Animated GIF optimization by adaptive color local table management
This addresses storage saving issues for hosting platforms that handle animated GIFs, but it is incremental as it builds on existing GIF format without changing the compression method.
The paper tackles the problem of reducing storage for animated GIFs, which remain popular but use outdated compression, by proposing a parametric optimization technique based on Local Color Table selection and color remapping; tests on 1000 GIF files show good byte reduction with limited or no loss in perceived color quality.
After thirty years of the GIF file format, today is becoming more popular than ever: being a great way of communication for friends and communities on Instant Messengers and Social Networks. While being so popular, the original compression method to encode GIF images have not changed a bit. On the other hand popularity means that storage saving becomes an issue for hosting platforms. In this paper a parametric optimization technique for animated GIFs will be presented. The proposed technique is based on Local Color Table selection and color remapping in order to create optimized animated GIFs while preserving the original format. The technique achieves good results in terms of byte reduction with limited or no loss of perceived color quality. Tests carried out on 1000 GIF files demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategy.