GIF maker
Three seconds that play in the thread. No player, no click.
Record any part of your screen as a GIF on Mac, Windows, Chrome or iOS, draw on it while it runs, and paste a link that loops where you paste it — in Slack, a ticket, a doc or an email. Nobody has to decide whether it is worth opening.
Free plan covers 15-second GIFs · no credit card
Trusted by 5m+ people who would rather show than tell
What is the Zight GIF maker?
Zight is a free GIF maker for Mac, Windows, Chrome and iOS. Record the full screen or a region as an animated GIF of up to 60 seconds, annotate it while it records, and share it as a link that loops inline in Slack, email or a ticket. GIFs land in the same library as your recordings and screenshots.
What it does
A GIF is the format nobody has to open
That is its whole advantage over a video, and it is a big one in a thread where six people will scroll past anything with a play button on it.
It plays where you paste it
A GIF autoplays inline in Slack, Teams, Notion, a ticket or an email. Nobody presses play, nobody waits for a player to load, and nobody has to decide whether a 12-second video is worth opening.
Any part of the screen, up to a minute
Full screen or a region you drag, with a camera overlay if you want one. The toolbar counts down from 60 seconds — the ceiling is deliberate, because a GIF that runs longer than that should have been a video.
Annotate while it records
Arrows and shapes drawn mid-take, so the loop points at the thing you are demonstrating instead of leaving the viewer to find it in three seconds.
A link, a drag, or an embed
The URL lands on your clipboard when the recording processes. Drag the GIF straight into an email or a chat window, or embed it in a doc — it is a file and a link at the same time.
“Zight allows me to quickly capture and share GIFs or snapshots of instructional material for both my clients and colleagues.”
How to make a GIF
Four steps, and one of them is choosing GIF
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1
Install and pick GIF
The Mac or Windows app, the Chrome extension, or iOS. Click the toolbar icon and choose GIF rather than video — same tool, different output.
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2
Choose what to capture
Full screen or a region, camera overlay on or off. GIFs carry no audio, so there is no microphone decision to make.
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3
Record, and draw on it
The timer counts down from 60 seconds. Annotate, pause or finish from the toolbar while it runs.
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4
Share it
It processes on its own and the link is copied. Paste it, drag the file into a message, or embed it where you need it to loop.
Which format
GIF, video, or a single frame
GIF This page
Short, silent, and it plays itself. Right for a hover state, a menu path, a bug that happens in two seconds — anything where the motion is the whole point and there is nothing to say out loud.
Screen recording
Longer, with your voice and the app’s audio, and it comes back with a transcript, chapters and a summary. Right when the explanation needs words as well as pictures.
See the screen recorderScreenshot
One frame, annotated. Right when nothing is moving: a layout, an error message, a number that looks wrong.
See the screenshot appAll three come out of the same toolbar and land in the same library, so picking wrong costs you one more capture, not a new tool.
Where it runs
Same GIF, four places to record it
The desktop apps and the extension all produce the same thing, and the iOS app answers a request link when you are nowhere near a desk.
More on GIFs
Making them, converting them, using them well
Two of these run in your browser with no account — the file never leaves your machine.
Do it in the browser
FAQ
Questions people ask first
Yes. The free plan includes 15-second GIFs, along with screen recording, screenshots and video requests, with no credit card. Longer GIFs — the recorder’s ceiling is 60 seconds — come with the paid plans.
Sixty seconds is the maximum the recorder will take, and the toolbar counts down so you can see it going. If what you are showing needs longer than that, record it as a video instead: it will come back with a transcript and chapters, which a GIF cannot have.
No — that is the format, not a limitation of the tool. If the thing you are demonstrating makes a noise, or you need to talk over it, record a video and share that link instead.
Yes, in the browser and without an account: the free video-to-GIF converter runs on your own machine, so the file never leaves it. The recorder is the faster route when the thing you want to show is still on your screen.
To your Zight library, with a share link on your clipboard. They are not stuck on the desktop of the machine that made them, and the same link keeps working after you have pasted it in six places.
Yes, that is the point of the format. A GIF loops inline wherever it is pasted, with no player and nothing for the recipient to click, which is why a three-second GIF often gets read when a two-minute video does not.
Yes. Mac and Windows desktop apps, a Chrome extension and an iOS app, all sharing one library — so a GIF made on Windows opens from the same link on a colleague’s Mac.
Show the three seconds that matter.
Free on Mac, Windows, Chrome and iOS. Record it, drop the link, watch it loop.