Gifcurry vs LICEcap

Gifcurry is a free, open-source video editor for creating and editing GIFs on Linux and macOS. It accepts GIFs or videos and saves results as GIFs or videos. Both graphical and command-line interfaces are available. Editing controls cover cropping, trimming, seeking, duration and size changes, frame-rate settings, color-count adjustment, dithering, and subtitle import. Text overlays can be configured by font, size, color, position, outline, rotation, and timing. Linux installation options include an AppImage, prebuilt binaries, pacman, and snap; Mac installation instructions are provided in the project readme. Running it requires GTK+, GStreamer, FFmpeg, and ImageMagick. The maker says Windows will most likely work but has not tested it. The project began in 2016 and uses the BSD-3-Clause license. Suggested uses include GIFs for pull requests, README files, presentation slides, email replies, indie-game promotion, and custom Slack animated emoji.

LICEcap captures a selected area of a Windows or macOS desktop and saves animated recordings as GIF or LCF files. During recording, the frame can be moved, recording can be paused and restarted, and an optional text message can be inserted when pausing. Shift+Space provides a global pause toggle. Capture settings include a maximum frame rate, a basic title frame, mouse-button recording and elapsed-time display. LCF is the native format; the maker says it offers higher compression than GIF, more than 256 colors per frame and more accurate timestamps. LCF recordings can play in REAPER, where they can be converted to GIF or another video format. LICEcap is GPL free software, and download packages include source code. Version 1.32 downloads for Windows and macOS are dated June 8, 2022. Listed Windows support spans XP through 11, while macOS requirements cover 10.7–12.x on Intel 64-bit or M1. The maker recommends a reasonably fast CPU and at least 1GB of RAM, especially for LCF encoding. Discussion is directed to Cockos Forums.