GIF image file format is not directly supported by The Panorama Factory. The Panorama Factory neither compresses nor decompresses GIF images (except that GIF images can be read through WIC). It doesn't process them.
GIF uses a patented image compression method called The Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression algorithm (see http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/lempelZivWelch.html). The patent is owned by Unisys (see http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw/). It may be possible to obtain a license for the GIF compression technology from Unisys, but it uncertain whether a small software vendor like Smoky City Design can obtain favorable license terms.
NOTE: There is no guarantee that these web addresses will remain valid over time. If they are no longer valid, please visit this same web page at The Panorama Factory website to check for updates: www.panoramafactory.com/help/gif_not_supported.html.
This is not a significant sacrifice because the GIF format is usually unsuitable for full color photographic images. The Panorama Factory would find GIF to be useful only in special situations such as defining hotspot image maps.
So we decided that pursuing a license for the GIF technology would not be time well spent.
If you want to create GIF images from The Panorama Factory, you will need to export images in a supported format and convert them to GIF with other software.