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4 common file compression tasks and how to

improve their efficiency
By Joe Rice-Jones – Nov 2, 2024

Software and Services

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Whenever you're space-constrained with your files, whether that's for storage
purposes or for sharing them online, it's important to know what types of
compression are available and how these affect the final file. While it's true enough
that Windows 11 has inbuilt ZIP functionality, it's rather limited in scope, and if your
file is already compressed like video or photo files often are, then zipping them could
even make the finished file larger. In the push for efficiency in storage, you need to
know which codecs you can use for different file types and how they affect the
compression ratio. It's also helpful to know what they do to the overall quality of the
file, as you wouldn't want to introduce distortion, artifacts, or glitched data.

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4
Image file compression
Most image files can be compressed further with minimal loss of fidelity

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Image compression has been around for a long time, originally designed to make file
sizes more manageable by a consortium of photographic experts. The humble JPEG
has been a fixture of life for three decades now, and even with new options, is still the
reigning champ for its balance of file size, image quality, support, and ease of
conversion to other formats. Some other good options for efficient image storage

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include:

• WebP: Based on the VP8 video codec, this web-first file format maintains
image quality and can support transparency, something JPEG can not.
• HEIC/HEIF: This is the efficient format that iOS and Android employ in its
camera apps, but it's not very well-supported by other devices.
• AVIF: Based on AV1, this open-source codec is great for image quality and
efficiency, but it's not supported by many devices or image tools.
• JPEG XL: Designed to replace JPEG, it never received the support it needed to
keep up with the formats pushed by web browser manufacturers.
• PNG: This is an efficient format designed for web-shared images. It supports
transparency but often has lower visual quality than other formats.

It's perhaps telling that even decades after its invention, the JPEG format is still the
go-to for most users when saving efficient image files. It supports progressive
encoding for varying quality, but I wouldn't use lower than 65% or more than about
85% for most uses. Other formats can be useful in the right situation, but there still
isn't a viable replacement for the same visual needs.

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3
Video file compression
Lossless video is huge but you don't need all that data for the finished product

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Have you ever noticed your smartphone and cloud storage plan gets full really quickly
when you take lots of videos of your family? Even when using the more efficient video
codecs on modern smartphones, video files are large, so it pays to know which codecs
are best for efficiency. You don't want to shrink the files too far and realize that you've
lost all the detail in the image in the process. The most common video codecs are
below, with why you'd want to use each option:

• H.265 (HEVC): One of the more efficient codecs, but it needs a license fee to be
used, so other options might be better.
• AV1: The most efficient codec for compressing video while retaining visual
fidelity.:
• H.264: The most common and widely supported video codec, H.264 is lossy but
not as efficient as other options.
• VP8/VP9: Mostly used by YouTube and web browsers, these efficient and lossy

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codecs are commonly used by streaming services and not the content creator.
• Apple ProRes: This "visually lossless" codec is aimed at post-production use, so
it creates huge file sizes to keep as much data as possible.

Note

Video codecs aren't the same as video formats. Think of the codec as the
algorithm that does the encoding, while the format is the container that holds
the video and audio codecs, and any other data necessary for the full video file
to play successfully.

The most efficient codecs aren't always the best supported, but that's starting to
change as AV1 gets hardware and software support in most new devices. For the best
mix of efficiency and usability, H.264 is still the gold standard.

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2
Audio file compression
Our ears are weird, and compression exploits that

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If you've ever wondered why DVDs and Blu-rays needed multiple layers of optical
recording tracks for content with multichannel audio, it's because audio files are
notorious for being large, and difficult to compress with any level of fidelity. Our ears
are highly tuned instruments, but because of the way our brain processes the data
from our eardrums, they can be tricked. Audio codecs for compression come in two
forms: Lossy, where some of the original data is lost in the process, and Lossless,
where all the data is recovered when it is decompressed. Sure, you want Lossless
codecs for peak fidelity, but for efficient file sizes, lossy is the way to go.

Lossy:

• MP3: The most popular lossy format can be up to a tenth the size of lossless
files when compressed. Most of the audio frequencies it drops are inaudible to our
hearing, but it is limited to 16-bit depth, so it's only suitable for playback and not

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recording or mixing.
• AAC: Advanced Audio Coding sounds better than MP3 and is great for streaming
audio, which is why it's the codec Apple usually uses.
• Ogg Vorbis: Spotify uses this codec for its lossy streams. The open-source
codec is more efficient than MP3 but can result in less fidelity.
• WMA: Windows Media Player's encoding codec is similar to MP3, but
Microsoft's version. It also has a lossless version, but it's not widely supported,
and WMP is also going out of favor.
• Opus: This lossy format is designed for voice or music streaming over the
internet, but it can be used for efficient storage as it supports a wide range of
bitrates and sample rates.

Lossless:

• FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec is the gold standard for lossless codecs. It's
widely supported, can shrink files by up to one-half, and is royalty-free, so anyone
can use it in their programs.
• ALAC: Apple's Lossless Audio Codec is the new format used in Apple Music
lossless files. It's been made open source and royalty-free, and it's the only
lossless format Apple Music can use.

Multi-channel:

• Dolby Digital: Most video content made with surround-sound audio uses some
form of Dolby technology to compress the audio files to manageable sizes. It's
compressed and lossy, but it does provide spatial positioning for the audio tracks.
• AAC 5.1: Similar to AAC for stereo files, but is mostly used in Europe as an
alternative to Dolby's licensing costs.
• DTS: It comes in both lossy and lossless formats and is similar to the aptX audio
codec, which shrinks audio to sizes that Bluetooth connections can handle.

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If you want low file sizes for listening, AAC is probably your best bet these days. It
creates files similar in size to MP3, but they sound better. There are also several
uncompressed audio codecs, like WAV, AIFF, and DSD, that you'd use for either the
best quality playback or while you're editing the files. You won't want to use these file
types on storage-constrained mobile devices, but they have a place when creating
content.

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1
Data file compression
It's truly magical how small some files can be

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Since text files and the like have a ton of whitespace in them, modern compression
algorithms can shrink them to some stupendously small sizes. Even older
compression algorithms can do a pretty good job, which gives you a choice of formats
depending on your needs. You'll want to think about things like how long it will take to
compress (and decompress for the other user), whether the tool is easy to use and get
hold of, and if you want lossless compression for mission-critical data. Here's a
selection of common formats and why you'd want to use them:

• 7-Zip: The most efficient compression ratio, and one of the fastest in practice.
• ZIP: A lossless, dictionary-based method that can be encrypted and uses
multiple compression levels.
• LZ4: Extremely fast, lossless compression algorithm.
• RAR: Similar speeds to 7-Zip for decompression and compression.
• ARC: Rarely used but was designed for high compression and fast operation.

Any of these will work in practice, and since 7-Zip is an easy-to-use compression tool,
any of the formats that it supports are good choices for efficient file compression.

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Modern file compression is often quite magical, but it helps to know which
tools and formats to use
These are the most common types of files you'd want to compress, but there are
many others that we use daily without thinking about it. Mobile apps are compressed
with a ZIP-like structure, and PC games have their code, textures, and other assets
compressed while being transferred from Steam and other storefronts to your
computer and also after they're installed. Some file types are easier to compress than
others, especially when they can use known psychological and physiological tricks to

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make it seem like the compression isn't there. Whatever file you start with, there's
often a more efficient codec to try, but it might not be the best for your needs.

Software and... Video Codec

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