- Shrink Review -
Compression programs have been with us since the dark ages of DOS when you had to use them if you wanted to fit anything on those old 5 1/4 inch 360k floppies. Most compression programs were run at what is now known as the command prompt by typing the program name with about 18 arguments afterwards; each just waiting for a typo to screw things up.
Well, times change, programs improve, files get bigger but you STILL can't get a compression program to squash jpegs without ruining image quality
- - - until now.
Shrink is easy to use and reduces the memory size of widely used file formats such as pdf, jpg and Windows Office programs much more than the widely known competition.
If you've never used compression software before, the basic idea is to create a single file or archive that contains many files. The total amount of memory space that this archive takes up on your hard drive should be much less than the memory space taken up by the individual files. Digital camera images, usually in jpg format, take a huge amount of memory space up on your hard drive and will not compress using a well known competitor's product. They even go so far as to explain on their web site why you can't compress jpg images by much more than 3%. Shrink, however, can compress jpg images by more than 80% in some cases WITH NO LOSS OF IMAGE QUALITY.
Installation
Installation is a simple matter of downloading the setup file (see below) and double clicking on it. After installation, the icon below will appear on your desktop.
Notice that it has no arrow on it so the icon represents the program itself and not a shortcut to the program. Double clicking on the icon will bring up the configuration menus.
Configuration
For some, just the mention of the word "configuration" in relation to a program is enough to send cold chills of horror up their spine. With Shrink, you don't have to worry; configuration is easy.
The first menu is the "Shrink" tab.
Here, you only have to answer two questions; where you want the compressed file (.qcf) placed by default and how you want to handle overwriting duplicate files. For now, select "Same file position" and "Ask before overwrite". During the following examples, it will become clear what changing these options will do.
The next menu is the "Extract" tab.
This has the same two questions as the compress tab except it deals with file extraction instead of compression. Answer the questions the same as before, "Same file position" and "Ask before overwrite". Again, this will become clearer during the examples.
The next menu is the "Image Quality" tab.
Don't jump to any conclusions on this; Shrink doesn't rely on reduction of image quality for compression results of over 80%. If however, you want to reduce the memory size of the file even further, Shrink gives you the option to do this by reducing image quality.
To reduce image quality and memory size of the compressed file, move the Image Quality Slider to the left. Setting the slider at 100% results in no loss of image quality.
For all of the examples used here, the Image Quality slider will be set at 100%.
Compressing Files
Shrink is so easy to use that you don't even have to open the program.
For these examples, I've used a series of vacation pictures from a digital camera that are in jpg format. Any jpg will do so follow along with your own. Please note that the files you compress are copied and then compressed leaving the originals untouched. If you still feel unsure, copy your images first and experiment with the duplicates.
We'll keep the first example simple by only compressing one image. Usually you wouldn't bother to compress one image but those unfamiliar with compression programs may find a simple approach less confusing.
1) Use windows explorer to go to the folder containing the file you wish to compress. You can also directly open the folder using "my computer" and then looking on your hard drive. For this example, the folder contains 55 jpg images that total 13.5MB.
2) Select the file you wish to compress. For this example, I've chosen DCP00307.jpg at random.
Here's an example using some digital photos.
3) Right click on the selected file and the following menu will come up with Shrink options.
The first option, "Shrink to DCP0307.qcf" is the default which you specified in the configuration menu. The compressed file will be placed in the same folder as files that you are compressing which will make finding the file easier in these examples. For your own use, you may wish to change the default. Had you used the "desktop" option, the compressed file would appear in a folder on your desktop. If you plan on putting compressed files in a folder such as c:/compressedFiles, you could specify that folder as the default in the configuration menu as well.
The next option "Shrink to.." allows you to override the default and specify the name and location of the compressed file. Use this option if you don't want the compressed file in the default location.
I'll cover the "Shrink and Email" function later.
4) Click on "Shrink to DCP0307.qcf" to create the compressed file. Click "OK" and the compressed file will be created; here's two views of the created file.
5) I used a competitors product to compare results.
Original file size of DCP00307 - 199KB
Compressed file size using competitor's program - 193KB 3% reduction
Compressed file size using Shrink ----- 32.5KB 83% reduction
Not every file you compress is going to give you an 83% reduction. To get an idea of what to expect, Let's compress all 55 of the images.
1) Select all of the jpg images in the folder. Notice that the compressed (.qcf) file was not selected.
2) Right click on the selected files.
3) The default comes up with the name of the file you happened to right click on. The name "DCP00304.qcf" doesn't really describe the group of photos very well so I'll select the "Shrink to ..." option which opens up this box.
I'll change the name of the archive to VacationPics.qcf.
4) I again used a competitor's product to compare results:
Original size of 55 files - 13.5MB
Compressed file size using competitor's program - 13.2MB 2% reduction
Compressed file size using Super Compressor ----- 3.15MB 77% reduction
As you can see, the overall compression is a little lower than the first example but still MUCH better than the competition. Now for something real big.
I wanted to compress a folder containing many subfolders full of images and other files. The total size of the folder was 1.02GB with 11,180 files and folders. Thirty minutes after I started, the compressed file was done: total size 379MB for a 63% reduction. I gave up on the competition after running it for over an hour without completing. As you can see, variable results but much better than the 2 to 3 percent reduction the competition gives.
Some users, however, may already have archived their jpgs into zip format and don't want to go to the bother of doing all that work again. Shrink makes it easy by giving you the option to create a compressed .qcf file directly from a zip file without opening it.
For this example, we'll create a zip file from 33 photos and call it PictureArchive.zip. Right click on the zip file to bring up the command "Shrink to PictureArchive.qcf " as shown below.
Select the command and the compressed file will be created.
As before, the results are impressive.
Original size of all 33 pics - 9.26MB
Size of PictureArchive.zip - 9.13MB - 1.4% reduction
Size of PictureArchive.qcf created from PictureArchive.zip - 2.6MB - 72% reduction
Compressing files directly from a zip file using Shrink is mainly for convenience when dealing with existing zip files. A .qcf file made directly from the 33 image files would have the same memory size as the .qcf file created from the zip file containing the same images.
Extracting Files
Now that the files are compressed, let's look at how we get them out again.
1) Select a single compressed file of your choice and right click on it. In this example, I've chosen VacationPics.qcf.
2) Select "Extract to VacationPics". This is the default specified in the configuration menu which can be changed in the same way the "compress" configuration is.
As you can see, a new folder named VacationPics has been created and all of the extracted files have been placed there. If you wanted to extract the files to another location, you could use the second option, "Extract to...". This opens a window where you can specify the desired location of the extracted files.
If you try to extract files to the same folder, it will try to overwrite the files that are already in the VacationPics folder. This isn't a problem unless you've modified the images in some way and don't want them replaced. If the "Ask before overwrite" choice is selected on the configuration menu then the following box will appear.
The "Apply to all files" checkbox will change the yes option to yes for all files and the no option to no for all files. This will keep you from having to click the mouse 55 times if you wanted to overwrite all of the compressed files.
Shrink also gives you the option to extract all of the files in the .qcf file into a single .zip file of the same name.
In this example, select VacationPics.qcf and right click on it as you did in the example above. This time, select "Convert to VacationPics.zip".
As you can see, Shrink created the file VacationPics.zip.
Another way to extract a file from a .qcf file is to just double click on it. Double clicking will bring up the following window.
The entire contents of the .qcf file are displayed. From this window, you can drag and drop files to any folder on your PC without moving the file from the .qcf file. Double clicking on an image file in this window will display the image.
This is one of the most useful features of Shrink. Many times, you want to send an image by e-mail but
1) you can't because your e-mail system has size restrictions on attachments and your image file is too big or
2) you or the person getting the e-mail has a slow internet connection and it takes forever to send a large image. Compressing the file is the perfect solution.
To send a compressed image by e-mail;
1) Select the image to send and right click on it.
2) Select "Compress and E-Mail" on the pop up menu.
This will compress the file or files, open your default e-mail program and place the compressed files as attachments on a new e-mail message. You then put the address where you want it sent and push send. A link to a free decompressor program is also added to the bottom of the e-mail message.
Many people, however, are wary of these automatic links in e-mail since they think it's either an ad or a virus. In this case, it's even worse since the link to the free decompressor program is dead as the program is no longer offered. Fortunately, there is a solution.
Do a favor to those recieving your e-mails the first time you send them a Shrink file; tell them that you're using a new compression program and include a link to this page;
www.sharewaregenie.com/ShrinkReview.php
They can become comfortable with the program after reading the directions and download the full trial version. Since the extract function still works after the 30 day trial period, they won't need to download the decoder and will have the option of registering the full version if they find the program useful.
Jpegs and Image Quality
Everyone who hasn't used Shrink says you can't compress a jpg because it's already compressed. The Jpeg format was created to allow digital images to be compressed at the expense of image quality. A smaller memory size for your image meant less quality. Once created, a jpeg file is not necessarily static. Compression occurs every time you open a jpg file, edit it and save it. If you modify and save picture 20 times, it will not look as good as the original. This is called generation loss and is a property of the jpeg format and lossy compression.
Shrink, will not cause generation loss under normal uses but slight color shifts may occur in extreme cases.
Here is an exteme case which would probably never happen in normal use. It is only posted here to tell users what to avoid.
1) Shrink the file picture01.jpg to picture01.qcf.
2) Unshrink picture01.qcf and rename the Unshrinked file picture02.jpg
3) Compress the file picture02.jpg to picture02.qcf
4) Unshrink pictue02.qcf and rename the Unshrinked file picture03.jpg
5) Continue this cycle until you get to picture10.jpg
6) Compare picture01.jpg to picture02.jpg, picture05.jpg and picture10.jpg
You'll find that picture02.jpg and picture05.jpg look exactly like the original but pictue10.jpg may show some subtle color shifts.
Obviously, this is an excessive example to prove a point. For best compressions results, stay as close as possible to the original source.
PLEASE NOTE - This is NOT a defect in Shrink but a property of the jpeg format and lossy compression.
Conclusion and Evaluatiion Information
After seeing the examples, you should feel confident enough to try the program on your own. You'll find that Shrink also beats the competition when it comes to compressing pdf and windows office files such as powerpoint presentations. Superior performance makes this program a "must have" for anyone who deals with digital images or related files such as PDF or powerpoint presentations. Improved quality for images generally means larger files, slower transfer time, and an overcrowded hard drive. Shrink allows you to keep the advantages of large files without the drawbacks and at a registration cost of less than $10, is much less expensive than the competition.
There is no evaluation program for Shrink but there is a workaround.
Originally, Shrink was a program called Super Compressor that was also offered on this site. The publishers of Super Compressor went through some management changes and decide to offer their product with a new name, new features, and a much lower registration fee. Shrink was born!
The registration fee for Shrink is MUCH lower than that for Super Compressor. At the time this is being written, Super Compressor costs about $35 to register while Shrink is less than $10 to register. The only problem is that the publishers of Shrink will not create an evaluation version of this program while offering it for such a low registration fee.
The solution? Evaluate Super Compressor but buy Shrink! Shrink has more features than Super Compressor but the compression rates are about the same.
If you really want to see how Shrink performs before you register it, install the Super Compressor evaluation. After 30 days, it will no longer write .qcf files but will still function as a reader.
If you decide you like the program delete Super Compressor from your PC, then register and install Shrink. Don't register Super Compressor since you will be paying 3 times as much for a program with fewer features.
This is a nuisance but, for now, it is the only solution that allows users to try Shrink before registering it.
You can download the "trial version" or register the program by clicking on the appropriate button below.
I hope you find the program useful and would like to hear your comments at
- Dave -
