# File Compression on OS X



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

OS X has the built in "create archive" feature to take a bunch of files and make them one file with a bit of compression, but I don't think it compresses the file very much. 

What file compression program/method do you use if at all? I know there's Stuffit Deluxe for $80 US bones, but wondering if there are less expensive options that are still easy to use. Oops... looks like there is a Standard and Deluxe option. I'll check those out. 

Any other options?


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

Stuffit Standard includes DropStuff, DropTar and DropZip, and are nag ware. 

They work jim dandy for me.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

I find the built in archiver works far better and much faster then Stuffit, I use it for our backups at work. Compresses I think the same as stuffit, or a little better then it.


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## hmto (Jul 4, 2003)

Ditto for me about the archive feature.


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

I think it depends strongly on what kind of files you are compressing. Text files can compress almost 10 to 1.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

I am compressing, quark, photoshop, illustrator and indesign files, and it works great for me


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Archive works fine for me, too. I haven't used Stuffit in ages (I'm sure Alladin is painfully aware of this since OS X gained this ability).

I sometimes have problems with uploading archives to clients' FTP sites. I can upload them, download them uncompress them and the files are fine. For some of them, however, the files are generic and their systems don't know what to do with them. I use Fetch, and the file format for tranferring it is set to "automatic". Maybe I should set it to binhex


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Thanks very much for the feedback! 

Anyone remember when the archive feature made its debut on X? Was it 10.3 or 10.2?


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Was playing around with the archive feature and I don't think the compression is that good, at least for photos. I exported 24 images out of iPhoto and archived the folder. The folder went from 1.8 MB to 1.5. Not are real big space savings. Unless I'm doing something wrong.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Did you also try stuffing the same pictures, chief? Just as basis of comparison? The jpeg format is already a lossy graphics format. Maybe there's not much to be able to compress because of this. As I think posterboy mentioned, text files compress, because the data as amenable to compression. Audio and graphics/video files already compressed down from their raw forms may no have much wiggle room for further compression...?


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Thanks guys....

In 10.2, was there a relative easy way to access the archive capabilities? Any good shareware?


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

> Was playing around with the archive feature and I don't think the compression is that good, at least for photos. I exported 24 images out of iPhoto and archived the folder. The folder went from 1.8 MB to 1.5. Not are real big space savings. Unless I'm doing something wrong.


like scriptkiddie said, how much space you save depends largely on the type of file you are trying to compress.

jpegs are already a highly compressed format (designed for the internet, after all) therefore compressing them further will yield very little space savings.

if you were to compress a TIFF file that has been saved without LZW compression you would see a huge drop in file size. however try compressing a TIFF that has LZW compression enabled and the file size will change by maybe 2%. it's like trying to squeeze water from a stone.

the compression algorithm's used by stuffit and archive are very similar and operate based on the same set of principles. How compression works


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## Jordan (Jul 20, 2002)

I use DropCompress , it's Freeware.
I compressed a 9.4 MB file with .jpeg files and it only compressed to 8.7, not much difference.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

ehMax - Finder's contextual menu support for Archive was introduced in 10.3. However, the utility used to do the archiving has been around since 10.0, it just didn't have the GUI, and contextual menu attached.

Compressed formats (eg. MP3, JPG, etc.) tend to not compress much more then they already are. However, 0.3 MB on 24 images can add up over time.

Another possible way would be to make the JPGs actual size smaller, which would be perfect for email, but not necessarily for archive purposes as you would want to have the full file available to you if you ever need it again.


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Have been doing some more research and some testing. I took a folder full of 315.7 MB worth of promotions and ads made in Photoshop, Illustrator and various other files. With DropStuff standard, I compressed in their new Stuffit X format. Took about 20 minutes and folder size when down to 233 MB. Not a bad space savings. 

I used OS X's archive feature. Took only about 5 minutes to archive instead and file size went down to 235.2 MB.







Not bad for free. 

Stuffit has a standard version and a deluxe version. For $79 US, deluxe does have some pretty cool features like encryption and password protection, automatic FTP and built in visual scripting engine, and searching archives...


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## farfisa (Nov 5, 2003)

I did a little testing myself on a 2 x 2 G5--started before your last post ehMax, but no harm in having two studies done!

Took a 624.8 MB folder (around 700 items, depending which program you ask) and zipped it with the OSX archiver. Under 2 minutes, and the resulting file is 503 MB.

Then I zipped (not stuffed) with Stuffit. 4 minutes 15 seconds later, the resulting zip archive was 493 MB.

Then I made a compressed dmg from the folder with disk utility--not the most convenient thing to do, but it was about 2 and a half minutes and still got it down to 508.5 MB. And you can mount the image to readily access the info, without having to unstuff and have another copy around, which is nice. 

The sitx file took about 13 minutes and got it down to 472 MB...

The annoying thing with Stuffit is that you can't use the finder while you're stuffing (or zipping)--if it's something that takes 13 minutes, it's really something to do on your off time! With the built in archiver, you can use the finder, but things in general slow down.

Trade-offs!

[ August 12, 2004, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: farfisa ]


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## mmontano (Apr 6, 2004)

Most compression programs use a variation of the same algorithim (Late night guess at the name: LZW or Lempel-Ziv).

Implementations differ on the speed of the code and the features that surround the basic compression code.

These extra 'features' (i.e. password encryption) cause the file size to vary.

JPEG, PDF and most audio formats use similar LZW type compression algorithims, so compressing JPEGs and PDFs simply waste time rather than save bytes.

Just my observations...

Matthew


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## 9780 (Sep 14, 2006)

I use YemuZip, especially when I need to create .zip files for people who aren't on Macs --- the difference being that on a windows or Linux machine, .zips created by OS X's archiver will contain all sorts of "weird" __MACOSX folders that store metadata, while YemuZip will do a straight zip of the files like WinZip - losing the metadata, but not scaring away users of other OSes...

(got nothing to do with compression, but I felt it was worth mentioning in case someone needed something like that!)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Way to resurrect an ANCIENT thread, there,_ tfrischholz_! 

For those who are wondering (since an out-of-the-blue, old thread resurrection, new member post raises some suspicion) *Keka* is an open-source project, and a Mac OS X frontend GUI of p7zip, the UNIX port of 7-Zip. Here's a link to the project page on SourceForge.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

CubaMark said:


> Way to resurrect an ANCIENT thread, there,_ tfrischholz_!


Odd how the stench of Spam lingers tho, isn't it?


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