Curiously,
Stuffit Deluxe was the king of compression -- or at least serious monarchy -- back when our files were always minuscule anyway. It was when hard disks were measured in megabytes instead of terabytes, and a large file was one that filled a floppy disk. Now that we routinely fling around gigabytes of files and complain when we can't just email a feature film to someone, Stuffit Deluxe could be making a comeback with the new version 16.
There have always been two benefits to using a utility such as Stuffit. It's a compression tool so the big, obvious benefit is that it makes many files smaller and therefore easier to email. Yet many types of files are already compressed: there is no practical benefit in trying to compress a JPEG, for instance, because that is already squeezed and stuffed down about as much as it can be. So the second, perhaps lesser benefit, is also useful: Stuffit can put many, many documents or images into one file. It might or might not be smaller than having all of the files separated, but it's a lot easier to send because you have just the one thing to work with.
You also know for certain that you won't miss anything and that if it's important whether your recipient keeps the files in certain folders, that's what will happen. Open a Stuffit archive and you get all the files in all of their folders, exactly as you saved them.
All of which is true and useful, sometimes even greatly useful, but you're on a Mac: it can do this without your buying an extra utility like Stuffit. In our tests, Stuffit was no better at compressing in ZIP format than OS X's own built-in abilities. However, if one uses Stuffit's own proprietary format, the archive size was reduced by a further 25 percent in our tests. That can, depending on your need, make a big difference.
However, Stuffit Deluxe 16 really works to speed up what you do next: we are usually compressing files to send to someone so that's what this release concentrates on. You can drag files and folders to one of several icons to choose whether the compressed file goes to a folder, via email, or a burnt CD or – very nicely – straight to a remote site via FTP. There is also Stuffit-provided cloud service that you can use for an extra fee.
This sending files to different places is so important to Stuffit that it's become the name of the software. You may buy and install Stuffit Deluxe, but you don't get an application of that name: you get Stuffit Destinations instead. We took a moment or three to realise this was why Spotlight wasn't finding anything when we typed "Stuffit Deluxe."
Also confusing was how Smith Micro has unbundled various elements of Stuffit Deluxe and put them separately on the Mac App Store for what appears to be a much cheaper price. The basic
Stuffit is $10 instead of $50, for instance. But in order to get the full functionality of Stuffit Deluxe, you end up having to buy four different apps on the Mac App Store, adding up to around $26.That's still half price, but some of these Mac App Store versions are new, some are from 2012. Plus, all App Store editions lack various small but potentially important features that you get from the full application, such as the ability to edit a compressed archive to remove a file.
Stuffit Deluxe sits in an odd position: its core compression feature is already done effectively enough by OS X itself. You can do this business of sending compressed archives effectively enough via Dropbox – which Stuffit supports – and Apple's new Mail Drop feature. Consequently, while it does what it does well, it's really for specialist users who need all its many extras. If that's you,
your best bet is to try the free 30-day trial version on the official site, though be aware that the trial requires a credit or debit card and will charge you for the application after the 30th day.
Stuffit Deluxe 16 requires OS X 10.8, and costs $50. If you buy from the official site, you get a license to run it on three computers -- including Windows ones, if you have that -- plus six months free subscription to the SendStuffNow service. If you don't need all the extras, the
Mac App Store version(s) may be a good option.
Who is Stuffit Deluxe 16 for:
Archivists and people dealing with a lot of files where compression size and convenience makes a big difference
Who is Stuffit Deluxe 16 not for:
Casual users who just occasionally need to compress some documents -- they're better off with OS X's built-in ZIP compression/decompression feature
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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