Is it possible to embed animated GIFs in PDFs?

Joe picture Joe · Jan 25, 2012 · Viewed 452.3k times · Source

Is it possible to embed animated GIFs in PDFs? And how might I go about such a thing? are there any dangers I should be aware of?

For some more details on why I think it's a good thing and how it helps feel free to see this post. I didn't think it was appropriately well-formed enough for SE.

As an example - I'd like to put this into a description of quicksort:

quicksort animation from wikipedia
(This animation is from wikimedia.)

Answer

estani picture estani · Feb 13, 2013

I haven't tested it but apparently you can add quicktime animations to a pdf (no idea why). So the solution would be to export the animated gif to quicktime and add it to the pdf.

Here the solution that apparently works:

  1. Open the GIF in Quicktime and save as MOV (Apparently it works with other formats too, you'll have to try it out).
  2. Insert the MOV into the PDF (with Adobe InDesign (make sure to set Object> Interactive> film options > Embed in PDF) - It should work with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC too: see link
  3. Save the PDF.

See this link (German)