GIF Frame Reverser

How to use the gif frame reverser

1. Choose a GIF.
2. Reverse it, or tick the option to play out and back.
3. Rebuild and download.

About this tool

Reversing is the simplest operation on an animation and the one with the most obvious use: an action that looks ordinary forwards is frequently funny backwards, and a loop that jumps at the end stops jumping when it plays out and back instead.

That second option is worth the extra control. A straightforward reverse still jumps when it loops, because the last frame is followed by the first. Appending the reverse — minus the endpoints, so neither is shown twice — produces an animation that returns to where it started, which is what a boomerang is and why they loop so smoothly.

Each frame keeps its own delay when reversed, so an animation with varying timing reverses faithfully rather than being flattened to an average.

Browsers display animated GIFs and offer no way to read their frames — draw one to a canvas and you get the first frame only. The GIF is therefore decoded by an implementation on this page: header, colour table, LZW-compressed image data, and the disposal model that composes each frame onto the last. That last part is the one usually skipped, and skipping it is why frames come out of some tools with holes in them, since most GIFs store only the pixels that changed between frames.

Common uses

• Making a loop that does not jump when it repeats.
• Reversing an action for effect.
• Turning a short clip into a boomerang.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my reversed GIF still jump when it loops?

Because the last frame is followed by the first. Playing out and back instead returns the animation to where it started, which is what removes the jump.

Do frame delays reverse too?

Yes. Each frame keeps its own delay, so an animation with varying timing reverses faithfully.

Does the boomerang option double the file size?

Close to it, since it nearly doubles the frames. The endpoints are not repeated, so it is slightly less than double.