fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

I seem to be having difficulty making a "zip" file of a rather large image. How do you folks email a 24MB file when most mail servers restrict size to about 5MB?
First, I understand the term "zip" refers to proprietary software, though, like Kleenex and Tupperware, is generally accepted as any software that temporarily reduces file size. Next, I also understand compression- as in '.jpg compression'- is totally different than temporarily reducing a file's size.
Storage providers such as Dropbox also limit file size - if not in practice, then via the impracticability of taking days to upload.
Is "Winzip" or equivalent commercial software the best bet? Is breaking a large file into several smaller files worth the effort and does it actually save time? I guess so, if it's that important and options are few...
OK, I'm rambling to my self here....

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Sites like DropBox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are typically used to transfer large files. There are others of course. S-

Jusoljoe Loc: Texas

It depends mostly on why you want to zip the file. For storage space saving the zip size saves space over the original. For transmission purposes there are choices and considerations....for email to be read on computer (generally 72 dpi), reduce the original size first and save for the purpose at low resolution.....for emailing for printing, a 3 (or so) meg file should suffice without need for zip.
Winzip should serve. One alternative is the free download "7Zip."

blackest Loc: Ireland

First off we don't send 25Mb image files by email.

Zipping is a little like xeroxing and hoovering in the respect that its a type of action (lossless compression, photocopying, vacuum cleaning respectively).

it is also a particular archive format type that many programs understand how to encode and decode, examples might include winzip, winrar, 7zip, pkzip.
PKzip (Phil Katz zip) was the original, released in 1989.

To be fair the Lzw Reduce Algorithm was patented in 1984 by unisys this was the main compression method used and there are a few, (different file types compress differently with different compression methods).

Not all zipped files are called zip files either .jar files (java) files .apk files (android applications) and Microsofts Docx files are actually zip files with a different extension. The deflate method is used a lot.
see
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20762094/how-are-zlib-gzip-and-zip-related-what-are-is-common-and-how-are-they-differen

So no winzip is not the original and open source and free alternatives have been around for decades and do pretty much exactly the same thing.

There are a lot of zip compression formats that can be used but type 8 and type 0 are the most common (type 0 doesn't compress so just type 8 really).

As a matter of interest the gif format uses the same deflate algorithm as zip. A little prior to the patent expiration unisys decided to try and monetize it, and that led to a non patent infringing file type being developed called png.

That was what is known as a submarine patient where everybody uses it freely for 15 years and just prior to it expiring ( 17 years) a company like unisys surfaces and tries to torpedo everybody.

jpeg is a lossy compressed format. what you get out isn't the same as what you put in but normally you will not spot the difference. Thing is, the bit that matters, being compressed already there is little to be gained by compressing it again using another compression method the bytes may be rearranged a little but there will be little change in filesize, its already deflated.
It is a wasted effort trying to compress a jpeg

Email was and is a text based format, it originally was as simple as text in notepad. It's been jazzed up a little with html formatting but it is still a text based format. Everything had to be as small as possible because modems were slow and the cost of sending data was high. Even a message like this would have been composed offline then when ready you would hit send. Your modem would dial up pass the message to the mail server retrieve any new mail for you and get off line as fast as possible - you were paying by the minute.
To incorporate pictures meant changing them into ascii text and using base64 encoding

http://superuser.com/questions/402193/why-is-base64-needed-aka-why-cant-i-just-email-a-binary-file

short version a binary file can be expanded to being a big chunk of text in order to be sent to its final destination. In the real world your letter to aunt nelly isn't picked up by the postman and driven over to her house it goes through a number of sorting offices and email pretty much does the same thing.

Not many people use their isps email any more, because if you change isp the address is no good. So most of us use gmail or hotmail and some of us have our own domain name as it looks more professional but even a gmail to hotmail email requires the 2 separate systems to communicate with each other.

Big emails are a real problem, your gmail account may let you send 25Mbyte messages but if my hotmail account is limited to 10 Mbyte messages i'm not going to get your message and thats assuming there isn't a link in the chain which will not accept a message that big.

There are people still on dial up too and that 25 megabyte message could tie up their phone line for an hour (personally i'm using 3g and at times i see transfer speeds as low as 300 bytes a second 25,000,000 bytes would take 23+ hours at that speed) usually its a lot faster than that and it could be 2 minutes at best or 15 minutes at most busy times.

So why so big? If you take a picture on facebook for example typically its less than 64KiloBytes even viewed at full screen, admittedly facebook reduce the number of colors in the image as well as huge amounts of compression.

Even on here most images are not that big even downloading the 'original' The only reasonable reason to use a 25 megabyte file size would be for print or further manipulation somewhere else. Bare in mind that most photographs are printed from file sizes usually at most a quarter of that size and usually less.

If you really want to send a 'big' file to someone email is not the method of choice.

Dropbox, GDrive to name just 2 such services are places you can upload too and share a link to the file. You can host your image on your own website although a lot of hosting plans limit the maximum file size to around 5 or 6 megabytes. There are photo hosting sites which store the original but generally display at lower resolutions. If your sending to a print service they may well have an ftp site that you can upload images too. If all else fails you can create a cd or dvd put it in a case and padded envelope add a stamp and send it through the mail.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ (may give some perspective)

When - if ever - will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx?
—Johan Öbrink


Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
–Andrew Tanenbaum, 1981

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

email is a 20th century media. It's very outdated and dying a slow death. In general you Can't zip a 24MB file small enough to email. This size allowed can vary ISP by ISP, so unless you know them all...well it just doesn't work! As others have mentioned there are other ways to get files across the country or across the street without email, Google Drive, Dropbox, Transporter, jump drives etc... Find a 21st century media and give it a try.

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

All-St3v3m, Jusoljoe, blackest and Capture48, thank you very much for your information, interest and responses: you're each right. And that's no surprise... though I was hoping for some magical answer.
I suppose when those Star Trek teleporters are readily available, we won't need to send large files- we'll just send the actual objects instead of an image of the object. That'll eat bandwidth... but bandwidth may by then be obsolete...
Anyway, thanks guys!

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

The transporter is available today, I have one. Although it's not the same as it's Star Trek name sake, it is similar. Think of it as a combination of DropBox and and a DROBO
http://www.filetransporter.com/for-individuals/

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

Ya know... I'm thinkin' that could be quite handy- THANKS!

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Bought two of these, I add files to mine, and they are instantly transported to a secret location where the Transporter's Brother is located. Well maybe not instantly, but as we say (Near Real Time).

Bonus, I guess it is kind of like Star Trek in that the files are broken down to "1's" and "Zeros" Transported across the globe and re-assembled on a receiving pad!

Bobbee

First, in WinZip you can carve the file up into pieces of selected size. You send all the pieces one at a time and the receiver reconstitutes the orig by double-clicking on the one marked 'zip'.

Second, Dorpbox of something similar.

Third, Typically when I send someone a picture for 'viewing. I will make it small, under 4 meg.

zigipha Loc: north nj

ZIP reduces the file size, but the amount of reduction depends on whats in the file. a JPG does not have a lot of data that can be further reduced in a lossless manner, so zipping jpg is not going to save you much. you are better off trying to reduce the file size by changing resolution.

if you need to send such a large file use msoft one drive or google gdrive or drop box. you have to make the file shareable and then end the link to the recipient. they have max file sizes that are in the gbytes.

bweber Loc: Newton, MA

I use a service at mailbigfile.com to send large files to clients. It is very reasonable priced, free for files up to 2GB and reasonably priced for larger files. You upload the large files to them via their portal. They contact the the recipient via the email address you provide. The client then downloads the large file via the mailbag portal. It works like a charm.

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

That sounds like a reasonable process... I'll look into it- THANKS!!

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

Thanks, Bobbee, for the input- you're right, chopping up the file into bite size pieces is one way to send a large file, but I have no confidence that those on the other end can put "Humpty" back together again... even if it's just a double click...

I AM liking the "teleporter" idea though... now have to decide if the cost is worth the convenience...
THANKS again!

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

Yup, good information and suggestions zigipha. I have a dropbox account but, upload time is maddeningly slow. Google Drive talks big but, I've not yet tried them... perhaps I should. Thanks for responding!