ZIP

The ZIP file format is a data compression and archive format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed to reduce file size, or stored as-is. The process of compressing the document(s) into a zip file is also known as deep-packing. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, but as of 2009, only Deflate is widely used and supported.

The format was originally created in 1989 by Phil Katz for PKZIP. However, many software utilities other than PKZIP itself are now available to create, modify, or open (unzip, decompress) ZIP files like WinZip, BOMArchiveHelper, StuffIt, KGB Archiver, PicoZip, Info-ZIP, WinRAR, IZArc, 7-Zip, ALZip, TUGZip, PeaZip, Zip Genius, and Universal Extractor. Microsoft has included built-in ZIP support (under the name "zipped 'compressed' folders") in later versions of its Windows operating system. Apple has included built-in ZIP support in Mac OS X 10.3 and Mac OS X 10.4 via the BOMArchiveHelper utility, now called Archive Utility in Mac OS X 10.5. The zip, zipcloak, zipnote, zipsplit tools are used widely in unix-like systems.

ZIP files usually have the extension .zip or .ZIP

Many of the files on the internet availible for download are in the zip format to reduce download time.