best animated gif software?

[petrefax]

evening all

mrs P. has asked me to ask- whats the best software available for making animated GIFs

preferably free (of course) but this isn't a prerequisite, looking for the best / easiest to use

cheers ppl

[Agent]

Photoshop is the most powerful (its actually its brother that comes with it - Image ready). You can pretty much do anything with it. Very expensive though.

Paintshoppro is also very good, much cheaper, and has a part dedicated for animation - probably your best bet. You can pick older versions up for free as well

You could also look at Macromedia Fireworks - Ive not used this one myself, but its supposed to be very good

[petrefax]

cheers agent, much apprecated mate

seen some ppl with photoshop / image ready at work - might try persuading my boss its "business critical" i get it installed on my laptop (it worked when i fancied a look at adobe pagemaker no harm in trying my luck again)

failing that, i'm sure i have paintshop pro on a cover disk somewhere