Gifsicle

Looking for an easy-to-use UNIX command-line tool for creating, editing, and getting information about GIF images and animations? Look no further than Gifsicle. This powerful software makes creating GIF animations a breeze with simple commands like % gifsicle --delay=10 --loop *.gif > anim.gif. And with Gifsicle, extracting frames from animations is just as easy: % gifsicle anim.gif '#0' > firstframe.gif.

But that's not all - you can also easily edit your animations with Gifsicle by replacing, deleting, or inserting frames using commands like % gifsicle -b anim.gif --replace '#0' new.gif.

So what makes Gifsicle stand out among other GIF editing tools? For starters, it features a batch mode for changing GIFs in place and the ability to print detailed information about GIFs, including comments. Additionally, Gifsicle gives you complete control over interlacing, comments, looping, transparency, and more.

But that's not all - Gifsicle also creates well-behaved GIFs by removing redundant colors, only using local color tables when necessary, and more. Plus, it can shrink colormaps and change images to use the Web-safe palette or any colormap you choose. And if you're looking to optimize your animations, Gifsicle has you covered - its optimizer stores only the changed portion of each frame, drastically reducing the size of your GIFs.

Other useful features include the ability to unoptimize animations, making them easier to edit, and the inclusion of two additional programs: gifview, a lightweight animated-GIF viewer that can show animations as slideshows or in real time, and gifdiff, which can compare two GIFs for identical visual appearance.

The latest release of Gifsicle even includes an update to gifview that enforces a minimum delay of 0.002 sec, making this software one of the best options out there for editing and creating GIFs. And despite its "dumb-ass name," Gifsicle is sure to become an indispensable tool in your editing arsenal.