blu box

I just ran across a new software application at PPP for shrinking and sharing digital photos called Blu Box. At first, I thought we were talking about another one of those file reduction applications like the ones we used to use to "optimize" our websites for faster download, so I was immediately looking for before-and-after images to compare. However, upon closer examination, I discovered that this is a full-featured compression utility. Their website boasts some pretty impressive claims with regards to the compression of digital images, including the JPG format, which other programs like WinZip usually can't compress very much.

In fact, they state that they can compress over 480 different image formats up to 95%. Their website has a PDF document with some test data sets that show Blu Box clearly blowing away the competition, including popular compression applications like WinZip and Stuffit. As an example, they provide a test for a 11.9Mb TIFF image, which was reduced to 4.96Mb by Winzip, 4.53Mb by Stuffit, 3.17Mb by WinAce (never heard of that one), and yet using Blu Box, the image was compressed down to 1.46Mb. This software sounds almost too good to be true.

There is also a flash demo on their site that shows the basic layout of the software and ease-of-use. It appears to use the same drag and drop functionality that most of us are accustomed to, but with some added features like password protection and 256-bit encryption. It's nice to know that there are still companies out there that are still working on more advanced compression technologies, especially in an age where files are getting larger and larger from digital cameras that are getting bloated in their megabit capability.

If you have a digital camera you need this product.

They offer a trial download version, so you can check it out before you buy it. I'm not sure how much they are charging to purchase it, though. It isn't listed on the website.