Trouts GIF Optimizer

The higher quality found in pictures, and the more details that are inside, the more space they take on your hard disk drive. Chances are you’re limited to a specific size, but don’t want to compromise quality, neither reduce resolution. Luckily, specialized applications like Trouts GIF Optimizer are exactly what you need to add more compression to reduce overall size.

You notice a neat advantage right after downloading the application, and that is you don’t even have to get in installed for it to function. As a consequence, you can use it directly from an USB flash drive, while the computer you use it on stays clean, because registries are not affected.

Launching it brings up a pretty compact main window, which you might want to resize if you want to get a good look at the pictures you import. The preview area is rather small, with no options to zoom, which force you to enlarge the application to take up almost all of your screen.

On the visual side of things, the application doesn’t stand out from the crowd through any exceptional visuals, holding all of its features in a classic window frame and elements. Even so, the overall look and feel is pretty intuitive, letting you accommodation from the first few seconds of launch.

Opening files can either be done from the built-in browse dialog for individual files or entire folder content, or simply by dragging a selection of files over the main window. Supported formats include JPG, BMP, ICO, WMF, EMF, as well as animated GIF, which is yet another advantage.

However, don’t rush to press any button for a little while after loading a picture, because the size reduction is instantly applied, and needs processing. The list of imported files cleverly shows name, size, optimized, saved, and percentage saved. You can launch a color reduction tool in order to manage color distribution in an attempt to cut even more KB or MB from the output file.

Just make sure you don’t get too greedy, or you risk losing a lot of quality, especially when managing color reduction. Saving files can be done to the same directory as the input, or by specifying a default destination. You can pick a different format for pictures, which means conversion is also possible.

Bottom line is that Trotus GIF Optimizer is a bit more than what the name suggests, and manages to live up to expectations. The visual design is basic and lets you accommodate in a jiffy, while the variety of tools, methods used, and neat support for animated GIFs make it definitely worth your time.