Folge User Manual

# Export format: GIF

Folge can export your guide as an animated GIF. Each step becomes one frame in the animation, played back in order with a configurable per-step duration. GIFs are ideal for chat threads, bug reports, wikis, and any place where an auto-playing visual carries more than a single static screenshot would.

When exporting, Folge produces a single .gif file at the location you choose. No companion folder is created.

# GIF settings

All settings live in the Step Image tab of the export screen once you pick GIF Animation as the format.

# Duration per step

How long each frame stays on screen before advancing to the next. Choose from 1, 2, 3, 5 or 8 seconds. Default is 3 seconds.

Longer durations make the GIF easier to read but increase total playback time. GIF timing is not perfectly precise on every viewer, so very short durations (1 second) may appear slightly slower in some browsers.

# Loop

When enabled, the animation restarts after the last frame and plays indefinitely. When disabled, it plays through once and stops on the final frame. Default is on.

# Max width (px)

All frames are scaled to this width (height is computed from the aspect ratio of the tallest source screenshot, and shorter frames are padded vertically). Range 320 – 1920, default 800.

The max width directly drives the final file size — see File size considerations below.

# Background color

The fill color used for vertical padding when step screenshots have different heights, and the background of the title card and any text-only step frames. Default white (#FFFFFF).

Pick a color that contrasts with your typical UI screenshots — Folge picks white or black text automatically based on luminance for any text it has to overlay on this background.

# Progress bar

A thin horizontal bar drawn across each frame showing how far through the animation the viewer is. Position options:

  • Off — no bar.
  • Top — bar drawn at the top edge of every frame.
  • Bottom — bar drawn at the bottom edge of every frame.

Default is Top. When enabled, you can pick a custom Progress bar color (default #4A6CF7, a vivid blue).

# Step title

An optional dark translucent strip with the step title (and its index, e.g. 1.2 Step name) drawn over each image frame.

  • Off — no title overlay on image frames.
  • Top — overlay at the top of every image frame.
  • Bottom — overlay at the bottom of every image frame.

Default is Bottom. The overlay only appears on frames that have a step screenshot — text-only frames (see below) already show the title prominently in their layout.

# Title card

When enabled, the first frame of the GIF is a clean title card showing the guide title and the first part of the guide description, centered on the background color. Default is on.

Turn this off if you'd prefer the animation to jump straight into the first step.

# What gets included

  • Image steps — one frame each, scaled to Max width.
  • Text-only steps (steps with a title and/or description but no screenshot) — rendered as a centered text card on the background color, with title and description word-wrapped to fit.
  • Multi-image step parents — included as their primary step image. Multi-image substeps are not expanded into separate frames.

# What is excluded

  • Content blocks are not rendered as frames. If you want the contents of a content block visible in the animation, convert it to a regular text-only step (set a title and/or description but no screenshot).
  • Hidden steps and deleted steps are excluded automatically.

# Watermark support

GIF respects the Custom watermark setting and applies it to every image frame. Text-only frames and the title card do not receive a watermark.

# Preview

The Preview button next to the Export button generates a short sample GIF using the first few steps and opens it in a separate window. The number of steps included in the preview is controlled by the Preview Steps setting in Application settings (default 5, shared with the PDF preview).

Preview output uses a slightly smaller max width (capped at 600 px) for speed. The preview file is cleaned up when you close the preview window.

# File size considerations

GIFs are uncompressed compared to modern video codecs, and folge's screenshot-heavy frames compress less well than typical photographic GIFs. As a rough guide:

Steps Max width Approximate GIF size
10 800 px ~2 MB
30 800 px ~7 MB
50 800 px ~12 MB
100 1280 px ~50 MB

If your export is likely to produce a file larger than ~25 MB, Folge will show a warning dialog before opening the save-file picker. You can continue or cancel and adjust settings.

To keep file size manageable:

  • Reduce Max width (the dominant factor).
  • Reduce the number of steps you include (split into multiple guides, or hide the steps you don't need in this animation).
  • Increase Duration per step — this doesn't change file size, but it lets viewers absorb each frame so you can crop more aggressively without losing comprehension.

# Caching

Folge caches resized frames in a temporary folder so re-exporting with different duration, loop, or progress-bar settings is fast (no need to re-resize every screenshot). Editing a step screenshot invalidates the cached frame automatically.

The cache lives under the system temp folder and does not pollute your save location.

← PDF customization with CSS →