Combining Images Into a Zip File

Combining files together, in this case a collection of image files, is a common practice before transmitting over the internet.  The resulting file will have “.zip” as the file suffix, hence the name.  A zip file’s size is made physically smaller by combining the files into a single file and compressing the file by removing repeated patterns in the data with special codes. These special codes then are used to restore the repeated data back into the files, when they are uncompressed.

The purpose of “zipping” files together has two primary benefits.

• Creating a single file reduces the number of times the transfer process must be repeated.
• The smaller file size reduces both transmission time and storage space.

1. Windows process (outside the ARCOS application):
   • Create a folder
   • Place one or more images in the folder
   • Right click on the folder name to see context menu
   • Select Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder.
     Note: For a significant number of images or for a very large total size, this process may take some time.