GifLoop vs LICEcap

GifLoop is an iOS app for creating and editing animated GIFs, with projects that can start from photos, camera captures, video frames, or a blank canvas. Its tools include filters, text, drawing, onion skinning, glitch and jitter effects, and background removal. Creators can choose among seven loop modes, including ping-pong, random, fade loop, and play-once; per-frame timing is available on Pro. Free exports GIF and MP4, while Pro adds MOV, Live Photo, and frame strip. The custom Swift encoder offers controls for palette, dithering, lossy compression, file-size targets, and resolution. Free is free and permits up to 15 frames per project; GifLoop Pro is $1.99, paid once as a one-time purchase. The app requires iOS 17 or later and runs on iPhone and iPad. The maker says processing stays on-device and creative content is not uploaded to its servers; the editor and all five export formats work offline.

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.