Windows snipping tool gets GIF support

Microsoft has prepared a treat for fans of moving images in GIF format for the weekend: The Windows Snipping Tool is getting support for the GIF format.

Microsoft has now announced the new Snipping Tool version in the Windows Insider blog. The GIF export function is designed to create animated GIFs from screen recordings – “designed to boost your productivity and turn quick shots into shared moments”, as the marketing describes the function.

Snipping tool: GIF function for screen videos

If you start the snipping tool with the key combination “Windows key”, “Shift” and “R”, it opens directly in screen video recording mode. Anyone interested can now make a moving image recording of their desktop. Once you have done this, the preview of the video opens. A new feature is an icon at the top right of the snipping tool labeled “GIF”. Clicking on it opens the GIF export function with the corresponding dialog.

The options for GIF export remain manageable for now. Those interested can choose between high and low quality. Microsoft does not indicate which parameters affect this and how, but only provides general descriptions such as “Smaller file size that is faster to export and copy” or “Larger file size with clearer image”.

The GIF export is limited to a runtime of 30  seconds or less. For longer clips, the snipping tool exports the first 30  seconds of the recording.

Microsoft is distributing version 11.2505.21.0 of the snipping tool with the new GIF export function on the Windows Canary and Developer Insider channels. Whether this will lead to a new flood of animated GIFs cannot be predicted at present. The function can be used not only for “fun animations”, but also to make instructions clearer, for example.

Microsoft last updated the snipping tool in April. The developers there gave the Windows Insider version more convenient text recognition.

(dmk)