best way to compress files?

[manchot]

i need to put some big files together and make them into one and shrink their size as much as possible.

i use the archive function on mac (left click->archive) to make a zip, but other than making all my files in a folder one, it doesn't really shrink the size any.

i know i've opened up zip or rar files before from other places and had them expend a lot after i unpackaged them. how do i do this with my files?

 

[tersono]

The 'archive' (called 'compress' in Leopard) function DOES compress files to the normal .zip standard, but as with any form of file compression, the amount of reduction you're going to get depends on the source files. If, for instance, they're .jpg images, they're already compressed, so will not compress appreciably further, whatever you use. The same goes for pdfs and a number of other file types.