Zip files without compression

I'd like to bundle a number of big files into a single file, to make them easier to share. The files are already compressed (eg. jpeg, video etc), so I don't need compression, only archiving. How can I put them in a zip file without using zip's compression feature? I don't want to waste time trying to compress gigabytes of already compressed files.

I want to use zip and not tar file because many Windows users can't open those files.

Colonel Panic

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 9 529

4Which program are you using? – Dennis – 2012-04-11T23:28:40.787

Answers

The ZIP format has always supported archiving files with zero compression ratio, even since pkzip/pkunzip in DOS times.

Nowadays, almost all compression programs support this; 7-Zip is one of them, it lets you specify the compression ration both from the GUI and from the command line, and it's free.

Massimo

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 2 278

10On OS X, zip -Z store foo.zip a b c or zip -0 foo.zip a b c will archive a, b, and c without compressing them. – Ian Dunn – 2016-08-24T23:36:44.437

11in 7zip, the 'store' compression option should do the trick – Journeyman Geek – 2012-04-11T23:48:49.390

Info-ZIP's zip, which is open source, free, and already installed on most Unixish systems has a "-0" option to store only.

Also if you simply zip with any zipper and the entries would be shorter stored than compressed, which is what happens with already compressed files, then they will be stored automagically. However if you already know they're compressed, then it's faster to just tell zip to that with -0.

Mark Adler

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 246

If you are using WinZip
Go to the "Settings" ribbon, and look for the "zip" group:

enter image description here

After that, drag the files you want to zip, into the file area.
A popup shows that the files have not been compressed in size:

enter image description here

Jens Kloster

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 121

Right click on all the files you want to zip, from the menu go to "send to" then click "compressed file".

Dima

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 194

1The title specifically says "Without compression" – Martin Konecny – 2016-04-13T22:25:47.603

This assumes a program to zip files is even installed, which may or may not be true. – Ivo Flipse – 2012-04-12T09:33:10.453

1@IvoFlipse: This is built-in Windows functionality. – Tamara Wijsman – 2012-04-12T16:07:18.833

6It is, but it does use compression. – Marcks Thomas – 2012-04-12T16:30:34.763

Almost all modern compression tools detect if files are already compressed, and chose not to compress such files.

DejanLekic

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 739

You can also use B1 Free Archiver - it supports zip format perfectly. After clicking on "Create archive" just hit the button "More options" and choose "Store". It only stores the files as a single file without compressing them.

MaryLane

Posted 2012-04-11T23:28:10.150

Reputation: 1