A single-header C/C++ library for high-performance animated GIF encoding with small file sizes and high visual quality.
msf_gif is a single-header animated GIF exporter written in C/C++ that enables real-time GIF recording and encoding. It solves the problem of generating high-quality animated GIFs with small file sizes and fast performance, using a constant-quality palette selection algorithm to avoid visual artifacts common in other encoders.
C and C++ developers who need to programmatically create animated GIFs in applications such as games, screen recording tools, or visualization software.
Developers choose msf_gif for its minimal dependencies, high performance, and consistent output quality, offering a simpler and faster alternative to more complex GIF encoding libraries while maintaining small file sizes.
A single-header animated GIF exporter
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The entire library is contained in one header file with no external dependencies, making it easy to integrate into C or C++ projects by simply including the file, as emphasized in the README.
Uses a constant-quality palette selection and dithering algorithm that avoids artifacts common in adaptive methods, ensuring equal fidelity across all image areas, demonstrated in the side-by-side comparison examples.
Optimized for speed with SSE support, encoding at hundreds of megabytes per second and several times faster than comparable libraries, ideal for real-time recording in applications like games.
Employs delta encoding between frames and a compression-friendly dithering kernel to reduce file size without sacrificing quality, as highlighted in the key features.
Only supports animated GIF encoding, so projects requiring other formats like video or static images must use additional libraries, limiting its versatility.
The README admits that downscaling high-resolution images on the CPU can be slow and complex, requiring external libraries like stb_image_resize2.h, which adds overhead and setup difficulty.
Detailed documentation is confined to the header file, with no standalone guides or tutorials, which may challenge developers new to low-level image encoding or seeking more examples.