Go to https://www. 7-zip. org/ in a web browser. Click Download next to the latest version of 7-Zip. Open the . exe file inside your web browser or “Downloads” folder. Click Install.
To select more than one file at a time, press and hold the Control key as you click each file. Nearly all files can be compressed, but some files (especially video and audio files) can only be compressed by a small amount due to the fact that they are already quite compressed. [1] X Research source
People opening the file will need to use software that can open a . 7z file to decompress it—this can be 7-Zip, WinZip, and Mac’s built-in Archive Utility. [3] X Research source If you’re worried about people having trouble opening the file, you could choose zip instead. It’s really easy to open ZIP files on most devices, and it can still compress files to smaller sizes.
For example, if your computer has 8 GB of RAM, you could select the number closest to 800 MB as your dictionary size, or go lower to make the file compress and decompress faster.
You will need all the split files to extract the files. Make sure you do not delete or lose any of the split files.
Go to https://www. win-rar. com/download. html in a web browser. Click the blue WinRAR 6. 02 button (the version name will vary) to download it. Open the WinRAR “. exe” file. Click Install and follow the on-screen instructions.
To select more than one file at a time, press and hold the Control key as you click each file. Nearly all files can be compressed, but some files can only be compressed by a small amount.
For example, if your computer has 4 GB of RAM, you might select the number closest to 400 MB as your dictionary size.
You will need all the split files to extract the files. Make sure you do not delete or lose any of the split files.
To select more than one file at a time, press and hold the Command key as you click each file. Then, right-click the highlighted files. You can compress most files types on your Mac. The size of the compressed file will vary depending on the type of file it is—images, text files, and various documents can usually compress to much smaller files than video and audio, for example. [6] X Research source
The new file has the . ZIP file extension, which is a globally-used compression format that can be opened on nearly any system without needing special software. To decompress the file, double-click it.
Go to http://fixounet. free. fr/avidemux/download. html in a web browser. Click FOSSHUB next to your operating system. Click the download link for your operating system. Open the downloaded file in your web browser or Downloads folder. Follow the instructions to complete the installation.
Compressing a video means sacrificing its quality. You can play around with compression options to figure out the best size-to-quality ratio. Movie files that you’ve downloaded from online sources may already be compressed. Further compression can lead to a virtually unwatchable final product, or may not result in significant size changes. It is not possible to decompress a compressed video. You should always save the compressed version as a separate file so that you don’t lose the original.
Click File and select Open. Select a video file on your computer and click ‘Open.
The larger the file size, the better the quality. Setting the target size significantly smaller than the original size will result in a drastic decrease in quality. If you’re not sure which size to use, keep the default.
Go to https://www. audacityteam. org/download/ in a web browser. Click the install link for your operating system. Open the downloaded file in your Downloads folder and follow the on-screen instructions to install.
Click the File menu and select Open. Select an audio file and click Open.
Click the down-arrow next to the file’s name in the project area. Select “Split to Mono” from the menu.
Click File. Click Export. Click Export Audio…
“. mp3” is the most common format for music, as it allows for good compression without much noticeable quality loss. It’s also compatible with virtually any device. “. flac” is a lossless form of compression. It is good if you intend to play back the audio through a high-quality sound system, but it is not compatible with many devices. . flac will also not lead to a drastic reduction in file size. “. ogg” creates better sound quality than MP3 at similar file sizes, but it’s not compatible with as many devices. [9] X Research source
MP3: Medium and Standard will provide a decent rate of compression with average audio quality. Extreme and Insane will provide less compression with higher sound quality. OGG/M4A(ACC): Drag the slider bar to the left to increase the rate of compression, but lower the sound quality. Drag it to the right to decrease, the rate of compression while increasing the sound quality. All other file types: Use the drop-down menu below “Bit Rate” or “Bit Depth” to select the sound quality/rate of compression. Lower bit rate/bit depth will provide a higher rate of compression but with poorer sound quality.
It is not possible to uncompress a compressed image. You should always save the compressed version as a separate file so that you don’t lose the original.
. gif, . tiff, and . png are all lossless formats. . jpg is the most common lossy format for images.
Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint allow you to save image files as compressed formats. Virtually any image editing program will work, though some will give you more quality options than others. Photoshop is the most popular image editor, but if you don’t have a subscription, you can download and install GIMP for free. It has a lot of the same features as Photoshop.
Click File in the menu bar. Click Open. Select an image and click Open.
Click File. Click Save As (Photoshop, Paint) or Export As (GIMP).
If you’re compressing a photograph, select . jpg as your format. If you’re compressing an image with less than 256 colors, select . gif as your format. If you’re compressing a screenshot, a drawing or comic, or any other non-natural image, select . png. If you’re compressing an image with layers that you want to preserve, select the . tiff format (note that . tiff format isn’t necessarily considered compression). [11] X Research source
If you’re compressing a photograph, select . jpg as your format. If you’re compressing an image with less than 256 colors, select . gif as your format. If you’re compressing a screenshot, a drawing or comic, or any other non-natural image, select . png. If you’re compressing an image with layers that you want to preserve, select the . tiff format (note that . tiff format isn’t necessarily considered compression). [11] X Research source
Increasing compression (decreasing quality) will result in a much smaller file size, but will add a lot of artifacts and change the color of the image. You may need to play with the options to find a good tradeoff between quality and size.
