Creating GIF images programatically

Do you have a requirement to create GIF files dynamically? I had a similar requirement where I needed to create GIF files which will show a set of data point over a fixed time duration.

It turns out that the StackOverflow and GitHub are a great place :). There are plenty of libraries available that could help me achieve this. In the end, I picked BumpKit. I mixed its capabilities with a wonderful extension class mentioned in a StackOverflow post.

Code:

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string content = @"{
""items"":
[
    {
        ""Value"": ""120""
    },
    {
        ""Value"": ""125""
    },
    {
        ""Value"": ""130""
    },
    {
        ""Value"": ""135""
    },
    {
        ""Value"": ""140""
    }
]
            }";

            JObject obj = JObject.Parse(content);
            Console.WriteLine(obj);

            var img = Image.FromFile(@"Untitled.png");
            int delay = 0;
            using (GifWriter writer = new GifWriter("output.gif", 1000, -1))
            {
                foreach (var jItem in obj["items"])
                {
                    delay += 1000;
                    string imagePath = null;
                    var backgroundImage = img.ScaleToFit(new Size(100, 100), false, ScalingMode.Overflow);
                    using (var gfx = Graphics.FromImage(backgroundImage))
                    {
                        gfx.DrawString(jItem["Value"].ToString(),
                            new Font(FontFamily.Families.First(f => f.Name.Contains("Times")), 15),
                            Brushes.White, 15, 25, 10,
                            new[] { Color.Black},
                            new[] { (float) 1 });

                        gfx.DrawImage(backgroundImage, 0, 0);
                    }

                    writer.WriteFrame(backgroundImage, delay);
                }
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

Untitled.png is a blank image with white background that I created using MSPaint.

Output:

You can let your imagination decide how you want to use this to create interesting gifs programmatically.