StuffIt
Encyclopedia
StuffIt is a family of computer software
utilities for archiving and compressing files
on the Macintosh
and Microsoft Windows
platforms: it was originally produced for the Macintosh. An old version (5.2.0?) for Linux
(x86) and Sun Solaris 2.7 or later is also available. The proprietary compression format used by the StuffIt utilities is also termed StuffIt.
in New York City. It combined the fork-combining
capabilities of utilities such as MacBinary
with newer compression algorithms similar to those used in ZIP
. Compared to existing utilities on the Mac, notably PackIt
, StuffIt offered "one step" operation and higher compression ratios. By the fall of 1987 StuffIt had largely replaced PackIt in the Mac world, with many software sites even going so far as to convert existing PackIt archives to save more space.
StuffIt soon became very popular and Aladdin Systems was formed to market it (the last shareware
release by Lau was version 1.5.1). They split the product line in two, offering StuffIt Classic in shareware
and StuffIt Deluxe as a commercial package. Deluxe added a variety of additional functions, including additional compression methods and integration into the Mac Finder to allow files to be compressed from a "Magic Menu" without opening StuffIt itself.
StuffIt was upgraded several times, but Lau had removed himself from direct development and major upgrades to the "internal machinery" were rare. As this was a time of rapid evolution for the Macintosh platform with new features and techniques appearing regularly, the shareware utility Compact Pro
emerged as a competitor to StuffIt's in the early 1990s.
A major upgrade followed in order to compete, adding the freeware StuffIt Expander
in order to make the format more universally acceptable, as well as the shareware StuffIt Lite which made it easier to produce — prior to this anyone attempting to use the format needed to buy StuffIt, making Compact Pro more attractive. This move was very successful, and Compact Pro disappeared almost overnight.
Several other Mac compression utilities appeared and disappeared during the 1990s, but none became a real threat to StuffIt's market. The only ones to see any widespread use were special-purpose "disk expanders" like DiskDoubler
and SuperDisk!, which served a different niche. Apparently as a side-effect, StuffIt once again saw few upgrades. PC-based formats long surpassed StuffIt in terms of compression, notably newer systems like RAR and 7z
. These had little impact on the Mac market, as most of these never appeared in an easy-to-use program on the Mac.
With the introduction of OpenStep
as the basis for what would become Mac OS X
, newer Mac software lost their forks and no longer needed anything except the built-in Unix
utilities like gzip
and tar
. Numerous programs "wrapping" these utilities were distributed, and since these files could be opened on any machine, they were considerably more practical than StuffIt in an era when most data is cross-platform. With the release of OS X Public Beta, Aladdin Systems released StuffIt 6.0 which runs under OS X, with Expander no longer relying on the StuffIt EngineTM.
Although it was late to market, Aladdin Systems introduced the completely new StuffIt X format in September 2002 with StuffIt Deluxe 7.0 for Macintosh. It was designed to be extendable, support more compression methods, support long file names, and support Unix and Windows file attributes. StuffIt X improves over the original StuffIt format and its descendants by adding multiple compression algorithms such as PPM
, and BWT to LZW
-type compression. It also added a "block mode" option and several encryption options. In January 2005, JPEG
compression was added as a StuffIt X compression option (see the related 'SIF Format' below).
Until the 2005 acquisition by Smith Micro Software
, coinciding with the release of Mac OS X v10.4
"Tiger", StuffIt Expander came preloaded with the Macintosh operating system.
Although Mac files generally did not use filename extension
s, one of StuffIt's primary uses was to allow Mac files to be stored on non-Mac systems where extensions were required.
So, StuffIt-compressed files save the resource forks of the Macintosh files inside them, and typically have the extension .sit (abrreviated as if it was Stuff I T), although newer Stuffit X-compressed files carry the file extension .sitx. Encrypted StuffIt archives created with the now-discontinued Private File utility will have .pf extensions. StuffIt-compressed ShrinkWrap disk image
s will carry .img or .image extensions. However, a Classic
version of StuffIt is needed to mount the images or convert them to a newer format readable in Mac OS X
.
Smith Micro Software
offers free downloads of StuffIt Expander
for Mac and Windows, which expands (uncompresses) files compressed using the StuffIt and StuffIt X format, as well as many other compressed, encoded, encrypted and segmented formats. The shareware
application DropStuff permits the compressing of files into the StuffIt X format.
The StuffIt and StuffIt X formats remain, unlike some other file compression formats, proprietary, and Smith Micro Software
charge license fees for its use in other programs. Given this, few alternative programs support the format.
compression system was released that regularly obtained compression in the order of 25% (meaning a compressed file size 75% of the original file size) without any further loss of image quality and with the ability to rebuild the original file, not just the original image. (ZIP
-like programs typically achieve JPEG compression rates in the order of 1 to 3%. Programs that optimise JPEGs without regard for the original file, only the original image, obtain compression rates from 3 to 10% (depending on the efficiency of the original JPEG). Programs that use the rarely implemented arithmetic coding
option available to the JPEG standard typically achieve rates around 12%.)
The new technique was implemented as a StuffIt X format option in their StuffIt Deluxe product. They have also proposed a new image format known as SIF, which simply consists of a single JPEG file compressed using this new technique.
Pending filing of their patent, they retain knowledge of the details of this algorithm as a trade secret. However, recent published research has described methods that achieve similar results, as has a method held by Infima; see JPEG#Lossless further compression for details.
announced their acquisition and were intending to expand the new JPEG recompression technique to wireless platforms and other file formats. The initial press release and preliminary information saw the first use of the title “StuffIt Wireless.”
s zip, gzip, and bzip2 (Archive Utility
). Versions of Mac OS prior to 10.3 did not preserve resource forks in the zip format, but in versions since 10.3
(Panther), Stuffit is no longer a requirement for Mac file compression. Zip is also a de facto standard, so it is more widely accepted for archives and sharing.
While StuffIt used to be a standard way of packaging Mac software for download, Mac-native compressed disk images (DMG) have largely replaced this practice.
StuffIt might still be used in some situation where its features are required (archive editing/browsing, better compression, JPEG compression, encryption, old packages).
An open source alternative might be The Unarchiver
, even if it doesn't support newer StuffIt file formats. Some 3rd-party software, such as the Macintosh Finder
replacement Path Finder
, use the Stuffit SDK to gain all the features of Stuffit.
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
utilities for archiving and compressing files
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
on the Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms: it was originally produced for the Macintosh. An old version (5.2.0?) for Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(x86) and Sun Solaris 2.7 or later is also available. The proprietary compression format used by the StuffIt utilities is also termed StuffIt.
Overview
StuffIt was originally developed in the summer of 1987 by Raymond Lau, who was then a high school student at Stuyvesant High SchoolStuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
in New York City. It combined the fork-combining
Resource fork
The resource fork is a construct of the Mac OS operating system used to store structured data in a file, alongside unstructured data stored within the data fork. A resource fork stores information in a specific form, such as icons, the shapes of windows, definitions of menus and their contents, and...
capabilities of utilities such as MacBinary
MacBinary
Due to the metadata-rich nature of the Macintosh Hierarchical File System, transferring Mac OS files to platforms that do not support HFS can be problematic. MacBinary was developed as a means of preserving this structure without sacrificing portability. It combines the data and resource forks...
with newer compression algorithms similar to those used in ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
. Compared to existing utilities on the Mac, notably PackIt
PackIt
PackIt is a software data compression utility for archiving and compressing files on the Apple Macintosh platform. It was the first such program to see widespread use on the Mac, and most Mac software archives accepted uploads only in PackIt format for some time...
, StuffIt offered "one step" operation and higher compression ratios. By the fall of 1987 StuffIt had largely replaced PackIt in the Mac world, with many software sites even going so far as to convert existing PackIt archives to save more space.
StuffIt soon became very popular and Aladdin Systems was formed to market it (the last shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
release by Lau was version 1.5.1). They split the product line in two, offering StuffIt Classic in shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
and StuffIt Deluxe as a commercial package. Deluxe added a variety of additional functions, including additional compression methods and integration into the Mac Finder to allow files to be compressed from a "Magic Menu" without opening StuffIt itself.
StuffIt was upgraded several times, but Lau had removed himself from direct development and major upgrades to the "internal machinery" were rare. As this was a time of rapid evolution for the Macintosh platform with new features and techniques appearing regularly, the shareware utility Compact Pro
Compact Pro
Compact Pro is a software data compression utility for archiving and compressing files on the Apple Macintosh platform. It was a major competitor to StuffIt in the early 1990s, producing smaller archives in less time, as well as being distributed via shareware which greatly helped its popularity...
emerged as a competitor to StuffIt's in the early 1990s.
A major upgrade followed in order to compete, adding the freeware StuffIt Expander
StuffIt Expander
StuffIt Expander is a proprietary, freeware, closed source, decompression software utility developed by Allume Systems . It runs in Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux x86/UNIX.As of November 2010, the latest Macintosh version is 2011 , which requires Mac OS X v10.5 or later...
in order to make the format more universally acceptable, as well as the shareware StuffIt Lite which made it easier to produce — prior to this anyone attempting to use the format needed to buy StuffIt, making Compact Pro more attractive. This move was very successful, and Compact Pro disappeared almost overnight.
Several other Mac compression utilities appeared and disappeared during the 1990s, but none became a real threat to StuffIt's market. The only ones to see any widespread use were special-purpose "disk expanders" like DiskDoubler
DiskDoubler
DiskDoubler is a data compression utility for compressing files on the Apple Macintosh platform. Unlike most such programs, which compress numerous files into a single archive for transmission, DiskDoubler was intended to compress single files "in place" to save space on the drive...
and SuperDisk!, which served a different niche. Apparently as a side-effect, StuffIt once again saw few upgrades. PC-based formats long surpassed StuffIt in terms of compression, notably newer systems like RAR and 7z
7z
7z is a compressed archive file format that supports several different data compression, encryption and pre-processing algorithms. The 7z format initially appeared as implemented by the 7-Zip archiver. The 7-Zip program is publicly available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public...
. These had little impact on the Mac market, as most of these never appeared in an easy-to-use program on the Mac.
With the introduction of OpenStep
OpenStep
OpenStep was an object-oriented application programming interface specification for an object-oriented operating system that used a non-NeXTSTEP operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT with Sun Microsystems. OPENSTEP was a specific implementation of the OpenStep API developed...
as the basis for what would become Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, newer Mac software lost their forks and no longer needed anything except the built-in Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
utilities like gzip
Gzip
Gzip is any of several software applications used for file compression and decompression. The term usually refers to the GNU Project's implementation, "gzip" standing for GNU zip. It is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of Lempel-Ziv and Huffman coding...
and tar
Tar (file format)
In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
. Numerous programs "wrapping" these utilities were distributed, and since these files could be opened on any machine, they were considerably more practical than StuffIt in an era when most data is cross-platform. With the release of OS X Public Beta, Aladdin Systems released StuffIt 6.0 which runs under OS X, with Expander no longer relying on the StuffIt EngineTM.
Although it was late to market, Aladdin Systems introduced the completely new StuffIt X format in September 2002 with StuffIt Deluxe 7.0 for Macintosh. It was designed to be extendable, support more compression methods, support long file names, and support Unix and Windows file attributes. StuffIt X improves over the original StuffIt format and its descendants by adding multiple compression algorithms such as PPM
PPM compression algorithm
Prediction by partial matching is an adaptive statistical data compression technique based on context modeling and prediction. PPM models use a set of previous symbols in the uncompressed symbol stream to predict the next symbol in the stream....
, and BWT to LZW
LZW
Lempel–Ziv–Welch is a universal lossless data compression algorithm created by Abraham Lempel, Jacob Ziv, and Terry Welch. It was published by Welch in 1984 as an improved implementation of the LZ78 algorithm published by Lempel and Ziv in 1978...
-type compression. It also added a "block mode" option and several encryption options. In January 2005, JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
compression was added as a StuffIt X compression option (see the related 'SIF Format' below).
Until the 2005 acquisition by Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software, Inc. , founded in 1983 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a diversified developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software solutions and services...
, coinciding with the release of Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...
"Tiger", StuffIt Expander came preloaded with the Macintosh operating system.
Although Mac files generally did not use filename extension
Filename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
s, one of StuffIt's primary uses was to allow Mac files to be stored on non-Mac systems where extensions were required.
So, StuffIt-compressed files save the resource forks of the Macintosh files inside them, and typically have the extension .sit (abrreviated as if it was Stuff I T), although newer Stuffit X-compressed files carry the file extension .sitx. Encrypted StuffIt archives created with the now-discontinued Private File utility will have .pf extensions. StuffIt-compressed ShrinkWrap disk image
Disk image
A disk image is a single file or storage device containing the complete contents and structure representing a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, tape drive, floppy disk, CD/DVD/BD, or USB flash drive, although an image of an optical disc may be referred to as an optical disc image...
s will carry .img or .image extensions. However, a Classic
Mac OS history
On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with what was later renamed the Mac OS, but then known simply as the System Software....
version of StuffIt is needed to mount the images or convert them to a newer format readable in Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
.
Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software, Inc. , founded in 1983 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a diversified developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software solutions and services...
offers free downloads of StuffIt Expander
StuffIt Expander
StuffIt Expander is a proprietary, freeware, closed source, decompression software utility developed by Allume Systems . It runs in Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux x86/UNIX.As of November 2010, the latest Macintosh version is 2011 , which requires Mac OS X v10.5 or later...
for Mac and Windows, which expands (uncompresses) files compressed using the StuffIt and StuffIt X format, as well as many other compressed, encoded, encrypted and segmented formats. The shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
application DropStuff permits the compressing of files into the StuffIt X format.
The StuffIt and StuffIt X formats remain, unlike some other file compression formats, proprietary, and Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software, Inc. , founded in 1983 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a diversified developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software solutions and services...
charge license fees for its use in other programs. Given this, few alternative programs support the format.
StuffIt Image Format (SIF)
Early in 2005, a new JPEGJPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
compression system was released that regularly obtained compression in the order of 25% (meaning a compressed file size 75% of the original file size) without any further loss of image quality and with the ability to rebuild the original file, not just the original image. (ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
-like programs typically achieve JPEG compression rates in the order of 1 to 3%. Programs that optimise JPEGs without regard for the original file, only the original image, obtain compression rates from 3 to 10% (depending on the efficiency of the original JPEG). Programs that use the rarely implemented arithmetic coding
Arithmetic coding
Arithmetic coding is a form of variable-length entropy encoding used in lossless data compression. Normally, a string of characters such as the words "hello there" is represented using a fixed number of bits per character, as in the ASCII code...
option available to the JPEG standard typically achieve rates around 12%.)
The new technique was implemented as a StuffIt X format option in their StuffIt Deluxe product. They have also proposed a new image format known as SIF, which simply consists of a single JPEG file compressed using this new technique.
Pending filing of their patent, they retain knowledge of the details of this algorithm as a trade secret. However, recent published research has described methods that achieve similar results, as has a method held by Infima; see JPEG#Lossless further compression for details.
Duplicate Folding
Duplicate Folding™ is a feature which saves even more space by only keeping one copy of a duplicate file in an archive.Backwards compatibility
Changes to the Stuffit compression software, claimed by the developer to be upgrades, frequently render previous versions of Stuffit unable to decompress newer archives without first downloading or purchasing the new version. This incompatibility can be inconvenient for work flows where timely execution is of importance. Though users are able to create archives in a legacy format, this functionality is not clearly exposed.StuffIt Wireless
On July 5, 2005, Smith Micro SoftwareSmith Micro Software
Smith Micro Software, Inc. , founded in 1983 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a diversified developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software solutions and services...
announced their acquisition and were intending to expand the new JPEG recompression technique to wireless platforms and other file formats. The initial press release and preliminary information saw the first use of the title “StuffIt Wireless.”
Alternatives
Mac OS X includes a compression utility that is compatible with the open formatOpen format
An open file format is a published specification for storing digital data, usually maintained by a standards organization, which can therefore be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implementable by both proprietary and free and open source software, using the typical...
s zip, gzip, and bzip2 (Archive Utility
Archive utility
* For archive utility applications in general see file archiver.* For the MAC OS Archive Utility service application see Archive Utility....
). Versions of Mac OS prior to 10.3 did not preserve resource forks in the zip format, but in versions since 10.3
Mac OS X v10.3
Mac OS X Panther is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and preceded Mac OS X Tiger...
(Panther), Stuffit is no longer a requirement for Mac file compression. Zip is also a de facto standard, so it is more widely accepted for archives and sharing.
While StuffIt used to be a standard way of packaging Mac software for download, Mac-native compressed disk images (DMG) have largely replaced this practice.
StuffIt might still be used in some situation where its features are required (archive editing/browsing, better compression, JPEG compression, encryption, old packages).
An open source alternative might be The Unarchiver
The Unarchiver
The Unarchiver is a free data decompression frontend of libxad, which supports more formats than Archive Utility , the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. It can also handle filenames in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. The latest...
, even if it doesn't support newer StuffIt file formats. Some 3rd-party software, such as the Macintosh Finder
Macintosh Finder
The Finder is the default file manager used on Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems; it is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications...
replacement Path Finder
Path Finder
Path Finder is a Macintosh file browser developed by Cocoatech. First released simultaneously with the public release of Mac OS X...
, use the Stuffit SDK to gain all the features of Stuffit.
See also
- List of archive formats
- List of file archivers
- Comparison of file archiversComparison of file archiversThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file archivers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. They are neither all-inclusive nor are some entries necessarily up to date...
- DiskDoublerDiskDoublerDiskDoubler is a data compression utility for compressing files on the Apple Macintosh platform. Unlike most such programs, which compress numerous files into a single archive for transmission, DiskDoubler was intended to compress single files "in place" to save space on the drive...