Animated gifs in a PDF

Software
#1

Client wants a PDF with animated gifs that loop. So far I havent found any way to do this. I’ve got the Adobe Suite but only CS5 level.

Can this really be done? I’ve never seen a pdf that has embedded gifs that loop.

Any help would be appreciated.

#2

You can add looping SWFs to PDFs. However, there is no guarantee they will work correctly outside of Adobe Acrobat on a desktop PC/Mac, and I’m not sure how they will print. The biggest problem currently (IMO) with adding any interactivity to PDFs is that more often than not that interactivity doesn’t work or “breaks” when viewed within different browsers, or smart phones, tablets, etc. And I would stress that to your client as well.

#3

I’m using CS5, that might be an issue. I can place a SWF on an indesign page and in the media preview, it plays fine. When I export it to PDF and then open it in Acrobat, all I get is an icon. File doesnt play at all.

Is my older software not capable of doing this?

#4

You’re better off placing the SWF into the PDF in Acrobat. Or if, it shows up as an icon, go into edit mode, right click on it and change the settings to have it autoplay (and loop).

#5

thanks, that did work on his desktop but now he wants it to run off his android tablet…

And naturally, that didnt work. :wink:

#6

Yup. You need to set expectations. Like I said earlier any “special features” or interactivity in PDFs generally only reliably work 100% of the time on a desktop computer running Acrobat.

#7

This is really just a bad idea because of exactly what Craig mentioned and that you’ve found out — it’s just not supported all that well. It’s far better to have something a little less elaborate that always works than it is to have something fancier that fails half the time.

Part of our jobs as designers is to diplomatically convince clients that their great ideas sometimes can’t work as they envisioned. If this animation is just eye candy, it probably doesn’t contribute anything other than an annoying distraction anyway. If it’s crucial to conveying a concept or information, perhaps there’s another way to do it. There’s also the option of linking to a website where it can be more reliably displayed as the animated GIF the client had in mind in the first place.