Export animation from InDesign

[hanned92135922]

Hi,

I made an animation in InDesign and now want to export it. I can only export it as an SWF file, but the website I want to use it on only accepts GIF. Can somebody help me, how do I export the file with the animation to a GIF?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

You can't. Sorry.

[hanned92135922]

Is er een manier om het als een ander bestand te exporteren en om te zetten naar GIF?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Nee, de weg naar een GIF vanuit InDesign is niet mogelijk. Het kan naar HTML5 (via Publish online of FXL ePub) maar een 'bestandje' met de animatie kan alleen in SFW...

[Derek Cross]

Use Photoshop to create an animated GIF

Also, if you have a recent version of InDesign (2015/1027) have a look at Publish Online - with this you can create documents with animations, and more, and imbed a link to them on your web site.

[BobLevine]

You should have checked here BEFORE doing all that work.

[hanned92135922]

Thnx Bob, so very helpful

[BobLevine]

You’re welcome.

[Paul Bunyar]

So, why is it that InDesign cannot export an animation that Photoshop can open?

I'm sorry, but that is plain stupid. Forcing people to create their animated GIFs totally in Photoshop is one more reason not use Adobe products.

At least give Media Encoder the ability to take the SWF or FLA file and covert it to MOV. So, instead of creating a nifty animation in InDesign to convert to an animated GIF, I will use a non-Adobe product — in this case, Keynote — to do just that. Yeah, I end up using Photoshop to do the conversion from MOV to animated GIF. But maybe I will be looking for other non-Adobe solutions as well.

@Adobe — You keep saying you are improving products for the users, but you are not. There's this problem. Plus there's the problem of not fixing the chart tool in Illustrator for over 20 years. C'mon.

[Steve Werner]

It's not a common request.

But you're talking to the wrong people. It's product managers who decide what features to include. They won't read this forum but they'll read your feature requests here:

Feature Requests/Bug Reports

[Paul Bunyar]

Thanks, Steve. I will put in the request. And my expectations are that Adobe will ignore my request.

[BobLevine]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Paul+Bunyar  wrote

So, why is it that InDesign cannot export an animation that Photoshop can open?

For the same reason a wrench makes a lousy screwdriver. You want a GIF? Use Photoshop...it's right tool for the right job. InDesign is not. In short, just because you have a hammer does not make the entire world a nail.

[Big_Village_Media]

I've got to completely disagree with that analogy here Bob. Why have a software where you can create an animation and then not be able to export it?

[Derek Cross]

You can export an animation (an animation in a document) from InDesign if you use InDesign's Publish Online -- that's the way, does that help?

[BobLevine]

You can export it! You can't export it to a GIF.

Just because you have a hammer the whole world is not a nail. Use the right tools for the job.

[John Freund]

That's completely the point. Here'a a cool feature, but sorry you can only embed the link into a website.

[Designink.nl · Accepted solution]

Updated answer 2020: You can use the in5 plugin to do this!

[JonathanArias · Accepted solution]

here is the link to making an animation and exporting it to a .gif from indesign using this paid plug in.

https://ajarproductions.com/blog/2019/10/11/how-to-create-an-animated-gif-with-indesign-in5/

[Timea5CE5]

You can export an animation in InDesign if you go to File>Publish Online. Then go into the advanced settings and select GIF, then InDesign will publish your GIF in your Publish Online Dashboard and provide you with a link.

[MAURICE5EDC]

This might have been a solution before, but I just tried it with ID24 and an animated object is not an animated GIF in Publish Online.

[Memphis1981]

Hello? Adobe? 

Can you please add this functionality? We would like to simply export an animated and interactive PDF from Indesign without paying a third party to do so. This does not seem like a tall order.

[Derek Cross]

Adobe does not own the PDF specification anymore and animations within PDFs are not planned by the PDF Consortium.  You can export InDesign documents with animations and interactions using the free InDesign Publish Online facility.

(You are not addressing Adobe on this support forum, it's staffed mostly by volunteers.)

[BobLevine]

Might not seem like one to you, but Adobe does not own the PDF specification and cannot just add animation as a feature.

[MAURICE5EDC]

I know this is an old thread, but another option could be to do a screen capture of your animation in Publish Online, bring that into Photoshop, then export an animated GIF.