Skip to main content
lenny_bouh
Inspiring
September 6, 2024
Answered

Save for Web - Preview faster

  • September 6, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1331 views

Hi,
I discovered that making animated GIF via Photoshop instead of Media Encoder makes better GIFs and let us tweaks presets.
But I have a big problem, it's that I can take me 30s to 2minutes to render the sligthess change in the presets. So it's super long to compare the best presets.

I have the feeling that Ps is actually rendering the whole GIF when I only want to render the frame to compare.
Is there a way to do it right ?

I'm curious if you have better tools to suggest me for someone whos making little animation in After Effects and need to export it in nices GIFs.

Thanks a lot

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Conrad_C

Animated GIF creators using Photoshop are in kind of a dilemma right now.

 

Save for Web is very old code, so old that certian operations such as editing an animated GIF can be very slow, and there are some size limits that people run into.

 

Adobe has expressed an intention to start over, so they created Export As, as a modernized potential replacement of Save for Web. That’s why they renamed it Save for Web (Legacy), because the idea is that old Save for Web is going to go away instead of being updated. But the problem with that is, like Stephen_A_Marsh said, Export As doesn’t handle animated GIF (yet?).

 

In the meantime, Photoshop added an updated GIF format option to File > Save a Copy. If the Photoshop document has an animation timeline, this method will preserve the animation. But (again), you only have a few options, so few that you don’t get to tweak the GIF color palette.

 

And as you found, Adobe Media Encoder doesn’t offer many options either.

 

So that’s several options, but none of them is a single complete and effective GIF optimization solution, which means…

 

If I have a challenging animated GIF, like one containing many colors, I will export it as a video, then run it through the free software Gifski. I get great GIF animation results that way, the file can be adjusted for smaller document size, and their advanced color optimization algorithms make it look great.

2 replies

Conrad_C
Conrad_CCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 7, 2024

Animated GIF creators using Photoshop are in kind of a dilemma right now.

 

Save for Web is very old code, so old that certian operations such as editing an animated GIF can be very slow, and there are some size limits that people run into.

 

Adobe has expressed an intention to start over, so they created Export As, as a modernized potential replacement of Save for Web. That’s why they renamed it Save for Web (Legacy), because the idea is that old Save for Web is going to go away instead of being updated. But the problem with that is, like Stephen_A_Marsh said, Export As doesn’t handle animated GIF (yet?).

 

In the meantime, Photoshop added an updated GIF format option to File > Save a Copy. If the Photoshop document has an animation timeline, this method will preserve the animation. But (again), you only have a few options, so few that you don’t get to tweak the GIF color palette.

 

And as you found, Adobe Media Encoder doesn’t offer many options either.

 

So that’s several options, but none of them is a single complete and effective GIF optimization solution, which means…

 

If I have a challenging animated GIF, like one containing many colors, I will export it as a video, then run it through the free software Gifski. I get great GIF animation results that way, the file can be adjusted for smaller document size, and their advanced color optimization algorithms make it look great.

lenny_bouh
Inspiring
September 7, 2024

Hi, thanks a lot for your answer.

 

It's too bad that Media Encoder doesn't let us make better GIFs. I'll will try Gifski if you recommend it to me.

Sameer K
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 6, 2024

Hey, @lennycossard. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll need more info to help you figure this out. Please share the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy & paste into a text document > upload & attach here. 

 

Try using File > Export > Export As to export a GIF from Photoshop. Export As is the current method of exporting GIFs from Photoshop; Save As Web (Legacy) is a deprecated workflow.

 

 

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Use '@mention' to tag me when you reply)

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
September 6, 2024

The key bit here is that the last time I looked, Export As doesn't support timeline/animation.