Introduction to libungif
The libungif package contains libraries for reading all
GIFs and writing uncompressed ones as well as programs for
converting and working with GIF files. The libraries are
useful for any graphics program wishing to deal with GIF
files while the programs are useful for conversion purposes as well as cleaning
up images.
The reason libungif only writes uncompressed GIFs
is due to a legal issue with LZW compression (which Unisys
claims a patent on). Reading GIFs is not a problem as the
uncompression routines do not seem to be limited in this way. Note that this
has in the past been disputed. The best way to avoid this whole mess is to
simply use libungif for looking at GIF images on the web,
while in any pages which you design, use the open source PNG
format instead (which uses, not surprisingly, the libpng library) which has no
patent issues at all.
Package information
Download (HTTP):
Download (FTP):
Download size: &libungif-size;
Estimated Disk space required: &libungif-buildsize;
Estimated build time: &libungif-time;