Reducing FF-made filters filesize...

["Ilya Razmanov" <ilyich@cacr.ioc.ac.ru>]

Hi folks,

I found one interesting program not directly related to FF but probably of
great interest (at least definitely of interest for me). It's called ASPack
and the home page is http://www.alenka.spb.ru/aspack/ (it's told to be
shareware. At least the first version I've found at
ftp://ftp.freeware.ru/pub/mycomputer/misc/aspack.exe is claimed to be free
for non-commercial use. I gonna check out the advanced one also...) The
program perform the executable file compression. The only drawback is that
you need to enter 8bf extension every time (since the program assume only
exe and dll and ocx are executables), so you simply drag your program and
drop it onto ASPack and - viola! - the program is compressed. I've tested
it onto my FF-made filters and it reduce them from 56k to 28k! And all the
filters still work absolutely ok!!! Bad thing, FF cannot be compressed - oh
well it can and it even launch, but crashes Photoshop on compiling new
filter... but anyway, I assume halving every filter in filesize is so cool
(especially for ones having hundreds of them) I ran to tell you...

The only drawback I've found so far is that it reduces the efficiency of
subsequent advanced RAR compression (I've found self-extracting RAR
archives to be the most appropriate for distribution - only pico ffl files
are more compact <g>), but not too much. That means users download a bit
larger archive but then they save 50% of disk space on filters themselves.

Ilyich.
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Ilya Razmanov (a.k.a. Ilyich the Toad), Institute of Organic Chemistry RAS
http://www.chat.ru/~bufo/ - Freeware Photoshop Filters and Design Showcase
"Should we interrogate them, Sam? Or just start
 breaking up the furniture?" - Max, Sam and Max "Surfin' the highway"
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