| Extension | .zip |
|---|---|
| MIME type | application/zip |
| Signature | 50 4B 03 04 (PK) |
| Developer | Phil Katz, PKWARE |
| Introduced | 1989 |
| Compression | usually Deflate |
| Type | archive |
ZIP
archive file format
ZIP is an archive format introduced by Phil Katz (PKWARE) in 1989. Every file inside the archive is compressed separately, so a single file can be extracted without unpacking the rest.
Structure
An archive consists of entries with local headers (they start with the bytes PK) and a central
directory at the end of the file. Tools usually read an archive from the end: the central directory lists all files
and their offsets.
ZIP inside other formats
Many formats are in fact ZIP archives with a known layout: DOCX, XLSX and ODT documents, Java JAR archives and Android APK packages.
How to open
Built-in tools of Windows, macOS and most Linux distributions, as well as any archive manager.