Archive formats supported by ZipGood
ZipGood is not tied to a single archive format. It can create archives in 14 output formats and open or extract a much wider set — including RAR, which macOS cannot open on its own.
Formats ZipGood can create
14 output formats, each with its own options panel for compression method, split volumes and encryption where supported.
7-Zip Archive
7z is a high-ratio archive format from the 7-Zip project, supporting AES-256 encryption, solid compression and split volumes.
ZIP Archive
ZIP is the most widely supported archive format, available on macOS, Windows, Linux and mobile devices.
Tape Archive
TAR is a Unix archive format that bundles files together. It is often combined with GZIP or BZIP2 compression.
GNU Zip
GZIP is a widely used single-file compression format, usually seen as .gz or .tar.gz.
Bzip2
BZIP2 is a Unix compression format that typically achieves better compression than GZIP at the cost of speed.
XZ Utils (LZMA2)
XZ is a modern Unix compression format based on LZMA2, offering high compression ratios.
Lzip
LZIP is a lossless compression format based on LZMA, designed for long-term data archiving.
Brotli
Brotli is an open compression format developed for the web, offering strong compression at fast speeds.
Zstandard (zstd)
Zstandard is a fast, modern compression format designed for real-time compression and decompression.
Long Range ZIP
LRZIP is a compression format optimised for very large files, using long-range redundancy reduction.
Windows Imaging Format
WIM is a file-based disk image format used by Windows for system deployment.
Android Archive
AAR is an archive format used to distribute Android library modules.
Apple Disk Image
DMG is Apple's disk image format, used to distribute macOS apps and to create encrypted containers.
ISO 9660 Disk Image
ISO is a standard optical disc image format used for distributing operating systems and large software.
Extraction-only formats
These formats can be opened and extracted but not created by ZipGood. RAR in particular is a format macOS cannot handle natively.
RAR Archive (Roshal Archive)
RAR is a compressed archive format commonly used to distribute multiple files as a single archive.
LZMA-alone
LZMA-alone is the original LZMA compression format, superseded by XZ but still found in older archives.
LZ4
LZ4 is an extremely fast lossless compression format, optimised for speed over ratio.
Microsoft Cabinet
CAB is a Microsoft archive format used for software installation packages.
ZipGood format capability matrix
Capabilities reflect the current version of ZipGood as documented in the official product description and Support documentation. A dash (—) means the capability is not documented for that format, not that it is planned.
| Format | Create | Open | Extract | Encrypt | Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7z | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ZIP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| RAR | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| TAR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| GZIP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| BZIP2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| XZ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| LZIP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Brotli | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Zstandard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| LRZIP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| LZMA | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| LZ4 | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| WIM | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| AAR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| DMG | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| ISO | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| CAB | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
Why the create / extract distinction matters
Archive tools are often described as "supporting" a format without saying whether they can create it or only read it. That ambiguity leads to wrong expectations. ZipGood's documentation states the capability explicitly for every format, so you know in advance whether you can create a RAR archive (you cannot) or a 7z archive (you can).