SXW to GIF Converter

Convert SXW to GIF online — lightweight images from docs

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Compact Image Output

GIF files are small and load quickly — perfect for web thumbnails or email previews of your SXW document pages.

Web-Based Conversion

No downloads needed — the entire SXW to GIF conversion runs in your browser on any device with internet access.

Rapid Processing

Cloud servers render your SXW pages to GIF format in seconds without putting any processing load on your machine.

How to convert SXW to GIF

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose gif or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your gif file right afterwards

About formats

SXW is the word processing document format used by StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0, developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 2002. The format was one of the first mainstream office document formats to adopt an XML-based architecture, packaging document content, styles, metadata, and embedded media in a ZIP archive — a structural approach that directly influenced the later OpenDocument Format (ODF). The content.xml file describes the document body using XML elements for paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, footnotes, and inline formatting, while styles.xml defines the styling rules and meta.xml carries document properties. SXW represented a significant milestone in open-source office software, demonstrating that a non-proprietary XML format could handle the full range of word processing features including change tracking, indexes, cross-references, and complex page layouts. One advantage was transparency and openness — the XML structure made document content inspectable, transformable, and processable using standard tools, a sharp contrast to the opaque binary formats dominant at the time. The format's role as a technological precursor to the ODF standard is another historical significance: the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee used the OpenOffice.org XML format (including SXW) as the starting point for developing ODF 1.0. While SXW was superseded by ODT with OpenOffice.org 2.0 in 2005, existing SXW documents can be opened by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, and document conversion tools.
Developer: Sun Microsystems
Initial release: 2002
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) was introduced by CompuServe on June 15, 1987 as a platform-independent image format for transmitting color graphics over the CompuServe online service's modem-speed connections. The format uses LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) lossless compression on indexed-color images with a palette of up to 256 colors selected from a 24-bit RGB color space. GIF's most distinctive capability is animation: multiple image frames can be stored sequentially within a single file, each with independent delay timing, disposal methods, and local color palettes, enabling short looping animations without any video codec or player. The format also supports binary transparency (one palette entry designated as fully transparent) and interlaced display for progressive rendering. GIF became synonymous with web culture — animated GIFs proliferated across early websites, messaging platforms, and social media, evolving into a communication medium in their own right. One advantage is universal animation support — GIF animations play natively in every web browser, email client, messaging app, and social platform without plugins, codecs, or compatibility concerns, a level of ubiquity no other animation format has achieved. The lossless compression on palette-based images provides another strength: graphics with flat colors, text, and sharp edges (logos, diagrams, UI elements) compress efficiently without the artifacts that affect JPEG. Although the LZW patents that once threatened GIF's use expired in 2004, and newer formats like WebP and AVIF offer superior compression with full-color animation, GIF's cultural entrenchment keeps it irreplaceable for casual animated content.
Developer: CompuServe
Initial release: June 15, 1987

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert SXW to GIF?

GIF images are lightweight and web-friendly — ideal for embedding simple document page previews in emails or websites.

What opens GIF files?

Every browser, image viewer, and operating system displays GIF files natively. It is one of the oldest and most supported formats.

Is quality affected by limited colors?

GIF supports up to 256 colors, which works well for text-heavy documents. Photo-rich SXW pages may lose some color depth.

Is SXW to GIF free?

Standard conversions are free on Convertio. Premium plans offer extended batch sizes and priority processing for more files.

Can I convert multi-page SXW?

Each page becomes a separate GIF image. Multi-page SXW documents produce multiple output files for download.

Does this work on mobile?

Yes — the browser-based converter works on any smartphone or tablet. Upload your SXW and get GIF images on the go.