WpfAnimatedGif Documentation

WpfAnimatedGif provides several capabilities for handling animations in WPF:

• Standard Control Support: Animates GIFs within a normal Image control; no custom control is required.
• Frame Accuracy: Takes actual frame duration from the GIF into account.
• Customizable Repetition: Specify custom repeat behavior or use GIF metadata defaults.
• Lifecycle Notifications: Provides notifications when an animation completes.
• Design Mode Support: Supports animation preview in the Visual Studio designer (must be explicitly enabled).
• Manual Control: Supports manual animation controls including pause, resume, and seeking.

You can install the WpfAnimatedGif library using the NuGet package manager to enable animated GIF support in your WPF applications.

# Search for WpfAnimatedGif on NuGet or use the Package Manager Console
Install-Package WpfAnimatedGif

To display an animated GIF in XAML, use the gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource attached property on a standard WPF Image control. You must first map the gif namespace to http://wpfanimatedgif.codeplex.com.

<Window x:Class="WpfAnimatedGif.Demo.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:gif="http://wpfanimatedgif.codeplex.com"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <Image gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

You can control how many times a GIF repeats using the gif:ImageBehavior.RepeatBehavior attached property.

• A value like 3x will repeat the animation 3 times.
• If unspecified, the default is 0x, which instructs the player to use the repeat count defined in the GIF's metadata.

<Image gif:ImageBehavior.RepeatBehavior="3x"
       gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource="Images/animated.gif" />

To set an animated GIF source programmatically, use the ImageBehavior.SetAnimatedSource method. This method accepts a BitmapImage as the source.

var image = new BitmapImage();
image.BeginInit();
image.UriSource = new Uri(fileName);
image.EndInit();

// img is your WPF Image control instance
ImageBehavior.SetAnimatedSource(img, image);