Fighting Filesize Limits - Recommended Methods of GIF Compression for Animated Comic Pages?

[Valprine]

So I have a comic that I want to post, and all the pages are animated (they're saved as gifs). The issue is that the filesize is over the limit for many of the pages. Does anyone have any recommendations on how I could compress the files without sacrificing quality so much?

If there's an alternative to compressing the files, I'd be happy to hear that too.

Thanks
- Valprine

[PotooGryphon]

Do you try to compress the whole page or are you compressing one panel at a time?

Doing one panel per gif may be a better option than worrying how the whole page compresses and it'd save on the file size.

[Evan]

What software are you using to draw/animate I use GIMP, but to decrease the file size of my gifs, here's what I do:

1. There's an option to optimize the animation which will get rid of anything that hasn't changed from frame to frame. Set frame disposal to combine which will allow you to take advantage of optimization. (I recommend creating a back up before you do this though)
2. You can change the time each frame is shown so you can save a little space if you have any still frames.
3. If all else fails you can start cutting out frames. Yes, it will decrease the quality, but it will just make your animation faster and most people won't be able to tell the difference.
4. If you have to, you can scale the image, although it will decrease the size of the image and quality, it can really cut down the file size.

[Valprine]

Thanks for the advice, I save the gif in Photoshop so I'll see if I can find the option for number 1 in there.

[Valprine]

I considered this as an option, however it would be an inconvenient and time-consuming solution. I'll consider it as a last resort though. Thanks for responding

[PotooGryphon]

Since you're working in photoshop, you could setup your page with slices in it. That way when you go to Save For Web photoshop will automatically crop your slices into their own gif files and you can sorta batch export them. You'd probably still want to make sure your page is vertical with panels stacked though. Hm, I'll keep thinking, however that's been the best method I've found for optimizing gif files, by keeping my image sizes contained by panels.