Giv 1.3

Overview

If viewing GIF files is a common task for you, then you might as well have the need to use a GIF viewer that you like. There are countless GIF viewers available, and depending on your taste, you might like more complicated ones or simpler ones. Giv is a free GIF viewer that will surprise you with its simplicity and features, which might be only a few, but improve greatly the user experience.

Installation

The setup package is very small in size (weighs less than 4MB) and the overall setup procedure will not take more than 1-2 minutes to complete. Particularly, when you run the installer you will be presented with the Giv Setup Wizard, which will guide you through the installation steps, which are very few and have no special settings other than the usual shortcut and installation directory ones.

Giv is completely free from malware and other kinds of additional software (e.g. 3^rd- party advertised apps).

The program can run smoothly under Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, Server 2008 R2, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2 (both x64-x86 OS are supported).

Note that for a successful installation of the program it’s required that you have Microsoft .NET Framework v4.5.2 (or above) installed in your machine.

Interface

The program’s main interface is very simple basically and doesn’t have much options for the user, but is completely functional and easy to use.

At the top is the title bar, which, along with the minimize, maximize and close buttons, also includes a button for navigating to the Settings window. The title bar also displays the name of the currently open file. In the center of the window is the screen where the GIF file is displayed, and below it are three control buttons; the middle one is used for pausing and resuming the playback of the GIF file, and the other two buttons are used for opening the previous/next GIF file.

The window’s colors can be changed from the Settings menu.

Pros

First of all, the program is completely free. In addition, it’s very lightweight, meaning that don’t have to sacrifice system resources in order to use it; it consumes an insignificant amount of processing power and memory when it’s running. Also, it’s very simple and can be used by virtually anyone, regardless of experience. All you have to do is open the program and load a GIF file in it (or simply open the file directly, if you chose Giv to be the default application for opening GIF files).

What’s cool about Giv is that you can actually pause the playback of the currently open GIF file with the press of a button. Afterwards you can resume playback from the frame you paused it.

You can easily open other files in the same directory by using the next/previous buttons.

You can view the GIF in fullscreen by right-clicking on it and selecting “Fullscreen”.

From the Settings window you can enable/disable automatic updates, full screen mode, and choose whether you want the window’s form to be the same from last time when you open it.

The program supports command-line arguments as well.

Cons

It’s a fairly simple application, without many features or an advanced environment, but it has no bugs or issues.

Alternatives

An alternative to Giv is GIF Viewer (free), which is a little bit more advanced, since it has more features (such as editing tools). Gifsicle (free) is another software, which allows you to manipulate the information of a GIF file.

Conclusion

Giv is a fine, free software that you can use instead of a common image viewer, in order to view your GIF files.