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Compression Rate
| Data Compressors |
Original Size (bytes) |
Compressed Size (bytes) |
Space Saved (bytes) |
7-Zip |
200,009,231
|
169,137,660 |
30,871,571 |
SBC Archiver |
200,009,231
|
169,949,664 |
30,059,567 |
WinRK |
200,009,231
|
171,367,285 |
28,641,946 |
Squeez |
200,009,231
|
172,248,354 |
27,760,877 |
WinRAR |
200,009,231
|
174,651,807 |
25,357,424 |
WinZip |
200,009,231
|
174,848,528 |
25,160,703 |
WinAce |
200,009,231
|
175,222,701 |
24,786,530 |
StuffIt |
200,009,231
|
176,157,227 |
23,852,004 |
bzip2 |
200,009,231
|
176,634,426 |
23,374,805 |
gzip |
200,009,231
|
177,387,198 |
22,622,033 |
ARJ32 |
200,009,231
|
177,718,656 |
22,290,575 |
Even when it comes to PDF files, 7-Zip was the best at compression. It was ahead of the rest of the pack by reducing the fileset size to 169MB, which is a size reduction of 15.44%. The runner-up, SBC Archiver, managed to reduce the fileset size by over 30MB or 15%.
WinRK and Squeez were close behind 7-Zip. The other compressors generated slightly larger archives, but they were all generally good at compressing this fileset. Even the worse compressor, ARJ32, managed to achieve a size reduction of 22.3MB.
Compression Speed
| Data Compressors |
Original Size (bytes) |
Time (s) |
Speed (KB/s) |
gzip |
200,009,231
|
17.48 |
11442.2 |
ARJ32 |
200,009,231
|
22.46 |
8905.1 |
bzip2 |
200,009,231
|
52.94 |
3778.0 |
StuffIt |
200,009,231
|
73.49 |
2721.6 |
7-Zip |
200,009,231
|
99.10 |
2018.3 |
WinRAR |
200,009,231
|
131.38 |
1522.4 |
SBC Archiver |
200,009,231
|
139.90 |
1429.7 |
WinAce |
200,009,231
|
176.82 |
1131.1 |
WinZip |
200,009,231
|
189.02 |
1058.1 |
Squeez |
200,009,231
|
216.85 |
922.3 |
WinRK |
200,009,231
|
704.60 |
283.9 |
When it came to compression speed, however, gzip was king. It only took 17.5 seconds to compress the 200MB fileset. It was over 28% faster than its nearest competitor,ARJ32. The other data compressors were much slower with bzip2 and StuffIt reasonably fast.
WinRK was, again, the slowest compressor tested. This time, it was especially long. It actually took over 11 minutes to complete the test.
Compression Efficiency
The compression efficiency rating is a simple way to evaluate the efficiency of each data compressor. This way, we can see which compressor can save the most space in the least time.
Please note that a higher efficiency rating does not mean the compressor is better. It just means the compressor has a better compression-to-speed ratio. A more efficient compressor is, of course, always more desirable than a less efficient one.
The most efficient data compressor when it comes to this bunch of PDF files was gzip. Its tremendously fast compression speed with its good compression rate allowed it to become the undisputed efficiency champion for PDF files.
ARJ32 was also a very efficient compressor, also thanks to its very fast compression speed. The PDF compression king, 7-Zip, ended up in the middle of the pack because of its reasonably fast compression speed.
The most inefficient compressor in this comparison was WinRK. The extremely long time it took to compress the fileset completely offset the amount of space saved.
