Decompressing File Archives
06/08/07 11:34 Filed in: Hints 'n' Tips
UB = Universal Binary (PPC/Intel) | PPC = PowerPC-based Mac only | FREE = Free or donationware | COM = Commercial $$$
This time we take a look at popular applications to deal with expanding multi-format Mac and cross-platform compressed archive files beyond the built-in ZIP format.
Your mileage may vary...
• Stuffit Expander : the grandaddy of them all - pretty damn close to being the original Mac standard for archive expansion since such things began. The Expander is free and can de-archive most file formats out there; the compressor is shareware/commercial. Also handles all the old proprietary .sit formats, which other options may not, so don't discard it....UB FREE
• The Unarchiver : a freeware archive unpacker program designed to handle many more formats than the built-in BOMArchiveHelper. Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. [I found it couldn't open a few-years-old Stuffit archive file, so I had to re-install Stuffit Expander]. Otherwise, given its association with Xee (below) worthy of consideration for more contemporary archive files. UB FREE
• Xee : Displays a large number of image formats - essentially any format QuickTime or Preview can open, plus several more, including PCX, Maya IFF and Amiga IFF-ILBM. Mentioned here because it can browse image inside archives, if The Unarchiver (above) is installed. It can read almost every format The Unarchiver can, which include Zip, Rar, 7-Zip, Lzh and StuffIt. It also supports the CBZ and CBR formats, which are just renamed Zip and Rar files, respectively. UB FREE
• Zipeg : Zipeg is free decompression utility for Mac OS X and Windows with a comprehensive feature-set. Zipeg allows you to open and explore content of zip, rar, arj and other archives, and visually preview files and images with Finder or your designated applications before you extract/unzip them, so you can choose what you want to drag and drop decompress. UB FREE
• YemuZip : freeware application for making ZIP files. YemuZip lets you choose between a PC-compatible format and a Mac format that preserve all the Mac-specific metadata.
The Finder's Archive function makes zip files that contains Mac-specific information that, when extracted on a PC, looks like garbage. YemuZip lets you choose between a PC-compatible format and a Mac format that preserve all the Mac-specific metadata. UB FREE
This time we take a look at popular applications to deal with expanding multi-format Mac and cross-platform compressed archive files beyond the built-in ZIP format.
Your mileage may vary...
• Stuffit Expander : the grandaddy of them all - pretty damn close to being the original Mac standard for archive expansion since such things began. The Expander is free and can de-archive most file formats out there; the compressor is shareware/commercial. Also handles all the old proprietary .sit formats, which other options may not, so don't discard it....UB FREE
• The Unarchiver : a freeware archive unpacker program designed to handle many more formats than the built-in BOMArchiveHelper. Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. [I found it couldn't open a few-years-old Stuffit archive file, so I had to re-install Stuffit Expander]. Otherwise, given its association with Xee (below) worthy of consideration for more contemporary archive files. UB FREE
• Xee : Displays a large number of image formats - essentially any format QuickTime or Preview can open, plus several more, including PCX, Maya IFF and Amiga IFF-ILBM. Mentioned here because it can browse image inside archives, if The Unarchiver (above) is installed. It can read almost every format The Unarchiver can, which include Zip, Rar, 7-Zip, Lzh and StuffIt. It also supports the CBZ and CBR formats, which are just renamed Zip and Rar files, respectively. UB FREE
• Zipeg : Zipeg is free decompression utility for Mac OS X and Windows with a comprehensive feature-set. Zipeg allows you to open and explore content of zip, rar, arj and other archives, and visually preview files and images with Finder or your designated applications before you extract/unzip them, so you can choose what you want to drag and drop decompress. UB FREE
• YemuZip : freeware application for making ZIP files. YemuZip lets you choose between a PC-compatible format and a Mac format that preserve all the Mac-specific metadata.
The Finder's Archive function makes zip files that contains Mac-specific information that, when extracted on a PC, looks like garbage. YemuZip lets you choose between a PC-compatible format and a Mac format that preserve all the Mac-specific metadata. UB FREE