File compression programs like Stuffit have been around for many years in one form or another. Originally, they were a way of cramming more documents onto a computer’s hard disk than would otherwise be possible; or else squeezing bigger documents onto floppies than would normally fit. Probably like you, the hard disk on my current computer seems to have filled up just quickly as before despite being hundreds of times bigger than that in the Mac I was using less than ten years ago. But what fills the hard disk now is mostly system software, applications and other resources rather than documents. Low-cost removable drives, in particular the ubiquitous Zip drives and the CD-writers built into most recent Macs, make it easy to store documents off the hard disk while remaining accessible at a moments notice. Best of all, removable media like CDs are cheap, durable, and readable by not just Macs but PCs as well. Frankly, compressing files to make space on the hard disks of modern Macs just isn’t an issue anymore.

So if compression as a tool for making space on our computers isn’t particularly useful, what’s the point of Aladdin’s latest version of Stuffit, Stuffit Deluxe 7 and its new ‘Stuffit X’ compression technique? In an age where sending documents, images, sounds and video across the Internet has become commonplace, the answer is speed. The benefits work for both sender and recipient: the smaller the file being transmitted, the less of the sender’s bandwidth will be used, and the quicker it will take to arrive on the recipient’s computer. What Aladdin has effectively done is turn a product that was originally a system utility into an Internet utility. Instead of freeing up disk space, it frees up bandwidth.

Stuffit Deluxe augments file compression with a suite of options, including the creation of Mac and Windows self-extracting archives, the option of producing compressed files using the standard PC (Zip) and UNIX (Tar) methods. There is also a browser for looking inside, adding to and removing individual files from an archive without un-stuffing the whole thing. In addition, Stuffit X offers ‘strong’ data encryption, unlimited file sizes and built-in error correction.

Installation & Requirements

Stuffit Deluxe will install and work on both Classic (Mac OS 8.6 upwards) and OS X machines, although it is hard to imagine that future versions will be quite so accommodating of older machines. Installation is very simple and the Stuffit suite of applications needs about 20 MB of disk space. Note that the OS X and Classic installations need to be done separately. I tested the OS X version of Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 only.

Once installed, Stuffit Deluxe can be found in the Applications folder, but in normal use you probably won’t go there often. Instead, Stuffit Deluxe relies on ‘True Finder Integration’, in other words, you don’t interact with the application any more obviously than you do with the Trash, the Apple Menu or the Dock.

Stuffit versus Stuffit X

Stuffit, or any other kind of file compression, works best on files that don’t already include compressed data. Many multimedia files include some kind of compression, such as GIFs, JPEGs, MP3s, and QuickTime movies. These files are already very condensed and there is not much that Stuffit can do to reduce their size. In contrast, text documents, such as word-processed documents and spreadsheets, and raw graphics images like PICTs and Photoshop files, offer much more potential. It is these latter types of file that Stuffit Deluxe works best with.

I did a little experiment using six types of commonly seen files: an application, a JPEG graphic, a multi-layered Photoshop file, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and QuickTime movie, and an MP3 music file. I compressed each of these in turn using first the original Stuffit format and then the new Stuffit X format. I opted for maximal compression in each case (Stuffit Deluxe gives you the option of maximum compression, fastest compression, and a balance between the two).

The Excel spreadsheet showed the greatest amount of compression: from an original file size of 416 k, Stuffit filleted this down to a meagre 92 k, and Stuffit X trimmed off a little more, at just 88 k. Either way, this is reduction of about eighty percent. The Photoshop file was slimmed down by almost as much, from 5.4 MB to start with, Stuffit produced an archive just 2.7 MB in size, and Stuffit X 2.6 MB; a reduction of fifty percent. The application showed a similar level of compression. The original file was 1.7 MB in size; this was taken down to 1.2 MB by Stuffit and 1.1 MB by Stuffit X, compression levels of about thirty percent.

In contrast, the JPEG file was only reduced in size by twenty percent using either Stuffit method. From an original file size of 140 k, both versions produced archives of 112 k. The QuickTime movie and the MP3 were barely affected by compression. A 4.3 MB movie went down to 4.2 MB using Stuffit and 4.1 MB with Stuffit X, and Stuffit had no appreciable affect on the size of a 3 MB MP3 and even Stuffit X could only lop off 100 k. At best then, these files were reduced by about four percent.

From this experiment, it is obvious that there isn’t much point in compressing multimedia files that have their own compression built-in. But it is clear that on those files where compression is useful, Stuffit X does have a small but consistent advantage over the original Stuffit. If you distribute applications, text or uncompressed graphics, this five to ten percent margin may make a difference to your costs.

Cross-platform Integration

If you regularly work with Windows users, this is one of the most exciting aspects of the application. Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 can produce Zip archives and can UU encode files, removing this obstacle from transferring files across the Internet between Macs and PCs. There is also an option to make self-extracting archives, effectively Windows applications that contain both the compressed file and a decompressor. Although bigger than a compressed file alone, this does at least ensure the recipient can open the file even if they have no idea what a Zip archive is.

Stuffit Deluxe is helpful over on the UNIX side of the office, too: Tar, GZip and UNIX encode (Z) are all available. Of course, you can do these things from the Terminal without needing to buy Stuffit Deluxe at all, so the usefulness of this is open to debate.

User Interface

Stuffit Deluxe retains the True Finder Integration seen with earlier versions. In essence, this makes the application itself invisible, its functions seem to become part of the operating system. There are two channels for this, a Stuffit Menu in the menu bar, and a contextual menu that appear with by Control-clicking. Both of these channels are easy to use and fairly self-explanatory, giving you all the main options, except strangely for choosing between Stuffit and Stuffit X. This has to be set as a preference via the Stuffit Menu or the main application, you can’t choose this on the fly. This could be annoying if you need to shuffle between the two file formats on a regular basis.

Some of the contextual menu options are quite sophisticated, going beyond working with the Finder and interacting with various productivity applications as well. I particular liked the Stuff & Mail tool, that allows you to choose a file and have that compressed and attached to an e-mail message, via your e-mail application of choice.

There are drag and drop ‘one trick pony’ applications as well as the main Stuffit application if you prefer to use these, although given the sophistication of the contextual menus especially, there aren’t many situations where they would be useful. On the whole Stuffit Deluxe is remarkably easy to use and most features can be accessed with the mouse and Control key. The only real annoyance was that despite the much-flaunted multitasking abilities of OS X, Stuffit Deluxe somehow manages to circumvent this. Or at least, render it moot. Compression progress bars float above active applications windows and need to moved away if you want to see what’s underneath. Once or twice I found Stuffit responding the keyboard shortcuts sent to other applications, particularly Classic applications. Command-s, for example, used to save a PowerPoint presentation also managed to compress a file on the desktop.

Conclusion

In the UK, we have an advertisement for creosote that has the tag-line ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’. Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 is a lot like this (the tag-line, not the creosote). The question is really whether this is something that would add significantly to your productivity or minimize your costs. There are much better ways to clear space on your hard disk, and burning CDs or copying to a removable hard drive gives you a level of back-up protection against disk failure. Moreover, if the files filling up your hard disk are MP3s and other multimedia files, it is doubtful Stuffit will make a big difference to your life. If your work is predominantly with UNIX users, Terminal may be all the encoding and compression utility you ever need. Finally, the differences in file size between Stuffit and Stuffit X were not huge in my tests, though your own may vary. If you already own a version of Stuffit, it is up to you whether an extra 5 or 10 percent file compression justifies the $30 upgrade price.

On the other hand, Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 is robust, quality software. Although the previous versions of Stuffit released for OS X met with mixed reviews thanks to file corruption and other mishaps, Stuffit Deluxe 7.0 seems to have addressed these problems and while I was using it behaved flawlessly. The level of integration with the Finder and applications such as Mail is impressive, and it offers a terrific range of options. If you need an application like Stuffit Deluxe 7.0, and work with the kinds of files it can compress effectively, and distribute them using systems where file size is at a premium, then you won’t be disappointed.