Gif animations in Mail

I've read some threads about this problem, and while there is lively debate, there doesn't seem to be an answer. So I thought I would try it again with a new question.
A friend of mine (he has an old IMac) forwarded me an email with an animated gif. It was funny, and I wanted to forward it on. But I have never been able to do this. If I try to save the file, it saves as a MIME attachment, and I can't even open it. If I Download the file, the Get Info says it is a gif file, but if I open it in Preview, or attach it to a new email, it no longer animates and is just a still picture.
I tried forwarding the original email with the animated gif back to myself, and when it arrives, it no longer animates. My friend is no help. He's not really in to computing. He told me he just gets them from somebody else, and forwards it to me.
So why can I see the animated gif in my Mail, but can't save it, download it, cut & paste it, or forward it? I tried the Append Message suggestion from an old post, and that did not work either.
I noticed in some of the old posts some people seem to really hate gif's. I don't really care one way or the other. I just want to understand why my computer can receive them, but can't do anything else with them.

Although Jaguar and Panther Mail renders HTML received, they do not support composing HTML which also includes when forwarding a message received that was composed in HTML including animated gifs.
Although you cannot compose complex HTML within the body of a message with Tiger Mail, RTF with Tiger Mail is HTML and supports forwarding a message received that was composed in HTML including animated gifs.
Reason for this: if you automatically render all HTML received (with any email client with OS X) and a spammer uses HTML for message composition and includes embedded images or objects that must be rendered from a remote server, if the Mail.app Junk Mail filter does not automatically mark the message as junk and you open the message, this can reveal that your email address is valid to the spammer causing more spam to be received.
Copied from Why HTML in E-Mail is a Bad Idea:
"Because it introduces accessibility problems. When you write in plain text, the receiving mail client renders the text in whatever font the reader chooses. When you format email with HTML, the sender controls the formatting. But this is a trap: You only think your message will render the same way to the viewer as it appears to the sender. In reality, the receiver can end up squinting because the font looks so tiny, or vice versa. HTML is not rendered the same way from one viewing client to the next - all guarantee of accessiblity goes out the window. This is especially problematic for visually impaired persons."
Because it can introduce security issues and trojan horses -- it's a gateway to danger as any Outlook user can tell you. HTML can include any number of scripts, dangerous links, controls, etc.
Powerbook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Similar Messages

Why don't gif animations work in Mail 3.4?

I posted this earlier today on what I thought was the 10.5 Leopard section and as it turned out, it somehow posted in the Panther OS section. Doh! I'm sorry if you saw the other post and this is the second time you have read this today.
I have read through the Mail discussions since the release of Leopard trying to figure out why gif animations do not work in Leopard Mail but they do work in Tiger Mail. I have read several explanations by several different people giving various reasons why they do not work. I have little faith in the answers I've seen to date as to why they do not work in Leopard Mail, as every now and then I get an email with an embedded gif +that does animate+ in Leopard Mail.
If I download from Leopard Mail an animated gif file to my desktop that does not animate in Mail and then open that gif in TextEdit, it animates just fine.
If I take some of the gif files that do not animate in Leopard Mail and publish to an iWeb page, they animate just fine when I visit the published page.
If I open the same email that will not animate in Mail 3.4 in my .mac/.me account using Safari, the animations animate fine in the webmail.
This one really gets me. If I forward an email that contains embedded gif files that are known to animate and that do not animate in Leopard Mail to my iPhone, +they animate just fine in iPhone Mail+. *Go figure!* Why should/would they animate in my little old iPhone 3G Mail but not my full sized Mac PowerBook, using the powerful mail application, Mail?
According to some people who have posted responses as to why Leopard Mail does not support animations, Apple does not read the Discussion posts! I have made more than one trip to the Apple Genius Bar and asked why Apple does not read the Discussions and each time the answer has been, "Apple does read the Discussions. Apple employees do not reply to them." I really do think Apple reads these posts somewhere along the line and that software changes do occur because of some of the posts.
Apple: If you are reading this, what gives with Leopard Mail and gif animations? Why the step back from gif animation in Tiger Mail to hit and miss (mostly miss) animation in Leopard Mail? Why not post an Article explaining why animations should not work/do not work in Leopard Mail?
Joe

I have used OS X Feedback on several occasions and have never heard back from Apple regarding any of my queries nor have I seen any software changes come about because of any of my queries.
Apple doesn't respond to Feedback; they get way too many to have any time for that, but their engineering staff do keep track of what comes in and evaluates suggested changes all the time. I've made a good number of suggestions and I do get replies, but that's only because I have the email addresses for those who make the decisions, and I can't give those out.
Just because you haven't seen changes doesn't mean they didn't consider your suggestions or that they aren't planning on incorporating a feature that you and others have suggested in the future. After all, the next version of OS X, Snow Leopard, isn't due until next year, and they're working on things for beyond that even now. Nothing has been finalized, so everything is open to more change after Snow Leopard.
Mulder

Using .gif animations in signature file

I have a .gif animation that I want to use in my signature file, but the animation doesn't seem to work. I have created a signature and placed the files in the signature - just no animation. Any suggestions?

First of all we are only talking about animated gifs, not static gifs and we are only talking about Mail.app.
Animated gifs are still viewable but it will be static if you attach one to a mail message and view it in Mail.app. It will play if you view it using other programs, like Preview or other Mail clients.

How to generate gif animation by SDK

Hi.
We hope to generate gif animaiton by photoshop sdk. Is anyone
be familar with this problem? If so, please contact me by
email: [email protected]

Now (March 2009) there is a way around it.
If a gif animation is inserted in a mail message from Safari it doen't work. It doesn't move. Neither in the sent nor in the received message.
If, however, the animation is dragged to the message from Firefox, it moves. Both in the sent and in the received message.
It is a bit sad that one has to use Firefox for this reason. I see it as a defect in Safari.

Gif Animations

First off, I'd like to say I've been making gif animations in Photoshop Elements since 2.0, and I've had no problem with 6.0 either--- when I was on Windows.
For whatever reason, when I open a .gif animated image, I get an error message that says:
"This is an animated GIF. You can only view one frame. Saving over this file will result in a loss of information."
EVERY single time I open a gif, and as soon as I hit okay, it opens to the single frame locked. As I said, I've never had this problem with Photoshop Elements 6.0 in Windows... Any suggestions/ help please?

Your post is unclear on some important points. When you say "when I was in Windows" does that mean you are talking about a mac now? What version of PSE are you talking about?
If you mean PSE 8 for mac, you would be better off downloading a program like the free Giffun from stone.com and using that for animated gifs. For one thing the frame rate has been broken in the mac version of PSE in both 6 and 8.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Gif Animated Problem

Hey guys , Im currently having problems with my Adobe premiere
Im trying to import an image thats a .gif but it wont let me sais File not supported
So I tried importing another .gif image and it worked
Basically , im trying to import a .gif image and it wont let while letting me import other .gif images except for the one I want
Thank you

As I said
I have another .gif animated image that works with Premiere
So yeah , .Gifs work
And I can import that , but I cant import the one I want
And the problem is my Animated project has 93 frames

Loading .gif animations into Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac

For years I used Photoshop Elements 2 for Windows to make .gif animations with great success.
Then I switched to a Mac and bought Elements 8 for Mac. Now, I am finding out that I can not load any
of the animations I made using Elements 2 into 8. (And yet I can load animations I made using 8 into 2.)
In fact, I can not load any .gif animations into 8, other than if I make one and save it
as .psd. 8 allows me to make them, but not load them as .gifs.
My question: Is there an easy way to load .gif animations into PS Elements 8 so a
person can work on the individual frames? Am I going to have to convert any .gif animation I
want to import into 8 first into .psd? All I seem to get when I try to load a .gif is the message
"This is an animated gif. You can only view one frame." I have searched manuals and the
Net looking for a specific method of using PSE8 to load gif animations intact (not just one frame).
Is it possible? Thanks. (I also have noticed that Elements 8 will not allow me to change the frame
speed -- it is unchangeable at .2)

Dear Ms. Brundage -
I followed the directions detailed in your blog entitled "Moving a Catalog from Windows to Mac" as well as your description of the process on page 58 of your book "Photoshop Elements 9 - the missing manual."
I installed PE9 for Windows and converted my catalog. I then backed up that catalog to an external hard drive. I then connected the hard drive to my MAC on which I also installed Photoshop Elements 9 for MAC. I opened the Organizer and tried to restore that converted catalog. However, for each file in the converted catalog, a dialog box opened that said "Could not restore file: /Volumes/Name of External Hard Drive/Filename.JPG."
I then made a second backup of the converted catalog using Photoshop Elements 9 for Windows and then tried to restore that catalog again on the MAC using Photoshop Elements 9 for MAC, again to no avail.
Do you have any idea what the problem may be?
Thanks again.
Steve Haas
[email protected]
[email protected]
(770) 313-0038

Add static background image to all frames of gif animation

First, I'm not a fireworks regular. I use it when I have to to get something done (mostly web optimazations). I would use it more but, frankly in many cases the UI is counter intuitive to everything else adobe makes.
Here is my problem...
I need to add (not replace) a static background to ALL existing frames(states) in a fireworks gif animation (with alpha) , the end product gif will be an element in the Edge web animation...details
I have an animated seq of a rotating object that was created in 3ds max and rendered as a png seq with alpha.
I opened the SEQ "as animation" in fireworks. I set the frame rate. It plays fine. So far so good....
I imported an image that I want to be BEHIND the animated seq on ALL frames. I tried puting it on a sub layer behind, i tried puting it on it's own layer behind, but it ONLY shows on the first frame (state).
I tried using "share with all states" but it replaces the SEQ images already on the "states" instead of adding it behind them like in the arrangement of the layers.
So first, can this be done and if so how?
Second, why is this process so counter intuitive in fireworks? I mean if a layer is behind something then it should be a simple button click or check box etc to say "show on all frames (states)", you know like any other product adobe makes. Even "image ready" made more sense than this. My thought process was that since I needed to end up in fireworks to create and optimize the gif that i should be able to put it together there also but it's turning out to be a lot harder than it should. I guess I can just composite my elements in AE (which is a piece of cake compared to fireworks) and then render another SEQ that I import to fireworks to create the optimized gif. While I'm a fan of the "creative suite" concept, one of my biggest complaints about the "suite" is the lack of master oversite so the common functions, keyboard shortcuts, and fundimental UI concepts are consitant accross all the apps so it functions as a "suite" and not just a collection of seperate applications. I know that demanding that all applications follow certian rules would slow development, in the long run it would make it a lot easier for the end user to spend more time being "creative" and less time trying to figure out why something doesn't work like it does in all the other apps. Just my $.02
Thanks for any help and or explaination
Joel H

Thanks for the response.
You know I tried that exact thing the only difference being I didn't change the layer names. So not naming the layers would keep that from working ?? Also as you eluded to draging layers to position them in fireworks is a delicate operation. It always seems to take 2 or 3 times to get it to drop where you want it. I named the layers and it works as you said. Unfortunately I was really pressed for time so I had already given up on fireworks and just composited the SEQ with the BG layer in AE and kicked out another PNG SEQ and then open that "as animation" in Fireworks and then optimized and exported as a gif. So there are allways several ways to do things.
Thanks again,
Joel H

How Can I Edit Gif Animation

I have a gif animation of a cat playing a sax. In ImageReady I want to edit it to replace the sax with a microphone so I "Placed" a vector gif of the microphone- after erasing the sax and cloning to fill in where needed. The problem is that when I attempt to move the microphone in the first layer, it happens to all the layers and if I try to move it to a new position in any other layer, it moves in the others too. How can I make it "stick" in each layer, in different positions? I have tried to lock all the layers but the one I am working on... I just don't know what I need to do. thanks

Here is one fairly quick and easy way that should work with Win98. Create a new object, but not a Lookout object. Click on the activeX tab and look in the Recommended folder. There you should find Microsoft Web Browser. Select this as your new object to create. Change the name if you want, but leave everything else blank. Now from Windows Explorer simply drag the GIF file and drop it in the object display. The animation should begin doing whatever it does right away.

Importing GIF Animations - Help!

Am I doing something wrong? I created some animations in
Photoshop and saved them as GIF files. They view great in HTML, but
when I import the images into Captivate, the timing on some of the
animations are messed up. I played around with the timing in
Captivate, but it made no difference. I also made the animations
play longer in Photoshop and then imported them again, but again,
it made no difference. Also, I want the background of the
animations to be transparant, and when I import the images, the
background changes black?
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? Thankyou.

HI yankeebrit and welcome to our community
As for the timing, I'm guessing you have an option in
Photoshop to determine or configure the speed? I have played with
an older application called Microsoft GIF Animator and you are able
to configure the duration of each animation frame there. Often, a
GIF animation is somewhere around 10 frames per second.
As for the background color, I'm guessing that black (or near
black) is set as the transparent color in Photoshop? I don't
believe the transparency will come through. So probably the best
you can do is to set the background color to match whatever you are
placing the image against.
Hopefully something here was helpful... Rick

Importing gif animations into Elements 12 on Mac

Ok, I have searched quite extensively for a specific, accurate answer and am not
clear about the conflicting responses I have encountered. To wit: I bought Elements 2
for a PC several years ago. It had two nice features for my enjoyment of making .gif animations.
(1) It allowed me to import the .gif animations AND all the layers. (2) It allowed me to control
the speed when I made my own animations and saved them in .gif format.
However, when I bought Elements 8 for my iMac, I discovered I could not load .gif animations
and get the frames/layers, nor could I choose any speed except .2.
Ok, these are my specific questions: If I order Elements 12 to run on my iMac (OS X 10.9.2)
will it allow me to load the entire .gif animation and show the frames/layers, AND will it allow me
to choose my own speed when saving a .gif animation.
I know if I save an animation in .psd format that I can reload it, showing the layers. That is not
what I want to do. I want to save in .gif format and load in .gif format. Thanks!

PSE12 should be able to open layered gifs with all the original layers intact. You need to use:
File >> Save For Web
When the dialog opens if you select GIF from the top dropdown list the information for sped is normally grayed out. However if you put a checkmark in the box “Animate” the fields for frame delay and looping become live. You can then change the speed and have looping forever. Then re-save.
Why not download the trial version from the link below and use it free for 30 days. You can then see if it fully meets your needs.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_elements&loc=us&PID=2159997

Gif Animation Problem

When i import a Gif Animation( Loop in QT Inspector) it works perfectly in Presentaion Mode but when i try to export it , the Animation will just play once thru and then Stop !
Can anybody confirm ?
cheers,
D

Quit multi-posting and cross-posting questions. Keep the discussion in a single posting so everybody know what has been suggested. And that would be in the Swing posting since this is a Swing related question.

Gif animation in PDF

I want a gif animation to be played in PDF. Is this possible? I am using MS Word 2003 and Acrobat 8.1.2.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

disc burning device not found wrote:
how can i add a gif animation to a pdf file????
can i add a gif animation in indesign and export to pdf????
An animated GIF can be dragged to a TextEdit file or a browser window. You can't put an animated gif into a pdf file, or even ID.
-mj

Gif animations in keynote

How to insert gif animations in slides and make them animate in slide show mode?
How to do the same in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac?
Vittal

I found following link.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6065771
Hope this helps

GIF Animations Not Repeating

For some reason, GIF animations aren't repeating for me ... I see one rotation of them, then it just stays still. Which is a pain. Hoping someone knows a fix of some kind!

Gentlemen, I very much appreciate what you're trying to do, but I know enough about the files in question to know that I don't need to send you examples. I was asking a technical question about Safari, of which I know little. Not about GIF files, of which I know plenty. I appreciate your candor, but you are not dealing with someone who is asking the wrong question.
However, after just downloading the new Safari 3.0 beta, the problem's gone! Heh. What timing. Thank you for at least trying to help.

Gif animations in Mail

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for