Archive Comparison Test - by Jeff Gilchrist
October 7, 2002 Macintosh Edition


Graphic (TIF) Compression Test

The specifications and configuration of the test computer can be found here.

The graphics file test includes eight files (Waterloo Bragzone Colourset) in TIFF format:

The links to download these test files can be found here.

Legend
+ - New program tested
B - Best compression (smallest compressed file)
F - Fastest compression time
Q - Quickest extraction time
O - Best overall (smallest overall score - calculated by adding compress time, extract time, and time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network)
+HQX - means that the test files were compressed and then BASE-64 encoded.
+TAR - means that the test files were stored together in one TAR file first and then compressed.
+UU - means that the test files were compressed and then UU encoded.

  ACT 2.0 Graphic (TIF) Test              
  Total Files Size (bytes): 12,466,304            
  Name Switches

Compress
Time

Extract
Time

Compressed
Size

Overall
Score

Compress
Ratio

Bits per
Byte

     

(seconds)

(seconds)

(bytes)

(seconds)

(%)

(b/B)

B MacRAR 2.5b5 -m4 -mm -md1024

100.67

7.71

4,129,309

1255.41

66.88

2.6499

  MacRAR 2.5b5 -m4 -mm -md1024 -s

104.99

7.82

4,133,054

1260.88

66.85

2.6523

O MacRAR 2.5b5 -mm -md1024

96.86

7.27

4,134,229

1252.53

66.84

2.6531

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Med)

34.07

24.66

4,417,720

1285.87

64.56

2.8350

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Max)

33.96

24.68

4,418,134

1285.90

64.56

2.8352

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT (Max)

46.35

23.30

4,682,194

1370.26

62.44

3.0047

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> BZIP+TAR (Max)

42.07

16.21

4,706,195

1365.56

62.25

3.0201

  BZIP2 0.0b2+TAR 900k

67.70

18.00

4,709,179

1393.81

62.22

3.0220

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> BZIP+TAR (Max)

39.14

9.26

4,721,932

1360.05

62.12

3.0302

  BZIP2 0.0b2+TAR 400k

57.28

17.65

4,726,169

1387.75

62.09

3.0329

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> BZIP+TAR (Fast)

33.08

8.57

4,774,654

1367.94

61.70

3.0640

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> BZIP+TAR (Fast)

37.17

15.39

4,872,411

1406.01

60.92

3.1268

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> GZIP+TAR (Max)

27.01

5.16

4,930,622

1401.79

60.45

3.1641

+Q Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP (Max)

23.60

5.08

4,930,626

1398.30

60.45

3.1641

  PKZIP 2.03 (Max)

50.41

10.07

4,988,571

1446.19

59.98

3.2013

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT (Fast)

16.29

8.35

5,004,259

1414.71

59.86

3.2114

  PKZIP 2.03 (Normal)

27.32

10.69

5,012,406

1430.35

59.79

3.2166

  SmartZip 1.0.1 (none)

19.20

8.57

5,091,946

1442.20

59.15

3.2677

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 9)

17.09

8.71

5,094,558

1440.96

59.13

3.2693

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 9)

17.58

9.56

5,101,772

1444.30

59.08

3.2740

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> GZIP+TAR (Max)

20.48

11.40

5,102,101

1449.13

59.07

3.2742

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP (Max)

11.74

11.11

5,102,469

1440.20

59.07

3.2744

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 6)

12.74

9.47

5,120,527

1444.58

58.93

3.2860

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 5)

12.05

7.90

5,149,852

1450.46

58.69

3.3048

  PKZIP 2.03 (Fast)

20.46

10.39

5,183,230

1470.64

58.42

3.3262

F Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP (Fast)

7.58

10.69

5,213,074

1466.35

58.18

3.3454

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> LHA (Max)

23.91

8.63

5,256,296

1492.62

57.84

3.3731

  ZIPIT 2.1 (Level 1)

10.64

8.55

5,265,792

1481.91

57.76

3.3792

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> GZIP+TAR (Fast)

16.21

11.14

5,275,521

1492.77

57.68

3.3855

  MacGZIP 1.1 + TAR (Level 1)

11.49

9.76

5,277,260

1487.16

57.67

3.3866

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP (Fast)

12.48

5.27

5,316,845

1494.65

57.35

3.4120

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SITX (Fast)

30.19

8.70

5,316,926

1515.81

57.35

3.4120

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> GZIP+TAR (Fast)

16.35

5.73

5,321,405

1500.25

57.31

3.4149

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> LHA (Fast)

30.39

15.37

5,529,236

1581.66

55.65

3.5483

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> SIT+HQX (Max)

37.49

30.35

6,006,288

1736.25

51.82

3.8544

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> SIT+HQX (Max)

51.35

26.90

6,364,981

1846.30

48.94

4.0846

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP+UU (Max)

26.07

10.72

6,793,339

1923.83

45.51

4.3595

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP+UU (Max)

16.06

14.71

7,030,101

1983.58

43.61

4.5114

+ Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> TAR (none)

3.86

3.28

12,473,856

3472.10

-0.06

8.0048

  Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> TAR (none)

9.33

6.03

12,473,856

3480.32

-0.06

8.0048

  MacTAR 4.2.1 (none)

3.87

3.83

12,482,560

3475.08

-0.13

8.0104

                 
  Best Compression: MacRAR 2.5b5            
  Fastest Compression: Stuffit Deluxe 6.5 -> ZIP            
  Quickest Extraction: Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 -> ZIP            
  Best Overall: MacRAR 2.5b5            

 Legend
+ - New program tested
B - Best compression (smallest compressed file)
F - Fastest compression time
Q - Quickest extraction time
O - Best overall (smallest overall score - calculated by adding compress time, extract time, and time it would take to transfer the compressed file over a 28,800bps network)
+HQX - means that the test files were compressed and then BASE-64 encoded.
+TAR - means that the test files were stored together in one TAR file first and then compressed.
+UU - means that the test files were compressed and then UU encoded.

Return to the ACT Home Page.