How do I ZIP a file "CORRECTLY?"...I'm confused.

Hi people,

What's the best zip program to send files over the net? I have some e-books and articles to send but when I 'winzip' they don't seem to 'squash' much.

For example a 2.25mb PDF zips down to 2.15mb. A pdf of 861mb zips down to 844mb. Hardly seems worth the effort. Truly why bother? Yet I recall hearing or reading that "ZIPPING" compacts by a third or down to a third, can't recall which. Anyhow, 2.25mb reduced to 2.15mb is under-achieving I'd say.

Any suggestions plz?

 

Different file types can be compressed different amounts. You can also specify different compression strengths. Winzip is the classic utility for zipping files, but WinRAR is another good app that has done great jobs for me in the past.

 

Apparently 7-zip has one of the best compression ratios. Something you must understand is you cannot compress something that is already in a "dense" or compressed format. So the "file type" will make a big difference in the compression potential irrespsective of the program. For example if you try to compress a "....exe" (program execution) file you will be lucky to get 1-2% as when you open the prog.exe file it "expands" into a lot larger application (generally).

Some people have experimented by creating a ZIP and then a RAR file but I think this oxymoronic.