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Zip Files and the PictureView Service

The Zip file format is used to distribute one or more files as a single file. Typically, the files that are used to create a zip file are compressed, so that the size of the zip file is smaller than the sum of the sizes of the files included in the zip file; however, zip files created by the PictureView service use no compression. With PictureView, the zip file format is used to provide a convenient method for you to download a large number of files as a single file.

In order to extract the files included in a zip file, you must have an archiving utility (that supports the zip file format) installed on your computer. For questions regarding the use of such utility software, please consult the help file included with the software or contact the manufacturer of the software directly.

There are many archiving or zip utilities available, some free and others available for a fee. Two popular utilities are WinZip (Windows) and the free StuffIt Expander (Macintosh, Windows).

Although the zip file format is a convenient method for transferring a large number of files, the reliability of the transfer of the zip file is dependant on a number of factors (e.g., quality of connection, congestion, server load, etc.). Some members have no trouble downloading zip files of any size, while others only experience success with smaller zip files. We recommend downloading smaller zip files initially, especially since we do not yet support the use of download managers with zip files created by the PictureView service (see Using a Download Manager with the PictureView Service).

NOTE: As with executable files, we recommend that you never download zip files that are not created by the PictureView service after clicking Get checked files, Get unchecked files, or Get all files.

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