gifencoder

Streaming server-side animated (and non-animated) gif generation for node.js

This code is based on the fine work of the following developers, but adds server-side generation with node-canvas and support for node.js Buffers:

• Kevin Weiner (original Java version - kweiner@fmsware.com)
• Thibault Imbert (AS3 version - bytearray.org)
• Johan Nordberg (gif.js - code@johan-nordberg.com)

Installation

This module is installed via npm:

$ npm install gifencoder

Streaming API - Duplex Piping with Writes

You can also stream writes of pixel data (or canvas contexts) to the encoder:

var GIFEncoder = require('gifencoder');
var encoder = new GIFEncoder(854, 480);
var pngFileStream = require('png-file-stream');
var fs = require('fs');
 
pngFileStream('test/**/frame?.png')
  .pipe(encoder.createWriteStream({ repeat: -1, delay: 500, quality: 10 }))
  .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('myanimated.gif'));

NB: The chunks that get emitted by your read stream must either by a 1-dimensional bitmap of RGBA data (either an array or Buffer), or a canvas 2D context.

Example: Streaming API - Reads

You can also use a streaming API to receive data:

var GIFEncoder = require('gifencoder');
var Canvas = require('canvas');
var fs = require('fs');
 
var encoder = new GIFEncoder(320, 240);
// stream the results as they are available into myanimated.gif 
encoder.createReadStream().pipe(fs.createWriteStream('myanimated.gif'));
 
encoder.start();
encoder.setRepeat(0);   // 0 for repeat, -1 for no-repeat 
encoder.setDelay(500);  // frame delay in ms 
encoder.setQuality(10); // image quality. 10 is default. 
 
// use node-canvas 
var canvas = new Canvas(320, 240);
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
 
// red rectangle 
ctx.fillStyle = '#ff0000';
ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 320, 240);
encoder.addFrame(ctx);
 
// green rectangle 
ctx.fillStyle = '#00ff00';
ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 320, 240);
encoder.addFrame(ctx);
 
// blue rectangle 
ctx.fillStyle = '#0000ff';
ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 320, 240);
encoder.addFrame(ctx);
 
encoder.finish();

The above code will generate the following animated GIF: