#;help

Prep:

First, open up the GIF you want. Click the Rectangular Select Tool, make sure Fixed Aspect Ratio is checked, and have the ratio be 1:1

Make the selection you’d like, then go to Image>Crop to Selection

Before you resize the icon, go to Image>Mode and select RGB instead of Indexed. The reason for this is that Indexed layers get pixelated when scaled, and we don’t want this yet.

Once your image is RGB, go to Image>Scale and scale it to whatever size you use for your icons. I use 120, but the most common one is 100. The Interpolation can be whatever you’d like, but that’s the thing that prevents the icon from getting pixelated.

Border:

Once scaled, make sure all the frames are hidden except the first one. This would be a good time to open up your border.

Paste your boarder in and move it just above the first frame. For best results, make sure your border’s pixels are all either 100% opaque or 0% opaque. No 50%, 25%, 75%, it doesn’t work out. Go to the Select by Color tool, make sure Select transparent areas is checked, and turn the threshold to 0

Click in an area that’s 0% opaque on the boarder layer. This will select all 0% opaque pixels in the boarder. Go to Select>Invert and flip these pixels over.

Once you’ve done this, Right Click the boarder layer and select Merge Down. Make sure you still have your selection up!

One by one, re-show the layers above the first frame. As you’re going up, press the Delete key on your keyboard once for each layer except for the bottom. This will delete the pixels in these frames that would go overtop of and hide the boarder.

Color:

If you have a particular color scheme you use on your icons, this is a great time to do it. Go to Image>Mode and select Indexed

Select Use custom palette and select a palette. Make the Dithering whatever you’d like, but I do not suggest allowing dithering of transparency.

You can make custom palettes that follow the colors you use for your icons, but that’s a whole different tutorial. The easiest way is to take an image with the colors scheme you want, convert it to Indexed, choose Generate optimum palette, and save that in the palette dialogue as whatever name will help you remember. For the basics, this is a good webpage.

Save:

Once your gif uses the palette you want, you should be free and clear! Go to File>Export and export to a .gif file

In the popup dialogue, check As Animation, change the Disposal to Cumulative/Combine, and check Use disposal entered above for all frames. Interlace, GIF Comment, and Delay can be whatever you like, it doesn’t effect the border or colors

And you’re done!

Before:

After: