GIF vs PNG
- GIF — lossless LZW compression limited to a palette of 256 colours, 1-bit transparency (a pixel is either fully clear or fully opaque) and animation.
- PNG — lossless compression with full colour and an 8-bit alpha channel for smooth, semi-transparent edges. An animated variant (APNG) exists, but this page produces still PNGs.
Converting to PNG keeps every pixel exactly, so the image looks identical — including the GIF’s limited colours.
Animated GIFs: only the first frame
The file structure of each GIF is read to count its frames. For an animated GIF, the first frame becomes the PNG and the row reports how many frames there were, so you are never surprised by a still image.
If the frame you want is not the first one, you need a frame-extraction tool; this page is built for still images and poster frames.
Transparency in GIFs
A GIF marks one palette colour as transparent. Those pixels become fully transparent in the PNG, and the row shows the transparent share.
Because GIF has no partial transparency, edges drawn against a transparent background stay jagged or keep a coloured fringe from the original export; PNG cannot add the smooth edges back.
File size
The PNG written by the browser uses full colour rather than a 256-colour palette, so it can be larger than the GIF, especially for simple graphics. The row shows the exact change.
For a smaller file that keeps transparency, convert the PNG to WebP; for photos without transparency, PNG to JPG.
Dithering, frames and banding in the PNG
- Dotted patterns remain: the dithering the GIF used to fake extra colours is part of the pixels and stays in the PNG.
- The PNG shows a different frame than the thumbnail: file browsers sometimes preview a later frame; this page always uses the first.
- Colours look banded: GIF’s 256-colour limit already reduced them, and converting cannot restore them.