The gif is an image format on the web that is nearly a synonym for animations, the moving equivalent of the PNG. It is one of the oldest formats to gain widespread support among most browser vendors. While the current trend is towards webm and other technologies it remains widely used (although rarely lauded for surviving so long).

The image library offers generic support for it by default while the direct usage of the crate allows a more nuanced usage of the decoding and encoding settings. The code can make use of the NeuQuant algorithm to quickly generate fairly well compressed palettes. The decoding can also be stream input data.