GifBuilder

GifBuilder was probably the first program to create GIF animations on Macintosh computers. It was very popular at the end of last century, winning the Ziff-Davis Shareware Award in the Graphics and Multimedia category in 96.

Important: All programs mentionned on this page are for Macintosh only. You can decode .sit.hqx files with Stuffit Expander, provided with Mac OS. The only application running on Intel Mac is GifBuilder 1.0. All other programs are Classic applications which require a PowerPC Mac.

The first version, GifBuilder 0.1, was released on 31st January 1996. The current version, released on 21st August 2000, is GifBuilder 1.0, a Carbon port of the original source code running natively in Mac OS X. The most robust version is said to be GifBuilder 0.5 and was released on 14th January 1997 long before Mac OS X; it's also available in French. Like GifBuilder 0.1, it runs nicely in the Classic environment.

GifBuilder was based largely on the source code of clip2gif, another popular utility for Macintosh whose goal was to create GIF images from CGI scripts. It has extensive support for AppleScript and AppleGuide. clip2gif 0.1 was released on 26th January 1995; clip2gif 0.7.2, the last version, on 5th January 1996. It got an Honorable Mention in the 1995 MacUser/ZDI Shareware Awards.

Please don't ask me any kind of support for GifBuilder or clip2gif, I wouldn't have the time.

GifBuilder and clip2gif are freeware. Any version of GifBuilder or clip2gif can be bundled as is, without modification, with magazines and books with appropriate acknowlegments, without any guarantee at all. I still appreciate postcards, and copies of books and magazines GifBuilder is distributed in!

This is the official home page of GifBuilder and clip2gif.