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StuffIt is a family of software utilities for archiving and compressing files for the Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms, although its popularity is higher among Macintosh users. It was written by Raymond Lau in the 1980s when he was a high school student at Stuyvesant High School in New York City and further developed by Allume Systems (formerly Aladdin Systems). While it has been improved over time and offers better compression ratios and greater performance than equivalent compression systems, formats such as RAR and 7z have since superseded it.
StuffIt-compressed files, typically, possess the filename extension .sitx or .sit.
StuffIt Expander, which is used to expand files compressed using the StuffIt format, is freely available for download on the Internet, and it comes preloaded with Macintosh computers. DropStuff is a shareware application which permits the compressing of files into the format.
The StuffIt format is, unlike some other file compression formats, proprietary, and Allume Systems charge license fees (http://www.stuffit.com/win/sdk/license.html) for its use in other programs. As such, there is a dearth of alternative programs which support the format.
Stuffit Image Format (SIF)
Early in 2005 Allume announced a new JPEG compression system that regularly obtained compression in the order of 25% (ie; the compressed file size is 75% of the original file size) without any further loss of image quality and with the ability to rebuild the original file, not just the original image.
Typical JPEG compression rates for zip-like programs are in the order of 1-3%. Programs that optimise JPEGs without regard for the original file, only the original image, obtain compression rates from 3-10% (depending on the efficiency of the original JPEG). Programs that use the rarely implemented arithmetic coding option available to the JPEG standard typically achieve rates around 12%.
Allume are intending to implement this new technique in the new version of their Stuffit Deluxe product. They have also proposed a new image format known as SIF which is simply a single JPEG file compressed using this new technique.
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