A GIF - or graphics interchange format - is a bitmap file widely used around the internet. GIFs contain up to 256 colors, so they’re not often used for photos, but as they have lossless compression, they work well for navigation buttons and logos on websites. A huge difference between a GIF and another bitmap image file, like a JPG, is that they can be saved as animated GIFs, which cycle between images to create a short, looping animation. These are primarily designed for - and used across - websites on the internet. You’ve definitely come across them before, particularly on social media and image sharing apps.
PSD is a file extension associated with Photoshop documents, built-in Adobe Photoshop. While PSD files can be occasionally opened in other applications, they work most successfully when opened within Adobe Photoshop itself. PSDs are layered image files that store the individual layers used to construct the image, meaning they are editable within Photoshop itself. Designers often use PSDs for designing templates, digital painting, editing digital photos, and graphic design. Although editing PSD files is restricted to Photoshop and a small amount of other software, PSDs can be exported to and saved as a wide variety of other file types.
It’s possible to create an animated GIF in Photoshop, as well as edit images by adding masks, changing colors, and so on. But did you know it’s possible to convert a GIF to a PSD? Photoshop Documents have the ability to read transparent layers, so if you have a GIF with transparency, it will carry over to a PSD. Converting an animated GIF into a PSD will also maintain the information about the individual frames, storing them as separate layers. Converting a GIF to a PSD is easy to do in WinZip and takes just seconds.
WinZip is more than just a GIF to PSD converter. We built WinZip to convert multiple file formats, including the formats below.
Check some of the other file management features WinZip has to offer by downloading a free trial today.
