What is the best free compressing software(better if portable) and compression format(i think 7z format is famous for it)?
Before i use winrar, then tried 7-zip(but i hate the interface and the steps in making a simple archive unlike winrar where you can just right click then new then new rar or zip). I like the 7z format(and rar). A friend of mine told me to try iZarc. I tried it then i was amazed on the speed of it,the interface (and it was capable of making .7z) but when i read iZarc on wikipedia it says on the problem that it has incomplete support for 7z and is very slow in making archives(except 7z and zip). So all of this makes me confuse(not to mention only rar and zip can be used as the compression format to hide files on .jpg). Help will be appreciated. (Better if it has a portable version at a small size).
If 7zip could only make the interface better i would use it.(And hey what about the peazip,alkazip(check the spelling.ty))
Thanks.
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I like Peazip the best. It seems to compress better than 7-Zip (although it may be just me). I used to use 7-Zip until I found Peazip, and I uze it the most ever since. As far as the UI goes though, it's all about personal preference. Try it out. It may be just what you're looking for.
peazip is dedicated file compression with a range of formats/compression levels, but essentially almost all OSScompression/backup programs (even Toucan
) uses 7za.exe (7zip command line) to compress files. So no matter what you're using 7-zip.
However, the GUI is actually a file manager and compression utility combination.
And also when you come to think of it, it's amazing that compression isn't compressed yet :P.
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I'm currently trying peazip and i like it better than 7zip(thanks for the recommendation)
So what about Izarc vs peazip?
(Maybe i could get more answers if i put this in the general discussion)
Personally, I use 2 formats.
RAR for archiving, it's not free, but it's
-fast
-generates rather small files, but nothing great.
-reliable
-popular
-let's you add some recovery data, so you don't loose the whole archive in case of a minor data corruption. Well, this is the most important feature here.
7zip for sending files over the net:
-free
-rather slow compression and decompression
-small files
-popular
-quite reliable too
There's a third format that I'd like to mention. SQX.
-Like RAR, lets you add recovery data (that's why I write about it)
-I know of 2 free compression programs: ZipStar - probably not portable; TotalSQX, a Total Commander plugin, very well written, portable.
-compression about as good as 7zip (better on multimedia files)
-a bit slower than 7zip
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
the installed version of 7-zip has the features you looking for (a nice right click menu.)
Personally, I use 7-zip and it extracts more things then PeaZip.
I have my brother use peazip because of its simple interface. Also, the drag and drop is nice, to.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
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Any comments and experiences about Izarc?I like it as it is very easy to make an archive but it does not fully support 7z format and it is very slow in extracting.(correct me if i'm wrong)
it's a bit more powerful with extracting archives. There have been times where 7zip or PeaZip encountered a corrupt/broken archive and could do nothing with it, but running it through izarc, the data was extractable.
As for 7z support or compression abilities, i don't much experience.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I like 7-Zip and PeaZip more (but about the latter one you know I cannot be neutral!).
7-Zip has very clean, functional and mature interface, and I like that; PeaZip adds support to various utilities, helps in scripting, supports custom compression types I like very much like Matt Mahoney's LPAQ/PAQ family to name one.
Outside the Open Source world, I like most WinRAR, IMHO still the reference application in terms of functionality (even if no longer the best overall compressor) and good UI.
BTW, FreeArc is a young but very promising project, with a new ARC format (PeaZip supports it too) featuring compression comparable or better than 7z in terms of efficiency and speed, recovery records and strong encryption (as far as I can see, well implemented from the beginning).
It is Open Source and if it keeps progressing like it did in last year it may become the new WinRAR!
Developer of PeaZip project
i'm using IZArc cause it is the only free compression tool which can show the directoy structure in a tree so i can check how the files are hierachical ordered without unpacking them or without reading pathnames.
I dont really care if a compressed file is 5% bigger or smaller right now. At the beginning my first hrad disk has 20 mb (yes mb), now my smallest usb stick ha sto gb and i have a 3 mbit connection to the internet. if sending files takes 10 seconds longer, who cares? i dont have to pay for...
i'm using IZArc cause it is the only free compression tool which can show the directoy structure in a tree
Practically every file manager can do this. As well as compress / decompress data, of course.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
And give free programs that can create,extract one.
What is your goal? Like anything else, compression formats have advantages and disadvantages.
- Is it the minimum size of the archive
- Speed of compression
- Speed of decompression
- compatibility across operating systems
- likelihood of another person to have a program for it
- encryption
- self extraction ability
What is important to you? Since I deal in multiple OS's and have friends & colleagues who are less than technologically adept, I usually stick to .zip and sometimes for personal use only, .7z. This allows other people to open and extract my archives without using any addon tools in WinXP, Vista, Mac, or most Linux distributions. I stay with the standard default compression settings. I don't have encryption issues in my use.
- Is it the minimum size of the archive
- Speed of compression
- Speed of decompression
What is the best format for compressing
-pictures(commonly jpg/jpeg)
-music(preferably mp3)
-doc,ppt,xls,txt,rtf
You chose the hardest things to combine. Generally the smaller size - the longer time.
Here you have a lot of compressors ranked by size with performance data too, so you can find what's the sweet spot for you.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
what do you think?
7z compresses better, and with good speed if using fast settings.
However multimedia files as jpg, mp3, mpeg/avi/divx etc are jet compressed with models specific to obtain better results (with acceptable speed) for the given kind of data, so it's quite difficult to obtain further improvement in compression.
Using very powerful but slow compression settings the compression ratio may increase, but the gain is far lower than in compressing other file types, like uncompressed documents and databases, uncompressed executables etc.
If most of the data to be archived is in difficult to compress formats (or incomprimible ones, like encrypted files or volumes) and if you have a big amount of data, you could even consider to go with good old .tar or using another archiving method like .zip or .7z but disabling compression (or using the fastest settings) to save a lot of time.
Developer of PeaZip project
There are several new choices here for me to consider.
For my uses, I would like:
- Support for Z, gzip, zip, 7z, tar, rar, arj (did I forget any?), both creating and unpacking
- Easy support for all the features of each compression method (passwords, multi-volume, compression levels, etc.)
- Good file management features
One special feature I want is for an obvious flag (like a lock icon) that denotes if a file in an archive is encrypted. Also, a way to encrypt only some files in an archive (with the option of having different passwords for each file) would be great, and I don't know of a program that supports that. I have added files to encrypted archives, and those added files were not encrypted, so if somebody opened the archive, they could get those files. It was not obvious at all that this was the case.
Here is a feature I have never seen: it can go through the algorithm without writing to disk simply to predict the size of the output file. That would be the best!
The requirement of RAR writing means you're limited to paid commercial software... actually to only 2 or 3 commercial software options, none of which are portable. Remember, RAR is a closed, proprietary format so no software can support it except those whom the RAR publisher allows.
As for some files encrypted in a package, I don't think any mainstream format (not program, the actual format) supports that.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I guess we can only unpack them... Ah well.
As for some files not being encrypted, a lot of spammers send passworded archives over the BitTorrent networks, but they leave the instructions on how to get the password (visiting some malicious site, usually) non-passworded. That way, when you get the password wrong, their ads get unpacked.
I wonder if it would be possible to have more control over the size of the multiple volumes... Have them of vatious sizes.