How to compress files from Finder on Mac (and why ZIP doesn’t help)
Finder’s own Compress command makes a ZIP archive. That’s useful for bundling files, but it hardly shrinks PDFs, photos or videos, because they’re compressed already. To make them genuinely smaller, the file itself has to be re-encoded. FileMate adds that to the right-click menu: Compress PDF, Compress Image, Compress Video and Compress Audio, each saving a smaller copy next to the original.
Everything is compressed on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.
Compress a file in Finder with FileMate
- Select the file in Finder: a PDF, image, video or audio file, or several of the same kind.
- Right-click and choose FileMate › Compress PDF (or Image, Video, Audio).
- The smaller copy appears next to the original, and the result shows the saving.
- Need it smaller? Click Want a smaller file? and try Stronger or Maximum.
ZIP versus compressing the file
| Finder’s Compress (ZIP) | FileMate Compress | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Archive.zip, to be unzipped |
A smaller PDF, JPEG, MP4… that opens directly |
| PDF with photos | Usually a few percent smaller | Often much smaller: images are reduced |
| JPEG, HEIC, MP4 | Almost no change | Re-encoded at a lower quality or resolution |
| Text, CSV, code | Much smaller | Not what FileMate compresses |
| Accepted by upload forms | Often not: many only accept PDF or JPG | Yes, it’s the same kind of file |
ZIP is lossless: it can only remove redundancy, and formats like PDF, JPEG and MP4 have already removed most of theirs. Making them smaller means changing how the images, video or audio inside are stored.
One level at a time
FileMate compression starts at Safe by default, which keeps what matters: PDFs keep their text, links and forms; images keep their dimensions; videos stay up to 4K. If the file can still get smaller, the result offers Stronger and then Maximum, each with a one-line note about what it costs. Nothing stronger runs unless you choose it.
When ZIP is the right tool
- Sending a folder of many files as one attachment.
- Text-heavy files: logs, CSV exports, source code.
- Keeping files together for an archive.
For that, Finder’s Compress is exactly right, and FileMate doesn’t replace it.
Get FileMate
ZIP is for packing. To make the file itself smaller, FileMate compresses it from the same right-click menu, on your Mac.
Normal price €9.99, now €4.99 incl. VAT
One payment, no subscription. macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel.