The Fast Archiver

What attracted my attention to this app is its stated size--one gigabyte! In reality, the app is 1.5 megabytes. That’s more like it. I then performed tests on a couple of Photoshop files, comparing it with YemuZip and with Apple’s built-in compressor. The resulting archives, as percentage of the original file size:

55% - 78% - 78% (using Fast Archiver, YemuZip, and Apple, respectively). The JPEG files of the same averaged 33% of original at 10/12 setting, which is not relevant here because the archives are (supposed to be) lossless while JPEG compression is lossy.

The Fast Archiver wins out, mainly because it first uses TAR compression and then BZIP2 to create the resulting archive, hence the “.tbz” extension. It doesn’t seem to slow it down, though, but tests on much larger files show a marked difference. With a 1.5 gigabyte Photoshop file, YemuZip and the Apple archiver took a shade under one minute to complete, The Fast Archiver took almost three.

So depending on your needs and situation, one might serve you better than the other. I’m not ready to make the switch yet for several reasons. First, The Fast Archiver defaults to saving the file to your home folder, AND you have to give it permission to do so OR to select a different folder. YemuZip lets you set it to save to the same folder, or to select a different one. Second, YemuZip gives you a choice of Mac- or PC-compatible format, the former preserving Mac metadata in the process. The Fast Archiver does not. And it does not give you access to preferences settings, not in this version, at least, so you’re tied to the two-step process of pre-selecting the folder, and then dragging the file to its window.

Let’s hope that future versions will provide additional features because the more efficient compression it provides can be invaluable to users who are low on available disk space.

Don't be afraid:
the size of the download is around 1 MB and not 1 GB.
:)