Load & Decode a GIF Image

The GifDecoder java class lets programmers load and decode gif images from a gif file formatted input stream with a single method call. The next methods to load and decode gif images are available:

    public static final GifImage decode(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException 
    public static final GifImage decode(File input) throws IOException 
    public static final GifImage decode(URL input) throws IOException 


Note: If you load GIF images for displaying purposes (for example to display as image icons within a swing application) then you should use the standard Java API: java.awt.Toolkit#getImage, java.awt.Toolkit#createImage or javax.swing.ImageIcon.

Java Example: Load a GIF Image and Extract GIF File Format Meta Info

import com.gif4j.GifDecoder;
import com.gif4j.GifFrame;
import com.gif4j.GifImage;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.awt.image.IndexColorModel;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Iterator;

// ...

      public GifImage loadGifImageAndExtractMetaInfo(File file) throws IOException {
        // load and decode gif image from the file
        GifImage gifImage = GifDecoder.decode(file);
        // print general GIF image info
        System.out.println("gif image format version: " + gifImage.getVersion());
        System.out.println("gif image logic screen width: " + gifImage.getScreenWidth());
        System.out.println("gif image logic screen height: " + gifImage.getScreenHeight());
        // check if one or more comments present
        if (gifImage.getNumberOfComments() > 0) {
            // get iterator over gif image textual comments
            Iterator commentsIterator = gifImage.comments();
            while (commentsIterator.hasNext())
                System.out.println(commentsIterator.next()); // print comments
        }
        System.out.println("number of frames: " + gifImage.getNumberOfFrames());
        // below we iterate frames in loop
        // but it can also be done using Iterator instance: gifImage.frames()
        for (int i = 0; i < gifImage.getNumberOfFrames(); i++) {
            System.out.println("------frame(" + (i + 1) + ")---------");
            GifFrame frame = gifImage.getFrame(i);
            System.out.println("width: " + frame.getWidth());
            System.out.println("height: " + frame.getHeight());
            System.out.println("position: " + frame.getX() + "," + frame.getY());
            System.out.println("disposal method: " + frame.getDisposalMethod());
            System.out.println("delay time: " + frame.getDelay());
            System.out.println("is interlaced: " + frame.isInterlaced());
            // get frame's color model
            IndexColorModel frameColorModel = frame.getColorModel();
            System.out.println("number of colors: " + frameColorModel.getMapSize());
            System.out.println("is transparent: " + frameColorModel.hasAlpha());
            System.out.println("transparent index: " + frameColorModel.getTransparentPixel());
            //get frame's representation as an Image
            Image image = frame.getAsImage();
            //get frame's representation as a BufferedImage
            BufferedImage bufferedImage = frame.getAsBufferedImage();
        }
        return gifImage;
    }