Softonic

Crop GIF

Step / Choose a GIF

Choose a GIF

Frames are composited with disposal handling, then re-encoded to a new GIF palette. Nominal frame delays and loop setting are passed to the encoder; very short delays may still be clamped by browsers.

Choose a static or animated GIF, draw a rectangle on its first frame, or enter exact X, Y, width and height values. The tool reconstructs each full frame, applies the same crop, and creates a new GIF locally. Your source and result are not uploaded.

How to crop a GIF

  1. 1

    Choose a GIF

    Select one image/gif file up to 20 MB, 4096 pixels on either side, 2 megapixels, 300 frames and 10 minutes.

  2. 2

    Set the rectangle

    Drag on the first-frame preview or enter exact pixel coordinates. The rectangle is kept inside the source canvas.

  3. 3

    Create and review

    The browser composites up to 300 frames, handles restore-to-background and restore-to-previous disposal, then re-encodes the crop.

  4. 4

    Download

    Check the animated preview and download a validated image/gif file of up to 25 MB.

What the cropper preserves

Animated GIF frames can be partial patches rather than complete pictures. Before cropping, this tool rebuilds the visible canvas in order and honours the two disposal operations that need special handling: clearing a previous patch and restoring the canvas to its earlier state. It applies one rectangle to every reconstructed frame. The source loop value and nominal frame delays are passed to the encoder.

What can change

The result is a newly encoded GIF, not a byte-for-byte slice of the source. The encoder generates a new indexed-colour palette, so some colours and dithering can change. GIF transparency is binary: transparent and opaque pixels are preserved exactly, while RGB colours along those edges can change. Metadata and application extensions other than the recognised loop extension are not promised. Browsers can also clamp extremely short frame delays during playback.

Processing limits

Limit Maximum
Source file 20 MB
Canvas side 4096 px
Canvas area 2 megapixels
Frames 300
Decoded patch pixels 6 million
Cropped output frame pixels 6 million
Animation duration 10 minutes
Result file 25 MB

Both GIF87a and GIF89a files are accepted, including a one-frame static GIF. Files with a malformed structure, illegal frame bounds or unsupported workload are rejected before encoding. A conservative browser-memory check can reject a file below those individual maxima, especially on devices reporting 4 GB of memory or less.

Privacy and temporary browser storage

All decoding, compositing and encoding happen in your browser. In funnel mode, the source and result may be stored in this browser for up to 30 minutes so they can move between page steps. An active page removes them when that period ends; if the tab was closed or suspended, the next visit removes the stale record. Starting over removes the current record immediately. Clearing browser data can remove it sooner.

Practical crop tips

  • Leave a small margin around moving subjects so later frames do not touch the edge.
  • Crop before further compression or resizing to reduce the number of pixels those tools must process.
  • Compare the complete loop, not only the first frame, before downloading.
  • For very large or long animations, use a desktop editor or convert the animation to WebM or MP4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Every decoded frame is composited and cropped, and the output is validated to contain the same frame count, nominal total delay and loop value. Very short delays can still play differently because browsers impose their own timing minimums.

No. The geometry and binary transparency mask are preserved, but frames use a new GIF palette. Colours, dithering, metadata and file size may change.

Yes. A valid GIF87a or GIF89a file with one image frame uses the same crop and validation path.

No. The source and result stay in your browser. Funnel mode uses temporary browser storage for up to 30 minutes, with active expiry cleanup and stale-record removal on the next visit.

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