A GIF is essentially a flipbook. Every frame is a full image. To reach a 200KB target, you have to sacrifice in one of four areas: Reducing a 30fps animation to 10fps or 12fps. Dimensions: Shrinking a 500px wide image down to 200px.
Next, he attacked the colors. He reduced the palette from millions of colors to a meager 32. The smooth gradient of the star’s corona turned into distinct, blocky bands of yellow and orange. The smooth fade of the shadow became harsh dithering, a static pattern of dots meant to simulate shades that no longer existed. The file sat at 350kb. 200kb gifs
Elias, a digital artist who usually worked in 4K resolution, found himself obsessed with the constraint. He had spent three days trying to animate the perfect scene: a lone astronaut sitting on the edge of a crater, watching a blue star rise. In high definition, it was a masterpiece of lighting and texture. But the file was 4.2 megabytes. A GIF is essentially a flipbook
The digital world is governed by file size limits. Whether you are a marketer, a developer, or a casual Redditor, 200KB is often the threshold for success: Dimensions: Shrinking a 500px wide image down to 200px