┌─ FILE ANALYSIS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┐
│ DEVELOPER : Phil Katz (PKWARE)
│ CATEGORY : Archive
│ MIME TYPE : application/zip
│ MAGIC BYTES : 504B0304
└ ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┘
What is a ZIP file?
ZIP is a lossless data compression and archive format created by Phil Katz in 1989. It can contain one or more files or directories that have been compressed to reduce total file size. ZIP is the most universally supported archive format across all operating systems.
How to open ZIP files
- Windows Explorer (Windows) — Built-in extraction
- Finder (macOS) — Built-in extraction
- 7-Zip (Windows) — Free, open-source
- WinRAR (Windows) — Popular archive manager
- The Unarchiver (macOS) — Free
Technical specifications
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Compression | DEFLATE, Store, BZip2, LZMA |
| Encryption | AES-256, ZipCrypto |
| Max File Size | 4 GB (ZIP64: 16 EB) |
| Multi-volume | Supported (split archives) |
| Unicode | UTF-8 filenames supported |
Common use cases
- File distribution: Software downloads and attachments
- Email attachments: Compress files for email
- Backup: Compress folders for storage
- Software packaging: Application installers