Ratio

7 Zip is a kind of open source software with pretty high compression ratio. With LZMA and LZMA2 algorithm, it supports compression and decompression of most formats, including 7z, RAR, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, WIM, etc. It is the best choice to take place of WinRAR, Winzip and other software which are not free.

Main Features of 7 Zip

- 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 algorithm, pretty high compression ratio

- Formats it supports: compression/decompression: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM

- Decompression only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR, Z

- For ZIP and GZIP, the compression ratio of 7 Zip is 2 – 10% higher than that of PKZip or WinZip

- A more improved AES-256 encryption algorithm is provided to 7z and ZIP

- 7z can create SFX packages

- Integration of Windows explorer

- Powerful file manager

- More awesome command line version

- It supports FAR manager plug-in

- It supports 79 languages

7 Zip is suitable for Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 / NT / ME / 9. There is also the command line version which is targeted to Mac OS X, Linux and Unix platform.

Compression Ratio

Let’s compare 7 Zip with the common compression software.

File settings: completely installed Mozilla FireFox 1.0.7 for Windows and Google Earth 3.0.0616 for Windows

The result of compression ratio is determined by the quantity of data that is compressed. Usually the files compressed by 7 Zip are 30 – 70% smaller than those compressed by Zip. And Zip format files created by 7 Zip are mostly 2 – 10% smaller than those created by other software.