| File extension | .zip |
| Category | Compressed File |
| Description | The .zip file extension is the most well known file type related to compressed and archived files. First released in 1989, the format is still widely used and is built into Microsoft Windows releases since 1998. It is also supported by Apple's OSX operating system. The ZIP format supports compression via several different techniques and even supports simply archiving of files without compression. Despite being 20 years old, the ZIP format looks set to continue to thrive whilst bandwidth and storage remain relatively costly. |
| Actions |
Convert ZIP file
View other compressed file formats |
| Technical Details | The compression techniques used to create a .zip file do so by compressing each file individually. This has the advantage of potentially using different appropriate compression techniques for each file within the archive, however under normal circumstances it limits the potential compression capability. Although the ZIP format allows for up to 10 different types of compression to be chosen, the DEFLATE method is the most common. DEFLATE is based on Huffman coding. |
| Associated programs |
StuffIt
WinRAR
Winzip |
|
| Developed by |
PKWARE |
| MIME type |
application/zip
application/x-zip
application/x-zip-compressed
application/octet-stream
application/x-compress
application/x-compressed
multipart/x-zip |
|
| Useful links |
More Information on ZIP
Zip Format Specification
RAR to ZIP
Convert ZIP file |
