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PITO MDdocs

Make a GIF

prec writes masters: a clip is one silent H.264 file at CRF 14, larger and sharper than a page needs. Make the delivery from it with pconv or ffmpeg.

With pconv

Section titled “With pconv”
Terminal window
prec clip demo typing --app-dir examples/demo --size 720p --fps 30
pconv tmp/renders/demo/clip/demo-clip-typing-1280x720-30fps.master.mp4 demo.gif --size 1280 --fps 15

That is how the clip below was made: recorded at 1280x720 and 30 fps, made a 15 fps GIF at the same width.

In a window on a dark ground, demo tick draws a progress bar, then demo show prints a truecolor gradient, a box with a wide CJK character, an arrow and blocks, and the 16 ANSI colours, before the clip crossfades back to its first frame.

Keep it small

Section titled “Keep it small”
  • Record at the size you will show: --size 720p for a GIF 1280 pixels wide, rather than a 4K master scaled down.
  • Halve the rate for a GIF: record at 30 fps and convert at 15.
  • Shorten the tape before shrinking the width: a few seconds of the one thing to show.
  • Give the shot a closure (closure = { crossfade = 0.4 } or "palindrome", Frame, closure and poster) so the loop doesn’t jump.
  • Use --frame bare when the page already frames the clip.

Stills

Section titled “Stills”

A still’s 8-bit PNGs are already deliveries; --web 800 adds an 800-pixel-wide copy and its @2x (Take a still).