Compression

2 articles

Python 08 Sep 2026 9 min read

Use Zstandard Compression with Python compression.zstd

Python applications have long had standard-library support for gzip, bzip2, LZMA, and zlib. Python 3.14 adds another important option: Zstandard support through compression.zstd. Zstandard is useful when a system needs a practical balance of compression ratio and throughput. The new module means many applications can read and write .zst data without adding a third-party Python package. But choosing a compression API is not only about calling compress() and decompress(). Production code also needs to think about streaming, memory limits, frame boundaries, dictionaries, compatibility, and untrusted input.

Python Zstandard

Tech 03 Sep 2026 9 min read

How ZIP Files Compress Data and When They Save Space

A ZIP file can turn a folder containing many files into one convenient archive, and that archive may take up less space than the originals. Sometimes the reduction is dramatic. Other times, a large collection barely becomes smaller at all. The difference is not random. ZIP compression works by finding patterns that can be represented more efficiently. Whether it saves much space depends largely on how much reusable structure remains in the files being compressed.

Files Storage