The file format was first implemented in the PKZIP utility and was designed as a replacement for the ARC compression format. The format allows several different compression algorithms to be used for creating file archives and was originally created in 1989 by Phil Katz. What is the Zip File Format?Ī zip file is an archive file format that provides support for lossless data compression of one or more files or folders. Despite this added functionality, a common question that arises amongst Mac users is how to zip files on a Mac. Mac users however, did not enjoy this “built-in” support for the file format until Mac OS X 10.3 when the Archive Utility was added to the operating system. The format has been supported via third party utility since its creation and has seen built-in support in the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems added over the past several years. The zip file format has been around since the late 1980s and provides computer users with the ability to compress one to many files.

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