Animated GIF in interactive PDF

[NLGNLGN]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me with the following;

I want to add some animated GIF images to my interactive PDF document in InDesign (also with hyperlinks and video's)

How do I need to save the document, in order to see an animation (instead of just the first layer, without any animation..)

Thank you in advance!

[NLGNLGN]

PS: I am using Indesign CS5 and CS4

[Jongware · Accepted solution]

The PDF format does not support animated GIF: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4056490

[NLGNLGN]

Thank you for your reply!

Does it support any other animations? Is there an other solution to add (the same) animation in an other format perhaps..

[Petteri_Paananen]

Acrobat and Reader 9 and 10 support flash.

You can create your animation with InDesign CS5 animation panel, after you are ready, simply select your animated object, export selection as SWF (Flash Player) and finally use File>Place command to replace your original animated object with that exported SWF. Now you can export your interactive PDF with animation.

[k8perkins]

InDesign in CS6 supports embedded videos, and supports looping for some types of files on export.

[javierg28549661]

Ever wondered why adobe never allowed animated gifs in their pdf documents?
I don’t know, but a very credible hypothesis is that they think of animated gifs as “1980s technology”. Instead, their “brilliant” work-around is to let people add movie players to their pdf documents (Flash files for example).
The results of this “brilliant” piece of thought are:

– A 10 page document with 5 small animations could be as large as 100 MB or more (instead of less than 1 MB using animated gifs).
– Many devices will not be able to run the animations.
– Devices which would normally run animations can’t do so because… the file is too large!! lol.

The irony of all this is that Adobe no longer wants to support flash. Why? is it because there is a technology which can replace flash? well… er… no, not really. HTML 5 will take at least another decade to reach the level of flash. Why then? well… rumour has it that it’s mainly because Steve Jobs said that “Flash sux”, and you know who the best paying customers of adobe are, right? Yeap, apple users.

Animated gifs are perfect for educational documents where a small animation can make life so much easier for a student to understand a concept or idea (not to mention how much more interesting it is to read some documents which include animations).

When a simple html file can offer a better educational experience than a pdf file, you should bloody know that you’ve done something wrong!

[Steve Werner]

For several years now, the PDF specification has not been in Adobe's hands. It's controlled by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

Portable Document Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Standards organizations move v...e...r...y   s...l...o...w...l...y.....

[Willi Adelberger]

You can't change the PDF standard. It is as it is and it does not allow animated GIFs.

[Guest]

How is stating the current facts of PDF help answer this question... That's like someone in the 30s ask if we can make TV with colors and you say no, black & white is just how TV works... ?!!!

[Derek Cross]

You can create documents with animations in InDesign CC2015 and export it as a Fixed Layout ePub.

[anthonym97034036]

I'm a bit late to this thread but have seen it still is unanswered so hopefully this work around i've used will help.

While as far as I am aware you can't add animated GIFs to a PDF what you can do is export your GIFs and then convert them to a movie file (.Mp4, .mov) etc which then can be placed into the PDF

I found this conversion site to be very helpful & it's also free -  upload the GIF and then you can choose what output type you want

Convert video to MP4 - GIF to MP4 - CloudConvert

I would echo what @javierg28549661 had said though, in that this can mean very large file sizes, but it really depends on what the content is.

Hope this helps

[Willi Adelberger]

No, don't do it. It will cause problems When you add a movie to a PDF you have to have Flash installed. Only with Acrobat 9 and X it was included into Acrobat. Since XI and DC it is not included and anyone who uses iOS or Android cannot view it and anyone who uses a computer but not Acrobat is not able to see it, it might even stop opening your file. It is a very bad idea to use any GIF in a PDF.

[anthonym97034036]

Great link article Bob, thanks for sharing that

[Guest]

Converting GIFs to movies doesn't help solve the problem either... Let's say You want 10 animated arrows, you will need 10 little movies that the readers need to click "play" for each icons?! No!!!

I understand that PDF was originally designed for printing purposes.  But now a day people use PDF to send documents meant to display on digital screens --- yet retaining its original apparence as the creators intended regardless if the computers/devices on the readers' ends doesnt have a the same screen ratio/resolution, OS or specific set of fonts...  Very few people send PDFs over emails and such are meant to be printed... Who print anything anymore?  Unlike the International Standard Organization people, they are probably still faxing --- everyone else have a smart phones that they can just open and read whatever it is on their phone screens, NOT PRINTED PAPERS.

Deep down animated icons (not movies) is critical for "interactive" PDF... for example, just because you have an arrow pointing at something within the document doesn't meant that the readers know it's clickable, but an animated arrow that react to the mouse over it screams look at me and click me to go to that page!  Fix that... International Satandard Oldfarts

[Derek Cross]

Once is enough!

[Guest]

I am sorry, it's just frustrating when Adobe create almost great tools...

If there are no bikes, the world will be fine riding horses.  Then someone invented the bike, it's almost amazing until you realized that for this bike to run you need to whip it and steer it with ropes because --- the engineer is still stuck with the concept of ridding horse.

The almost-usefulness of things is... just... super frustrating...

Animated icons for PDF! it's almost common sense and super easy to implement... but what's the hold up? Because people are still thinking of printing?

Oh, but videos are fine and let's call it "interactive" PDF...?! Aaggrrr! What a [inappropriate language removed by moderator].

[BobLevine]

Adobe does not own or control the PDF specification so I'm not sure why you're complaining about them. Animated GIFs are simply not supported.

As I said in the blog post I referred to earlier, interactive PDF was never intended to do some of the things people want it to do. Choose the proper format for your output.

[blk36372213]

Good day BobLevine,

Do you have any tips on what kind of format could be more appropriate for using a gif in a file?

Thank you in advance

[BobLevine]

Depends on the audience and distribution method. And why does it have to be GIF?

[Ryan.Zumbach.id]

BobLevine​ The reason 2D documents should be able to display GIFs are so graphic/product/industrial designers can show other people (investors, customers, marketing teams) quick and simple physical product features effectively - through GIFs!

I'm with blk36372213​, there doesn't seem to be a 21st century presentation document that can accomplish this and it's really frustrating... Does anyone have other suggestions besides an Interactive PDF? PowerPoint plays looped GIFs. The only problem is I want to use Adobe InDesign, not PowerPoint.

[Jongware]

ryanz91856310  wrote

...The only problem is I want to use Adobe InDesign, not PowerPoint.

But that says it all, doesn't it? "I want to edit an image -- but I want to use InDesign." "I want to fill in my tax form -- but I want to use InDesign." "I want to design a space stattion ..." et cetera.

Use the appropriate software for what you want to do!

PowerPoint is the better software to make presentations. If you find its options lacking, ask Microsoft to upgrade it, not the other way around.

[eliyah]

Office tools, unfortunately,  including Powerpoint are not design tools. Designers usually design presentations in Illustrator or ID and if asked to embed it as images in Powerpoint. You can make a presentation in powerpoint, it's possible to design one to a certain degree in powerpoint, it's much better to design it in Adobe.

[BobLevine]

Nonsense!

Powerpoint is an excellent tool for doing presentations. Learn how to use it and I can assure you the audience won't care.

[eliyah]

sounds like you got it all right.

I didn't say it's a bad tool to do presentations, I mean that it's not great for designing them. Word is a great tool for creating text files, not for designing them. ExEl is a great tool for working with data, not for designing it. I am talking graphic design. I have been working with powerpoint for years and know how it works. The audience might not care, but the audience scenes professionalism of the looks, that's why graphic design exists.