Which instant messaging app do you use most as your daily communication tool? Do you use GIF images quite often when chatting online with your friends, twitting a message on Twitter, or sharing your thoughts on Facebook? I bet you do. Sometimes, an emoji or GIF image can better express one’s emotion than texts. And sending an emoji or GIF image is much faster than sending a string of texts that you have to type one by one. However, more often than not, you may want to convert your own MOV videos to GIFs to trick your friends by surprise, and this is when and where a GIF creator is necessary. Here in the following article, our main topic focuses on the top 7 MOV to GIF converters that can help you make custom GIFs with your MOV videos. Read on to learn all the tricks. 

Section 1. MOV and GIF explained

Before jumping directly to the topic of MOV to GIF conversion, it is very necessary for us to first get a general idea of what an MOV and GIF file is, respectively.     

1.1 What is an MOV file

Initially developed by Apple but now compatible with both Windows and macOS operating systems, the .mov file format is the file extension that is used by the QuickTime media software to save movie files and video clips to a hard disk drive or other media devices such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Files that are saved in .mov format are compressed, making it easier to download and stream video from the Internet to your computer or portable media devices and now MOV container format is widely used for storing and distributing movies and videos online.

1.2 What is a GIF file

A GIF, short for Graphical Interchange Format, is an image format invented in 1987 by a US software developer named Steve Wilhite, who was looking for a way to animate images in the smallest file size. In short, GIFs are a series of images or soundless video that will loop continuously and doesn’t require anyone to press play. Once considered juvenile and unprofessional and only popular on sites like Tumblr, Buzzfeed and Reddit, GIFs are now fully accepted as an essential tool, even by social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, etc. In other words, GIFs are now everywhere!

Section 2. Convert MOV to GIF on PCs

Now that we know what MOV and GIF stand for, we’re ready to see how we can convert MOV to GIF on Windows PCs with a MOV to GIF converter software, which is not hard to find from internet.

2.1 DVDFab Video Editor (Convert MOV to GIF)

Developed by the world leading multimedia solution provider DVDFab Software, Video Editor is an advanced video editor software that delivers a myriad of robust features for both beginners and creative professionals to edit videos the way they like. Among all its video editing capabilities, converting MOV to GIF is just one simple and very easy function that requires no learning curve at all.

Refer to the illustrated guides below to see how to convert MOV to GIF with just a few clicks.

Step 1 — After launching DVDFab Video Editor, load your target .mov file to the main interface, using the Import button at the top left corner, or the Drag & Drop feature.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 2 — Hover the mouse pointer over the video you just loaded, you’ll see a green plus icon showing up at the bottom right corner of the video thumbnail. Click on that plus icon to add the .mov video to the timeline.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 3 — Click the Export button from the top menu bar. At the popup window, rename the output file, choose your wanted output folder, and set the output format as GIF, using the dropdown menu.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 4 — Click the Export button at the bottom right corner of this window to convert MOV to GIF.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Additional tips: as a top-class video editor software, DVDFab Video Editor can do many more video editing things than converting .mov to GIF image. If your video is too long to be output as a GIF file, then you can use the Split feature to extract just a shorter clip or video footage to convert mov to .gif image. Besides, before the conversion, you can also edit the .mov video clip using the rich features offered by Video Editor.

Be noted that DVDFab Video Editor is an independent product line that requires separate purchase at its online store ($54.99/year or $99.99/lifetime). However, you can try the software for 30 days to make sure it can meet all your video editing demands before making a hasty decision.

2.2 DVDFab Toolkit (convert .mov to .gif)

DVDFab Toolkit is another independent product line from DVDFab Software that packs more than 25 small utility tools covering the jobs of video editing, audio editing, image editing and subtitles editing. Among the four image tools it offers, the Video to GIF is actually the one you can use to convert .mov to .gif images. Different from Video Editor, the Video to GIF module in DVDFab Toolkit works as an independent mov to gif converter, which means, it only does one simple job, that’s converting mov to .gif image, nothing else is there to confuse you.

See the picture below how the Video to GIF module in DVDFab Toolkit help you convert .mov to .gif image, fast and efficiently:

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

As shown above, this mov to gif converter allows you to directly set the starting point and ending point from you MOV video to convert to GIF image. And it also gives you the freedom to decide how many times you want to loop the chosen video footage, the loop speed, and the frame size, even the frame delay time as well.

Section 3. Convert MOV to GIF on Macs

If you are running a Mac computer at home, DVDFab Video Editor and Toolkit won’t work for you. But there are many alternatives that are designed specifically for macOS. Now move on to see how you can convert mov to gif on your iMac, Macbook, or whatever Mac models you are running.

3.1 GIPHY Capture (MOV to GIF Mac)

Converting mov to gif on Mac computers is just as easy as you do on Windows PCs. GIPHY Capture is one of the mov to gif converters for macOS you can use for that target. Also known as GifGrabber at the early stage, GIPHY Capture is capable of easily and quickly converting whatever content displayed on your Mac device into GIF images. Furthermore, this app also features many other functions as well, such as adding captions, adjusting the size, trimming the .mov clips for the desired frame, and others. And most importantly, it is free.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Refer to the steps below to see how you can convert mov to gif image with this mov to gif Mac converter software:

Step 1 — Download, install, and launch Giphy Capture app on your Mac. As the app opens, a green square shall appear on your screen.
Step 2 — Play the MOV video with your video player software, and reposition the green box over the playback screen make it fit properly.
Step 3 — Click on the Start Recording button to create an animated GIF image.

Once the animated GIF is created successfully, you can access it from the GIPHY Capture logo in the Menu bar, and you are allowed to trim or resize the GIF image as you wish.

Additional tips: with this mov to gif convert Mac, you can only create GIF images no longer than 30 seconds.

3.2 Adobe Photoshop (Convert MOV to GIF Mac)

If you’re already a Photoshop user on macOS, then you don’t need another MOV to GIF converter, because as a photo editing, graphic designing, and image creator software combined, Photoshop itself can convert your MOV videos to animated GIF images.  

To see how Photoshop can convert .mov to gif image, refer to the steps below:

Step 1 — Run Photoshop on your Mac. Click on the File>Import>Video Frames to Layers. Choose your target MOV file and click on the Open button. A new dialog box will pop up, showing the video along with some other options.
Step 2 — To convert the entire video, select From Beginning to End option. To convert just a small duration of the video, use Selected Range Only option to select your wanted clip.
Step 3 — When you’re done with all the settings, click on the OK button to import your MOV video to Photoshop as frames. Next, click on the File>Export>Save for Web (legacy) to convert and save the imported MOV frames in GIF format.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 4 — Click on the Save button and select an output folder to save the created GIF image.

Section 4. Top 3 MOV to GIF Online Converters Free

Apart from Windows and Mac MOV to GIF converters, there are also many online MOV to GIF conversion solutions that require no software download and installation. In other words, with these online solutions, you can literally convert .mov to gif from anywhere, on any device. Read on to see the top 3 MOV to GIF online conversion solutions that managed to grab our attention.

4.1 Online Converter (MOV to GIF)

As a separate module offered by Online Converter, MOV to GIF is a free online image conversion feature that’s designed for users to convert .mov to .gif quickly and easily without any cost.

Refer to the steps below to see how to convert MOV to GIF image with this free GIF converter:

Step 1 — Click the Browse button to load the target .mov file from your local HDD.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 2 — Click the Convert button to start upload your file.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 3 — Once the upload completes, this MOV to GIF converter will redirect you to another page where the conversion result is shown.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Additional tips: if you check the box of the Options, you will need to manually enter the value to cut the video short and set the output frame size you want.

4.2 Online-Convert (Convert MOV to GIF)

Convert MOV to GIF offered by Online-Convert is another free online image conversion solution that works in a similar way like the one mentioned above. The difference is that this online MOV to GIF converter offers more freedom to users to customize the output GIF image file, and it allows you to directly load .mov file from the popular cloud storage service such as Google Drive and Dropbox. This could be extremely helpful in some cases.

See the steps below to check out how to convert MOV to GIF with this online MOV to GIF converter:

Step 1 — Add your target .mov file. You can drop it here, add a URL, or load from your Google Drive or Dropbox.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 2 — Click the green Start conversion button to get the mov file converted.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Additional tips: if you want more control over the specifications of the final GIF image, manually fill in the values at the Optional settings part.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 3 — Wait until the conversion finishes, then your GIF image will start to download automatically.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

4.3 Video to GIF Converter

EZGIF.COM is another popular online video and image conversion solution provider that is totally free of charge. With its Video to GIF Converter, you can quickly convert .mov to .gif with ease. Do be noted that this free GIF maker only allows you to convert videos no larger than 100MB, which as a matter of fact, is more than enough for most common users out there.

Refer to the guides below to see how to convert .mov to .gif with this online solution:

Step 1 — To begin with, load your target .mov file, from your HDD, or directly from online by pasting a URL.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 2 — Click the blue Upload video button to get your .mov video converted.

Top 7 MOV to GIF converters to convert MOV to GIF

Step 3 — When the conversion competes, download the final GIF image back to your computer.

Section 5. Final Pick

Again it’s time for our final pick. As always, depending on your personal requirements and past experience regarding video and image editing, everyone may have his/her own best pick.

For experienced veterans, we recommend DVDFab Video Editor, because it not only can convert MOV to GIF, but also offers rich video editing features you can use to colorize your life moments. Although it may be a little bit expensive, you will find its amazing capabilities worth your money.

However, if you are just a common user who is not tech savvy, then DVDFab Toolkit might be your better choice, it is less pricey but still packs more than 25 separate video/audio/image/subtitle editing tools that you may need one day or another.

For Mac users, the freeware GIPHY Capture is enough if you have no intention to jump onto the Adobe bandwagon yet.

While for those who want to convert MOV to GIF from online and from anywhere, then we recommend the Convert MOV to GIF module offered by Online-Convert, the reason is simple, for one, it does not have size limitation on the source mov file you can upload, for another, it offers you more flexible options for you to customize the final GIF images.

Section 6. Related FAQs

Q: What platforms does DVDFab Video Editor support?

A: As of now, Video Editor is only compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7, 64bit or 32bit.

Q: What are the supported video and image formats by Video Editor?

A: The supported image formats include bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, heic and more, and for video, it supports avi, mpeg, wmv, mp4, mov and a lot more...

Q: As a lifetime DVDFab All-In-One user, do I have to buy Video Editor or Toolkit separately?

A: Yes. DVDFab All-In-One only contains the products inside DVDFab 12. Video Editor and Toolkit are standalone product lines, you need to purchase them to use.

Q: Do I have to buy the new tools in the Toolkit as they come out in the future?

A: No, you don’t need to. DVDFab Toolkit is sold as an entire package, meaning, you don’t have to pay extra money for new tools whenever they are released.

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