation of the caption, just in case you want it to fade or drop into the frame. You can even edit the duration of the caption in your GIF. If you have a 6 second GIF but only want the caption to be in the frame for the final 2 seconds you can do so by editing the start and end time of the caption. 

Now that you’ve created your GIF you can upload it directly to your GIPHY account and allow people to share it, provided you have a branded GIPHY channel.

If you don’t want to upload your new creation directly to GIPHY, you can download it as a .gif or .mp4 file locally to your computer.

That’s it! By following these simple steps you’ll be well on your way to creating some awesome GIFs. If you need help creating GIFs or are interested in creating some more complex GIFs feel free to reach out to us at hello@giflytics.com.