I don’t like Flash animation. I do like .GIF animation. In years past, the free Windows GIF Animator served me well. Until a few nights ago, when I created an animation Firefox rejected. Here’s the exact error:

The image “animation.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

I searched for a solution, couldn’t find a fix. My theory is the Firefox developers could not be bothered with supporting the idiosyncrasies of Windows GIF Animator, such a dated program. Are there millions of images out there no longer animating because of this? I have no idea. I just know I need something that works.

I looked all over the Internet for a replacement for Windows GIF Animator, it wasn’t easy. Most of the links I found pointed to expired domains, parked full of ads. Then I found GIF Movie Gear. It’s not free, but there is a fully-functional trial version available for download. The interface is intuitive, I had an animation looping in Firefox with just a few clicks. Should I register it?

In the spirit of the 21st century, it will even save .PNG animations. However, APNG (Animated PNG) is not supported by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Too bad. If you want to see APNG animations you need Firefox or Opera.