GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) Reader/Writer

FME Format Type Identifier

GIFRASTER

Reader/Writer

Both

Raster/Vector

Raster

Typical File Extensions

.gif

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an image format that supports a palette of up to 256 colors in the form of RGB 24-bit, as well as grey 1-byte continuous images.

The format was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has grown to be one of the dominant internet image formats.

Note: The GIF writer writes GIF rasters, not vector features that become rasters.

GIF Product and System Requirements

Format

Product

Operating System

Reader/Writer

FME Desktop License

FME Server

FME Cloud

Windows

Linux

Mac

Reader

Available in FME Professional Edition and higher

Yes

Yes

64-bit: Yes

Yes

Yes

Writer

Available in FME Professional Edition and higher

Yes

Yes

64-bit: Yes

Yes

Yes

Reader Overview

FME considers a single GIF file to be a dataset. The GIF file contains pixel data, and each pixel in the file is a point in a single FME raster feature.

Writer Overview

Note: Due to patent issues, the GIF writer does not support LZW compression.

The writer creates a single image and draws points, lines, and polygons into it. The file name, window, size, background, color table, transparency, and interlacing of the output image are all determined in the workspace. Each feature written to the image contains special attributes used to determine the appearance of the feature.

Feature types are color entries. The color table entries are defined in the Feature Type dialog:

All features with the specified color name are drawn in that color.

FME Raster Features

FME raster features represent raster data and use several concepts that are unlike those used in the handling of vector data. The topics below describe how FME processes raster data.

About FME Rasters Tiling and Mosaicking
Raster Properties Band Combining and Separating
Band Properties Band and Palette Selection
Palette Properties Raster Processing
Compression Raster versus Vector Features
Pyramiding Raster File Naming
Interleaving World Files
Interpretation and Data Type TAB Files
Palette Resolution  

GIF files can only be written with square pixel dimensions.

GIF only supports rasters with a single UInt8 band that has a RGB24 palette.