tuffIt is one of the most powerful compression and archiving softwares for computer platforms. It was originally made for the Mac, and through its popularity has found its way to many other platforms including Microsoft Windows. Now I have been using StuffIt for over five years. My first copy was StuffIt Deluxe 10.0. And the nice people at StuffIt let me test drive the new StuffIt Deluxe 2010. It’s a must buy. I have tried others, and they’re so complicated. They crash easily, there are too many buttons to click, and can be quite confusing. The nice thing about StuffIt is its well-known icons known as DropStuff and Expander which makes life so easy. I personally use the menu option when you right click to Stuff, but hey--whatever meets the deadlines. One of the nice new things about StuffIt is the ability to preview what is in the .sitx files! What a breath of fresh air. The nice people at StuffIt really care about us creative professionals getting our work done fast. You now have the ability to preview images in what is called the Archive Manager. Before an archive would be opened in its own window, but now you have somewhat of an “iTunes” to manage all your archives. You don’t have to open each archive anymore because you forgot which one has the layout_18.indd file, or unstuff DSC09383.jpg when you really meant to unstuff DSC09384.jpg. They have really streamlined the archival workflow.

Another thing good to know about the Archive Manager is the indexing. You know the beauty of being able to use spotlight in Mac and find stuff instantly? Well now with StuffIt it has the ability to index and find stuff fast. Not only that, but it knows exactly where all the sit, rar, sitx, etc files are no matter where they are on your computer. It shows right in the Archive Manager without you thinking or clicking. Nice, huh? Not only that but it’s fast. I can make a .sitx file on my desktop, go to the archive manager and boom! It’s in the Archive Manger list right when the archive is created.

StuffIt has really streamlined my workflow as a magazine designer and photographer. We have limited hard drive space here at Pulchry. I wish I were like Verizon: to have one of the world’s largest network infrastructures with tons and tons of space to store all my creative projects. Unfortunately that’s not happening any time soon. So I choose OWC Mercury Elite’s for my storage, and StuffIt to archive stuff on it. After each magazine issue it takes up 3 to 5 GBs of space on my drive. There are 13 magazine back issues. 13 x 5 is 65 gigs. That’s not good. Plus on top of that there are other design projects that need space as well. So what do you do? Well since those folders contain tons of pdfs, jpegs, and tiffs, I just drop them into a .sitx or even now a .dmg. After StuffIt finishes its batch stuffing of a few magazines, each magazine folder is no more than 1.7 to 2 gigs. And yes, that is batch stuffing.

Now as far as photography is concerned, StuffIt’s new recompression technology makes jpegs and pdfs even smaller. Internally, a PDF may have embedded text, images, and other multimedia content. With PDF recompression, when adding a PDF file to a StuffIt X archive, the PDF is treated as a container. It is opened and its content is extracted and recompressed into the StuffIt X archive taking advantage of StuffIt’s superior compression methods. Upon expansion, a PDF archive is created and the elements from the original PDF are added to it. Nice, huh? Also what about StuffIt’s new Pixel-Perfect and Bit-Perfect features? In some cases you may find that while the output file is “pixel-perfect,” it may not be “bit-perfect,” meaning that the output file may be slightly larger or smaller than your source file. The content itself is identical, and any ancillary data is never lost. I can’t wait till the day when RAW format will be compressible.

Now for those concerned about where to store files or hard copy. I would recommend an archival DVD that uses gold technology which has a shelf life of over 100 years. Scratches, scuffs, dirt, chemicals and fingerprints can leave your recordable media damaged beyond repair. Scratch resistant coating protects the surface of the disc over ten times better than uncoated media, so you can be at peace and know your StuffIt’s are fine.

Another thing I can’t forget to mention is the SmartSend feature. Now for those who want to send large files on the fly, you can do that with StuffIt. With SmartSend you can send a StuffIt X archive to an e-mail and you can change the options to send it to an FTP, MobileMe, or StuffIt Connect account when the file surpasses the maximum file size you set. Now you know me, I tested it. And it actually works! I selected a file, went to the options and clicked “stuff and mail” and let it go. After it’s done it opened Apple Mail with the stuffed file, and if it was too large it was on my own FTP. The only thing I noticed was with the FTP it didn’t attach the link for me. It did for files that can attach to an email. You know StuffIt: you submit an issue, and they’re on it yesterday, last week. You get a response within the next few hours or the next business day. Never does a question take 2-3 days to be answered by StuffIt. I like that, and that’s why StuffIt is why it is the way it is today. StuffIt just looks and feels professional. It’s a good feeling seeing other .sitx files on a press’ server. They listen to the creative professionals to make the best archiving utility available to photographers, press-technicians, designers, audio engineers, and press. For more information on the new 2010 StuffIt visit www.stuffit.com. Also you should follow them on twitter at twitter.com/juststuffit.