Meta: How do I make animated GIFs for Tips? (Hints inside)

[aaaaalbert]

There is no "official guide" for creating screen capture GIFs -- and I understand that it would be difficult to produce one that caters to the many OSses and window managers etc. out there. However, I keep forgetting and reinventing the required steps on my system, so I document my approach here.

Platform

• OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
• CPU: x86_64 (64-bit AMD)
• Display server: Wayland
• Windowing system: Gnome version 42.5
• Screen recorder: EasyScreenCast version 47 (1.7.1)

Prerequisites

• key-mon (needs Python 3) -- this program opens a little window that displays when the mouse is clicked, modifier keys (Shift ⬆️, Ctrl, Alt) and other keys are pressed or held
• EasyScreenCast -- records the screen, or selected parts of it, into a video file
• ffmpeg -- command-line video tool, used here for MP4-to-GIF conversion

Steps to record screen interactions

• Set up Pure Data as required
• Start key-mon and position its window appropriately
• Set up EasyScreenCast for a recording area at most 550 pixels wide (see GIF format tip)
• Start recording in EasyScreenCast
• Do your thing
• Stop recording in EasyScreenCast

Convert MP4 to GIF

Finally, use ffmpeg to convert EasyScreenCast's output file from MP4 format to GIF. The pipeline explained here on StackExchange superuser works fine:

ffmpeg -ss 30 -t 3 -i input.mp4 \
    -vf "fps=10,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos,split[s0][s1];[s0]palettegen[p];[s1][p]paletteuse" \
    -loop 0 output.gif

Note well: Adjust ss and t to the desired start timestamp and length in your video, set scale to the actual width of your recording, and use appropriate input/output file names.

Done!

Now write a great description and send a Pull Request for your new Tip Of The Day!

[umlaeute]

thanks for the writeup.

just for the record: i personally found byzanz to be a nice/small/simple screenrecorder utility that records directly to GIF