HOW TO . . .
How to create custom GIF on Mac
A few simple steps that everyone can do to make a GIF that can be added to a Medium article.
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Agenda
What is a GIF?
The Cambridge Dictionary explains that GIF is…
a type of computer file that contains a still or moving image. GIF is the abbreviation for “Graphic Interchange Format” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024)¹
How to create a GIF on Mac — tutorial
1) Open the Recording Screen tool
This tool is already on your MacBook. You can open this tool in two ways:
=> open QuickTime Player => File => New Screen Recording
=> or use the keyboard shortcut: Command + Shift + 5
On the bottom of your screen will show screen options such as 3 print screen variants, 2 recording screen variants, and some other advanced options. You can choose if you want to make your GIF by recording full screen or a selected portion of the screen.
2) Setup additional options (optional)
You can personalize your recording setup by selecting additional options regarding the location of the recorded video, setting up a timer that counts down before it starts recording, allowing to record voices, or more detailed options like for example showing a floating thumbnail for better visibility of the mouse moving.
3) When you are ready — click the RECORD button!
This Record button is the first button on the right of the menu panel. You can see it on every screenshot above. When the countdown ends (if you set up a timer option) menu disappears from the screen and it looks like nothing happens but the screen (or part of it) is still recording in the background. If you want to stop recording, just use the same shortcut as the one we use to open the tool and click on the Stop Screen Recording button.
4) Cut video (if you need)
Find your recorded video and watch it. If you are satisfied with the results, keep going with the next steps. If you are not you can cut the video to fit your needs or start recording again. On the Internet, you can find many free websites for cutting videos online. If I need to, I use for example online-video-cutter.
5) Convert .MOV to .GIF file
Find your recorded video and watch it. If you are satisfied with the results, keep going with this step 4. If you are not — I suggest you repeat steps from 1 to 3. Your video is saved by default with the .mov extension. We need to convert this into .gif format. In this tutorial, I use free movavi online converter but it doesn’t matter. On the Internet, you can find many free websites to do that online. I picked the first one on the list of Google search results.
Upload a file and select “Convert to” => Image => GIF.
Warning! If you are using a movavi website like me, it looks like GIF format is already selected but it’s just a placeholder and you have to choose deliberately GIF format again
6) Compress your GIF file
In most cases, your GIF file will be probably too big. You can upload on Medium only GIFs of size under 25MB. To compress your file use one of the free online websites. I use for example iloveimg.com/compress-image.
Your GIF is ready to add to an article!
How to add a GIF to an article on Medium?
To add a GIF open an article (a new one or edit an existing one) and hit enter to the new paragraph. You should see a plus-icon button. Click the button and see several enabled options. We are interested in the first option from the left: Add an image. As you can see in the screenshot below, Medium interprets as an image the following extensions: JPEG, PNG, and GIF.
References
- Cambridge Dictionary, website [accessed 22/01/24]
