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How GIFs work

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So that's how GIFs optimise -- they abbreviate any horizontal stretches of the same colour.

Of course, the fewer colours the better too (a better description of GIF encoding would also include a list like "colour1=RED, colour2=BLUE") but this abbreviation method tells you that the flatter the colours, and particularly the longer the stretches of horizontal colour, the smaller the GIF will be.

This means that:

• Blurs
• Blends
• Dithering (when it's not a flat colour, but a spotty mix of colours)
• Anti-aliasing (the slight blurring added to curves or diagonals to soften the jaggedness)

all diminish the ability of the GIF to abbreviate, because they all mean short, alternating, or frequently-changing rows of colour.

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