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javagifanimated-gif

How to get length (in time) from an animated GIF

Is there a way to find out how long a single-loop animated GIF will take to finish?

Solution

  • Well, the specifics sorta depends on what interface you're using to manipulate those animated GIFs (I'm not aware of a real slick way in native Java/AWT/Swing), however the basic idea would to calculate (frame rate * number of frames).

    If you're coding a GIF manipulation tool by hand, I recommend taking a look at http://www.onicos.com/staff/iz/formats/gif.html

    Hope this helps at least a little.

    Update: Try implement the ImageObserver interface. Take a look at the ImageObserver.FRAMEBITS flag in that class to detect frame updates. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/awt/image/ImageObserver.html

    This still leaves the question of how many frames the gif has. You might want to try taking a look at the Image.getProperty() function. I'm having some difficulty finding documentation as to whether there's a "frame" property, but take a look.