GifSmith

Turn a slice of video into a high-quality animated GIF.

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GifSmith is a small, fast desktop app for Mac and Windows. Open a local video (or import one from a link), scrub to pick start and end points, optionally crop and adjust speed, and export a .gif. It's local-first: no accounts, no media library, no telemetry, no ads. Local videos are read in place and never imported; the only network feature is the optional URL import.

Built with Tauri, SolidJS, and the gifski encoder, with a bundled LGPL build of FFmpeg for decoding.

Features

• Open mp4, mov, mkv, webm, avi, m4v via file picker or drag-and-drop, or import from a URL (YouTube and other sites, via a bundled yt-dlp; direct links to a video file download straight over HTTP)
• A timeline with filmstrip thumbnails and iOS-style trim handles, zoomable down to a 30-second window for precise short clips
• Crop with a draggable, resizable rectangle (tracked in source pixels), with free-form or locked aspect ratios: 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1
• Boomerang (play forward then reversed), with live preview
• FPS, width, quality, and speed (0.5x-2x) controls, plus per-platform presets (Web, GIPHY, X, Discord) and a live frame/size estimate
• Preview the result before committing: Save, Re-export, or Discard. Cancel a long export mid-encode, or clear the loaded video without opening another
• Exports default to a GifSmith/Exports folder in your Documents (created on first save); you're free to save anywhere
• An Exports gallery (the header button) to browse past GIFs and reopen one as the source for a new edit
• Plays codecs the system can't: for formats the webview won't decode (HEVC, ProRes, ...) GifSmith builds a lightweight transcoded preview so trimming still works; export always uses the original file
• High-quality gifski encoding, streamed frame-by-frame with no intermediate files (a URL import downloads to a temp file that's deleted when you quit)
• Dark, minimal interface
• Native binaries for macOS (universal) and Windows

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Space	Play / pause
← / →	Step one source frame
I / O	Set the IN / OUT point at the playhead
Esc	Close the preview
Scroll over the timeline	Zoom in / out (cursor-anchored)

Install

Download the latest installer from the Releases page:

• Windows: the .msi (or setup .exe). Windows SmartScreen may warn on an unsigned app; choose More info → Run anyway.

• macOS: the universal .dmg (runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel). The app is unsigned, so the first launch needs the Gatekeeper workaround:

  Right-click (or Control-click) the app in Applications → Open → Open again in the dialog. You only need to do this once.

Build from source

Prerequisites: Node.js 20+ and the Rust toolchain.

npm install

# Fetch the bundled binaries (FFmpeg/ffprobe + yt-dlp), placed in
# src-tauri/binaries with the per-target-triple names Tauri expects.
bash scripts/fetch-ffmpeg.sh        # Windows: BtbN LGPL static build
bash scripts/build-ffmpeg-macos.sh  # macOS: compile an LGPL build from source
bash scripts/fetch-ytdlp.sh         # yt-dlp, for URL import

# Run in development
npm run tauri dev

# Produce a production build for the current platform
npm run tauri build

Bundled binaries & licensing

GifSmith is MIT licensed. The binaries it bundles, all invoked as separate sidecar processes (never linked into the app), keep their own licenses:

• FFmpeg (LGPL). Windows uses the LGPL static build from BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds; macOS is compiled from the official FFmpeg source with --disable-gpl --disable-nonfree (no LGPL static macOS build is published). Source: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html.
• yt-dlp (Unlicense / public domain), for importing from a URL.
• Font: Syne (SIL Open Font License), bundled in src/assets/fonts with its license file. No web-font requests are made.

Roadmap

Settings + update check shipped in v1.0.1. Next up:

1. App-icon recolor finished in the violet/cyan identity.
2. Advanced quality control (optional): gifski dithering / lossy level.
3. Internal: move state.ts to a Solid store as it grows.

Not scheduled: code-signing and notarization for both platforms (to drop the Gatekeeper / SmartScreen prompts).

License

MIT © Chafic Charafeddine. Bundled FFmpeg is LGPL and yt-dlp is public domain, as noted above.

Release notes

v1.0.1

• Settings + update check. A gearwheel in the header opens a settings popover with the app version and a Check for updates button that asks GitHub for the latest release (up-to-date / update-available states). An opt-in Check on startup toggle runs the check silently on launch and only surfaces when a newer version exists. It's prompt-only: an available update shows the release notes and a Download button that opens the release page. GifSmith never downloads or installs an update on its own.

v1.0.0

The first stable release.

• Universal macOS build: a single .dmg runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel, replacing the earlier per-chip downloads.
• URL import from YouTube and other sites (bundled yt-dlp), or a direct link to a video file over HTTP, with a Cancel button for downloads in progress.
• Timeline with filmstrip thumbnails and zoomable iOS-style trim handles; crop (free-form or 16:9 / 9:16 / 1:1), speed (0.5x-2x), and boomerang, all with live preview.
• Export presets (Web, GIPHY, X, Discord) with a live frame-count and size estimate, then Preview → Save / Re-export / Discard before committing.
• Exports gallery to browse past GIFs and reopen one for a new edit.
• Playback proxy so videos in codecs the webview can't decode (HEVC, ProRes, ...) still preview; export always uses the original.
• Security: the URL import is restricted to http(s) links and hardened against argument injection into the downloader.
• Fixes: trim-handle edge cases on very short clips, and stale-preview races when switching sources quickly.