
Show HN: GIFsonic, manipulate animated GIFs on-the-fly using simple URL commands - nkkollaw
Hello everyone!<p>I&#x27;ve been building this for a while and just opened it to signups a few days ago.<p>It&#x27;s an image proxy that does on-the-fly image processing for animated GIFs, like this:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;12MhwQm8toOEp2&#x2F;giphy.gif&amp;background_color=DAF7A6" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;12MhwQm8toOEp2&#x2F;giphy.gif&amp;background_color=339955" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;...</a><p>or even (background + text + watermark):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;12MhwQm8toOEp2&#x2F;giphy.gif&amp;background_color=ff6600&amp;text=Hello,%20Hacker%20News!!!&amp;watermark_url=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;y18.gif&amp;watermark_width=24" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.gifsonic.com&#x2F;example&#x2F;?src=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;media.giphy.com&#x2F;...</a>)<p>Here are docs with examples:<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=width" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=width</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=height" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=height</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=reverse" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=reverse</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=background_color" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=background_color</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=meme_top_text" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gifsonic.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;example&#x2F;?t=meme_top_text</a> (my favorite)<p>- etc. etc.<p>What do you guys think about the project? I would really love some feedback...
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lecarore
That's interesting (and it looks like it work pretty well). However, i'm not
sure who's going to pay for it. What's your target ? I like how the error
message is an animated gif itself ^^

Is it just me, or you can just use the service for free by using the exemple
urls ? like
[https://i.gifsonic.com/example/?src=https://media.giphy.com/...](https://i.gifsonic.com/example/?src=https://media.giphy.com/media/yFQ0ywscgobJK/giphy.gif&reverse=1)

~~~
nkkollaw
Hey lecarore, thanks for your feedback.

This project has evolved from an image-resizing app in Polish for the Polish
market, which eventually didn't happen. I thought I'd pivot/repurpose to
animated GIFs since they seem to everywhere and I thought concentrating
on/optimizing for GIFs would provide some value over Imgix, Cloudinary, etc.
(kind of focusing on Polish/Poland might have).

The target would be websites that deal with a lot of animated GIFs and use the
same image for thumbs, for instance (see
[https://codemyui.com/](https://codemyui.com/)). Or, people who want to add
watermarks to GIFs programatically, etc.

I'll start promoting it in September and see if anyone can use it. The project
didn't start from someone's need, so I'm not sure who the target might be—like
I don't have a specific niche in mind just yet.

As for using
[https://i.gifsonic.com/example/](https://i.gifsonic.com/example/), of course
I'm aware of that, but right now I'm happy if someone thinks it's good enough
to steal, and at least I can see how people use it (mostly on Slack and
Discourse, so far). Once I get to implement restricting referrers GIFs would
stop working on non-authorized domains.

