Documents

Compression Rate

When it comes to documents like HTML files and Word documents, WinRK at its Maximum setting was the best compressor. It was followed closely by 7-Zip and SBC Archiver, both as Maximum settings and WinRK itself at Normal settings. All these compressors managed to compress the fileset by more than 50% at those settings.

The poorest compressor was ARJ32 at its Fast setting. It was the only compressor at any setting to compress the fileset by less than 34%. It only managed to reduce the fileset size by 29%.

Compression Speed

While it is the poorest compressor, ARJ32 at its Fast setting, was the undisputed compression speed leader in this fileset. It was 40% faster than the second fastest compressor, WinZip, also at its Fast setting.

WinRK, at both Normal and Maximum settings, was the slowest compressor of this fileset. Even WinAce at its Maximum setting was more than twice as fast as WinRK at its Normal setting.

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.

Thanks to its extremely fast compression speed, ARJ32 at its Fast setting, was the most efficient compressor of documents. WinZip and WinRAR, both at their Fast settings, were also very efficient; as was gzip at its Fast and Normal settings.

Although WinRK was the best compressor of documents, its marginal lead over faster compressors like WinZip and WinRAR made it the most inefficient compressor of this fileset because it was truly a very, very slow compressor.