Imgur’s New GIF Tool Is Awesome. Here Are Some Other Great Options

There’s a new kid on the GIF-creation scene, and it’s a good kid. This week, Imgur launched a new “Video to GIF” feature that lets you enter a URL, adjust the parameters of a clip, and get a great-looking GIF or GIFV file within a few seconds. It puts that animation on an Imgur page, so if you have an account, you can share it on Imgur and host comments from all the wonderful Internet people.

Of course, Imgur is not the first or the only free GIF-creation tool on the Web. We take a look at the newest GIF generator, and see how it stacks up against some other offerings we’ve used.

Imgur Video to GIF

What it does: Converts any video URL to a GIF or GIFV. The newest GIF-creator on the block is also one of the most versatile—at least if you want to convert a video. The new Video to GIF option at Imgur allows you to just pop in a video URL—YouTube, Vimeo, Funny Or Die, or pretty much any other video service. You select an entry point for the clip, pick a length from 0.5 to 15 seconds with the scrubber, and even add a text subtitle if you want. The tool spits out a GIF if the file is less than 10MB, or a GIFV if it’s bigger. The results show up in an Imgur template, but you can open the file alone in a new window or tab by right-clicking on it. You can also embed it in a web page using an iframe, like this:

GifYouTube

What it does: Converts any YouTube video to a GIF or WebM video. If you’re working with a YouTube clip, GIFYouTube is probably the fastest way to get what you need; you just add “gif” before the “youtube” in the address bar, and you’re off to the GIF-making races. You can turn clips into GIFs that are 1 to 15 seconds long, and GIFYouTube gives you the option of viewing it as a WebM video file or a GIF. Your results show up in a GIFYouTube template, but you can also view the GIF by its lonesome if you copy image URL. GIFYouTube doesn’t do text overlays, and the GIFs are grainier than Imgur’s output, but it’s a really quick way to get it done from a YouTube page.

EZGIF

What it does: Lets you edit existing GIFs. EZGIF is a go-to post-production tool if you’re really serious about your GIFs. You can use it to create GIFs from images or uploaded video (it doesn’t create them from YouTube links). But it’s the editing options that are killer. You can resize and crop existing GIFs by their URL, and you can add effects to existing GIFs. The “GIF Effects” tab lets you apply filters, flip the GIF horizontally or vertically, add a text overlay, or change its speed.

Imgflip

What it does: Converts video files, YouTube videos, and images to GIFs. Imgflip is certainly a versatile GIF-creation tool, but it requires registration to get the most of it. There are tons of options: You can fine-tune the speed, size, and image quality of the GIF, and you can add text, crop, rotate the GIF, and even reverse it. But in order to create a GIF from a YouTube video, you need to create a free account. You also need to create an account to “claim” your GIF, or else it will be deleted after an hour. Imgflip’s free GIFs are watermarked, too—you need a $10-per-month Pro account to get watermark-free images.

Picasion

What it does: Converts a series of static images to slideshow GIFs (see above). Picasion doesn’t offer the video-to-GIF abilities or crazy tweakability of Imgflip, but it does crank out clean GIFs without an annoying wrapper page. No registration is needed, either. The service lets you set the size of the GIF and the frame-by-frame playback speed.

GifMaker.me

What it does: Converts images to GIFs. This one’s another quick-and-easy service for turning a bunch of images into a slideshow-style GIF, but you can only view your work on GifMaker’s page template. There’s no clean GIF-only URL, which is a bummer. You can adjust the size, speed, and repeat settings for your GIF with this service.

Deal With It GIF Creator

What it does: Converts images to “Deal With It” montages. This site only does one thing, but it does it well: It makes a pair of sunglasses fall from the sky, stop where you want them to, and then displays the text “Deal With It” at the bottom of the GIF. You can edit the text to say what you want, change up the text color, resize the sunglasses, and even add several more pairs of shades to the mix. Assert your authority!