Looking for free compressing software

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by ams963, Jan 10, 2014.

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  1. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Hi,

    I use 7-zip. But it doesn't compress files or folders that much even in ultra setting. For example it compresses files including pdf and MS Word files which is about 10MB together into a .7z file that is 8.5MB.

    So I was wondering if there is any free software that can compress say for example the files like the above to 5MB or below. Also it would be great if it had encryption capability like 7-Zip.

    Please feel free to suggest. I will really appreciate it.
     
  2. burebista

    burebista Registered Member

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    If memory serves me well back in time KGB Archiver claimed to be very good at compression rates.
     
  3. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the suggestion. KGB Archiver has bad reviews for its previous versions. I found very little review on the latest version. Any detail on the changes in the latest version?
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2014
  4. ichito

    ichito Registered Member

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    PdfCompressor :rolleyes:
    http://www.cvisiontech.com/products/general/pdfcompressor.html
    More about PDF compression
    http://www.verypdf.com/pdfinfoeditor/compression.htm
    http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/compression
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2014
  5. Debby747

    Debby747 Registered Member

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    Check out FreeArc at
    http://freearc.org/

    It is lightning fast in HDD-speed mode (-m2) and compresses really well,
    better than 7z or rar (in my experience). Normal mode (-m4) is recommended for even higher compression (but of course at lower compression speed).

    You can download the portable version and create self-extractable files which you could share with other people.

    Greetings
    D.
     
  6. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    What results do you get if you compress the PDF and Word documents separately?
     
  7. gorhill

    gorhill Guest

  8. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    @ichito

    I'm taking a look at them. http://www.cvisiontech.com/products/general/pdfcompressor.html and http://www.verypdf.com/pdfinfoeditor/compression.htm are paid software, http://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/compression is an article.
    But thank you anyways.:)


    @Debby747

    Thank you. I've downloaded the portable version and extracted the files. But how do I use it? The files do not contain anything I can open to use it. No exe like stuff.
    Untitled.png


    @WSFuser

    PDF files compress into 7.7MB and Word files compress into 611KB.


    @gorhill

    It seems so. I'm not a techie. I still want Word files to be compressed and zipped.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2014
  9. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    The exe should be inside the bin folder iirc.
     
  10. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Thank you.:)
     
  11. gorhill

    gorhill Guest

    I am just saying this because when compressing something already compressed you can't expect to achieve anything else than unimpressive compression ratio.
     
  12. SouthPark

    SouthPark Registered Member

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    PDF's and Word documents which are mostly text will compress better than PDF's that contain a lot of images, because the images, which account for most of the file size, are usually already compressed (jpeg, etc.) and can't be compressed any further.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2014
  13. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    I understand. But then what am I supposed to do with 7-Zip or similar software if I can't compress Word, PDF, images, etc. because they are already compressed? I mean they have no use then.
     
  14. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Okay FreeArc didn't work. The portable version wasn't really portable as the whole directory and all the files needed to be there for the exe file to open and I couldn't find any way to open and select files from the exe to compress. Oh well.:(
     
  15. Night_Raven

    Night_Raven Registered Member

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    A few months ago I did a small compresstion test for myself to find out which archiver provides the best compression by compressing a certain folder of mine (~740MB). I tested WinZip, WinRAR, 7-Zip, KGB Archiver and WinUHA.
    Unfortunately I didn't document my findings but I do remember that KGB Archiver offered the best compression, however it required about 10 hours (yes, hours) to do it. And that was on Normal compression, I can't even imagine how much time it would take on one of the higher modes. Unfortunately the compressed file was only a few megabytes smaller than that of 7-Zip's Ultra mode which needed only a few/several minutes.

    So all in all, it is 7-Zip that offers the best compression/time required ratio.
    Not a very scientific method of testing, but I thought I'd throw the info in here anyway.
     
  16. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

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    Not everything will compress by 50% (which was the initial request.)

    There is a big reason why 7-Zip is so widely recommended. Others may occasionally do better under specific conditions / circumstances but most of the time, 7-Zip gets the job done as well or better than most. I stopped looking for something better a long time ago...
     
  17. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    I hear you guys. Thanks for the assurance. I'll stay with the best, 7-Zip that is.:)
     
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