There are many reasons why people like to take screenshots. First of all, it helps document an important event or scenario. One good example of this is when you are taking a screenshot of your online conversations and video chats. You can also create a quick tutorial by simply taking a series of screenshots. Even so, screenshots may not be the best option especially if you want to record your entire screen activity. So instead of saving your screenshots as still images, why don’t you just use LICEcap? It’s a very simple screen capture tool that will automatically save your screen recordings as animated GIFs.
![Licecap github Licecap github](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126505946/574295686.gif)
What Is It and What Does It Do
Main Functionality
If you still haven’t heard of LICEcap, you might as well know that it is a free screen capture tool that is created and developed by Cockos Incorporated. With this software, you can record a particular segment or area of your computer screen and then you get to save it as a GIF or LCF file. This also means that you can directly save your screen recordings as animated GIFs.
Take note LICEcap works on Windows and Mac OS X. We specifically tested the Windows version for this review.
Pros
A blog about cycle touring in New Zealand including descriptions and photos of the best cycling routes and advice on touring bikes and equipment. Download latest version of LICEcap for Windows. Safe and Virus Free. Capture and record full and partial screens on a PC or Mac. LightShot 5.5.0.4.
- Very simple user interface, easy to use
- Can instantly record your screen and save it as GIF or LCF
- Users can specify the screen area or portion that they want to record – just drag the LICEcap window to any area and then you key in your desired screen width and height
- You can pre-format your animated GIFs by adding a title screen, etc. You can also format your GIFs in a way that they won’t keep on repeating like an endless loop.
- Hotkey support – just press CTRL + ALT + P to pause your screen recording (repeat the same hotkey command to resume or “unpause”)
- You can set your preferred frame rate (FPS)
- Portable
Cons
- Lack of user options – there are no buttons for minimize, maximize and full screen, there’s also no option for setting your GIF to play in reverse order
- There is no hotkey command for “stop” and “record”
- No built-in editor – you cannot select the frames that you want to delete, you cannot resize your GIF, there’s no crop tool and you can’t even add some simple borders, arrows or text effects
Discussion
LICEcap has many uses and it’s mostly great for users who are frequently doing some reviews and tutorials. It’s also great for documenting certain events in a more detailed format. You could even use it for taking screen recordings of your online gaming milestones and achievements.
What’s great about this tool is that it is very straightforward. It does not contain any complex controls or commands. It’s also portable so you can use on it any computer or laptop. When using this tool, all you need to do is to adjust its recording window to your preferred size and then you place it on top of any area that you want to capture as an animated GIF. You can also set your preferred frame rate. Just keep in mind a high frame rate will also affect your animated GIF’s file size.
After that, you press its “record” button and then you specify the location as to where you want your file to be saved. You can also set your GIF’s playback properties and title frame. Once everything is set, you click the “save” button and then the tool will automatically record your screen activity. You can also “pause” your screen recording and as soon as you’re done, just press the “stop” button. The output will then be saved to your preferred location.
Functionality wise, I really like the fact that this tool offers a simpler way to record any screen activity. It may not be as good as those advanced screen recording tools but it’s definitely handy. It’s just that it could have been made better. It still lacks a lot of important features and user options. I also find it a bit disappointing that it cannot properly record my computer screen in its full resolution. This is because when I set the LICEcap window to full screen, the “record” button will be pushed out of the screen area plus I couldn’t even use a hotkey to initiate the said action.
While I didn’t have any major concerns regarding this software, it’s still like an unpolished gem. It has a great potential but with its current version, it still hasn’t showed its true capability. Nonetheless, it’s fully capable of taking screen recordings without any lags, glitches or errors. The quality of its animated GIFs can also be compared to those that you can usually generate using an advanced GIF generator.
Conclusion and Download Link
I have to say that even if this software lacks in certain aspects, it is still reliable enough. It may not be the best option for recording your computer screen in full resolution but you can definitely rely on it especially if you just want to create an animated GIF out of a certain part of your screen. Aside from that, it will save your screen recording as a GIF so it makes it easier for you to share or upload your animated screen recordings to any website, social network or blog.
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 1.23
Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista and 7, Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Download size: 300KB
VirusTotal malware scan results: 1/47
Is it portable? Yes
GIFs are fun to watch and make. You can stumble upon GIFs while scrolling through your social media feed, these gifs might make you giggle or put a smile on your face. Moreover, GIFs can also be used for businesses. If you want to create GIFs for either pleasure or your business, you can use an app for it and it will take a few minutes.
In this post, we have listed some of the best GIF makers for Mac, let’s have a look on!
1. GIF Brewery 3
GIF Brewery 3 is a GIF maker app for Mac, which can help you create GIFs from a video file stored on your computer. You can put a few images and videos together. If you want to record videos, you need to set the starting and ending slots, insert overlays, add slices and more. You can resize, crop or adjust canvas size or change the color of the background. While creating a GIF, you can set a time delay for a single or all items. Once done, you can save the GIF using a single click. The app comes with a simple interface which makes it easy to use.
11 Best Free VPN For Mac in 2020Looking for privacy and security while surfing internet on Mac, then check out the free and best VPN services for...
2. Giphy Capture
Giphy Capture is a free GIF maker apps for Mac which uses screen recordings for making GIFs. To capture a GIF, click to start recording and click again to stop it. You need to go to the editing area to make desirable changes. With the app, you can choose loop type to be reverse, normal or others. You can also change the GIF resolution from low to high or even HD. You can also add a fun caption, change style, text color, size or animation style. If you can upload GIF to the web if you have an account with Giphy. Else you can store the output to your computer.
3. Puppetry GIF Maker
![Licecap Download Mac Licecap Download Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126505946/580322661.jpg)
Puppetry Gif Maker for Mac is a GIF making app which works only with videos. You need to locate the video and make changes as per your need. You can set starting and ending times. You can also see a GIF-making the GIF created. You can change frame rate, output size, loops and speed. Once you are done, click on Save button and it is done!
4. Smart GIF Maker
Smart GIF Maker app is one of the best GIF making app which enables a user to create GIF on Mac. All you need to do is import a video and app will divide it into frames, which you can edit, remove as per your requirements. You can use images and apply the same editing tools to create a GIFs. With every frame, you get eraser tool, modify the drawing size, change the background color and more. You can also edit frames, set delay times and adjust the loops on main screen. Once done, you can check the preview of the image and export it to your computer.
Download: Smart GIF Maker (Free)
Download: Smart GIF Maker (Free)
5. Gifrocket
Gifrocket for Mac is an app that can be used for GIF making, which works only with video files. You can set starting and ending times, change the width of GIFs in pixels. All you need to do is drag a file to the app’s interface. Within a few seconds GIF will be ready. You can get the output GIF in the folder from where you get the video. You get GIF created without much of an effort.
Also Read:-
5 Best VFX Software For MacPlanning to augment the quality of your video or film by adding some VFX effects to them? We are here...
Licecap Free Download For Mac
6. Make A GIF
Make a GIF is best online GIF maker for Mac which comes with a lot of GIF categories to choose from. Some of the interesting categories are animation GIFs, entertainment GIFs, action GIFs, cartoon GIFs, art and design GIFs. You can also create GIF by taking input from YouTube, Facebook, webcam, pictures, videos and more. All you need to so is drag and drop pictures or videos on the create a GIF page of the website. You can create a GIF which is 5 seconds long or 20 seconds if you have a free account with make a GIF. You can take 20 images to create GIFs.
7. LICEcap
Licecap Download Mac Download
LICEcap is one of the best free GIF making apps for Mac which enables you to capture an area of desktop and save it to .GIF. It is an simple and intuitive application compatible for both Windows and Mac. This lightweight app works to provide high performance. You can move the screen capture frame during recording. You can use Shift and Space (hotkey) to switch to pause while recording. It allows you to pause & restart recording, with discretionary inserted text messages. The app comes with adjustable maximum recording frame rate, so that CPU usage can be managed. You can record GIFs with mouse button.
8. PicGIF
PicGIF, yet another application which can help you making GIF with ease. You can quickly create magnificent animated GIFs from videos and photos. You can modify sequence, GIF size, Frame Delay and more. You can turn your continuous snapshots to incredible animated GIFs. You can use live photos to create GIF photo slideshows. The app comes with real-time preview to check GIF made before exporting. Once you are satisfied with what you have created, you can save it & share it your friends. You can export it to Finder or share it using email, Tumblr or iMessage.
Top 5 Best Free Voice Changing App for...Turn your fun-mode on by installing some of the best voice changing apps for Mac currently available in the market....
Licecap 64 Bit Download
So, that is it! This is the list of some of the best GIF makers on Mac. You can select Colors, type of GIFs and make GIFs to add fun to your social media page with no hassle.