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Super Compressor Review PLEASE NOTE -- THIS PAGE IS OBSOLETE -- CHECK THE NEW PAGE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION. IT HAS BEEN LEFT POSTED FOR THOSE WHO MAY HAVE BOOKMARKED THE PAGE. 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. Super Compressor is easy to use and reduces the 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 space that this archive takes up on your hard drive should be much less than the space taken up by the individual files. Digital camera images, usually in jpg format, take a huge amount of 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%. Super compressor, however, can reduce jpg images by more than 80% in some cases. If you want to follow along with the examples, download Super Compressor and install it. 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 Super Compressor, you don't have to worry; configuration is easy. The first menu is the "compress" 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; Super compressor doesn't achieve great results reducing the size of jpegs by reducing image quality. Super compressor WILL compress jpegs to a very large degree WITHOUT image loss. If however, you want to reduce file sizes further, you can reduce image quality. For all of the examples used here, Image quality will be set at 100% which means no loss in image quality. The last tab is "registration" which will be discussed later. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the window to save the configuration and close the box. Compressing Files 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 so you don't have to worry about damaging the originals. If you still feel unsure, copy your images first and experiment with the duplicates. Super compressor is so easy to use that you don't even have to open the program. 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 super compressor options. 
The first option, "compress 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 "compress 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 "Compress and Email" function later. 4) Click on "compress to DCP0307.qcf" to create the compressed file and the following window will appear. 
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 Super Compressor ----- 32.5K 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 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 mean anything so I'll select the "Compress 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 but still MUCH better than the competition. Now for something real big. I wanted to compress a folder containing many subfolders full of images. 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. 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. This is one of the most useful features of super compressor. 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. Do a favor to those recieving your e-mails the first time you send them a super compressed file; tell them that you're using a new compression program and include a link to this page; www.sharewaregenie.com/SuperCompressorReview.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. Conclusion and Registration Information After seeing the examples, you should feel confident enough to try the program on your own. You'll find that Super Compressor 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. Super Compressor allows you to keep the advantages of large files without the drawbacks and at a registration cost of $34.95, is in the same price range as the competition. There are two ways to register this program and you can choose either method. There's no need to do both and neither method is "better". To register the first way, try to compress a file and this window will appear.  Instead of clicking "OK" make sure your internet connection is active press "order" and follow the directions. To register the program the other way, double click on the Super Compressor icon and select the "Registration" tab. This window will be shown.  Make sure your internet connection is active, press the "order" button, and follow the directions. You can use Super Compressor free for 30 days. After that, this window will open up when you try to compress files. 
The extract function will continue to work after the 30 day free trial. You can download the trial version by clicking on the button below. I hope you find the program useful and would like to hear your comments at products@sharewaregenie.com - The Genie -  |
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