Browse all guides & formats

ZipTool is a 100% client-side archive viewer — every page below opens, inspects, or explains an archive format without uploading your files. This index lists every guide, format reference, and glossary term on the site.

Open by format

A short, memorable page per archive format — the front door for "{format} online" and "open .{ext}". Each opens the format in your browser, no upload.

.zip online — Open, view, or extract a .zip (and the hidden ZIP family) in your browser.
.rar online — Open or extract a .rar — no WinRAR, no upload (WebAssembly unrar).
.7z online — Open or extract a .7z — no 7-Zip install, no upload (WebAssembly 7-Zip).
.tar.gz online — Open or extract a .tar.gz / .tgz — no command line, no upload.
.tar online — Open or extract a plain, uncompressed .tar archive.
.gz online — Decompress (gunzip) a single .gz file — one file inside, not a folder.

Open & inspect archives

Browse, search, and preview archive contents entirely in your browser — your files are never uploaded.

Open the zip viewer — Drop a .zip, .rar, .tar.gz, .apk, .epub, .jar, or .7z and preview its files locally.
Online zip viewer — Open and browse a zip file online with no upload and no install.
Online RAR viewer — Browse and preview a .rar in your browser — no WinRAR, no upload.
Online 7z viewer — Browse and preview a .7z in your browser — no 7-Zip install, no upload.
Private zip viewer — Inspect an archive knowing its bytes never leave your device.
View zip contents without extracting — See the file tree, search, and preview files before downloading.
Unzip online without uploading — Read an archive in-page instead of sending it to a server.
Create a zip online — Build a new zip from files in your browser.

Extract archives online

Get the contents out of an archive — decompressed and on disk — without uploading it. Each format below is extracted 100% in your browser.

Extract a zip online — Unzip a .zip (or ZIP-based file) in your browser and download the contents, no upload.
Extract a RAR online — Unrar a .rar in your browser via WebAssembly — no WinRAR, no upload.
Extract a 7z online — Open a .7z in your browser via a WebAssembly 7-Zip — no install, no upload.
Extract a tar.gz online — Untar a .tar.gz, .tar, or .gz in your browser — no command line, no upload.

Convert archives

Repack an archive into another open format — decoded and rebuilt in your browser, no upload.

Convert RAR to ZIP — Turn a .rar into a standard .zip in your browser — no WinRAR, no upload.

Archive format references

What each format is, how it works, and how to open it in the browser.

Archive file formats overview — How ZIP, RAR, 7z, and tar.gz differ, and the hidden ZIP family.
What is an APK file? — Android app packages — a ZIP with a manifest and compiled code.
What is an EPUB file? — Ebook containers — a ZIP with a strict spine and reading order.
What is a JAR file? — Java archives — a ZIP laid out as a JVM classpath.
What is a WHL file? — Python wheels — a ZIP whose filename encodes install tags.
What is a RAR file? — RAR — a high-ratio proprietary archive from WinRAR.
What is a 7z file? — 7z — an open format using LZMA/LZMA2 for strong compression.
What is a tar.gz file? — A tar archive compressed with gzip — the Unix source-bundle standard.
What is a zip bomb? — Malicious archives that expand catastrophically — and how to spot them.
What is Zip Slip? — The path-traversal vulnerability in naive archive extractors.

How-to guides

Step-by-step ways to open, extract, and create archives without uploading.

All how-to guides — The full set of browser-based archive how-tos.
How to open a zip file — Open a .zip in your browser and preview its contents.
How to open a RAR file — Extract or browse a .rar without WinRAR or an upload.
How to open a 7z file — Open a .7z — including password-protected archives — in-page.
How to open a tar.gz file — Browse a .tar.gz without the command line.
How to open a zip on iPhone — Open a .zip on iOS with the Files app or in Safari.
How to extract a zip file — Get files out of an archive, all client-side.
How to create a zip file — Bundle files into a new archive in your browser.
How to create a zip on Mac — Make a .zip on macOS with Finder or in the browser.
Open a zip on Linux — Open and preview a .zip on Linux with no apt install and no upload.
How to unzip on Linux — Unzip with the `unzip` command, a GUI manager, or in the browser.
How to create a zip on Linux — Create a .zip on Linux with `zip -r`, a GUI, or the browser tool.
How to password-protect a zip file — Add a password to an archive before sharing it.

Security & privacy

Why client-side processing is safer, and the archive attacks to know about.

Security & privacy overview — What local processing does and does not guarantee.
Zip bombs — How decompression bombs work and how to defend against them.
Zip Slip — Path traversal during extraction — and why it matters.
Malware in zip files — How archives deliver malware — and why opening ≠ running.
Why client-side is safer — In-browser processing vs upload sites, and how to verify no-upload.
Check if a zip is safe — Preview the tree, spot bomb signatures, and vet a file before opening.
Zip encryption explained — Weak ZipCrypto vs strong AES, and why some zips fail to open.
Unzip without uploading — The privacy case for never sending an archive to a server.
Private zip viewer — Inspect archives with a verifiable no-upload guarantee.

Open files online

ZipTool opens these and many other file types directly in your browser — text and source code, images, audio, video, and PDFs. Each opens as a single in-page view, 100% client-side; these are a few of the most common, and the full set spans dozens of extensions.

Open .json online — View a JSON file in the code editor with syntax highlighting.
Open .html online — Read an HTML file as source — markup only, nothing executed.
Open .css online — Inspect a stylesheet and search for any selector.
Open .js online — Read JavaScript source without running it.
Open .py online — View a Python script as text — no execution.
Open .md online — Read a Markdown file as readable plain text.
Open .txt online — Open any plain-text or log file instantly.
Open .sql online — Read SQL statements without running them against a database.
Open .png online — View a PNG image — decoded locally, nothing uploaded.
Open .jpg online — View a JPEG photograph directly in the browser.
Open .pdf online — Render a PDF page by page, entirely in your browser.
Open .mp4 online — Play an MP4 video without installing a player.
Open .mp3 online — Play an MP3 audio file locally in the browser.

Glossary

Reference terms for compression and the ZIP format — evergreen and low-competition.

Glossary index — All compression & archive terms.
DEFLATE — ZIP’s default compression algorithm.
LZ77 — The sliding-window matcher DEFLATE builds on.
Huffman coding — Entropy coding used by DEFLATE.
LZMA — The high-ratio algorithm behind 7z.
Dictionary coding — Replacing repeats with references.
Lossless compression — Recovering bytes exactly.
Compression ratio — How much smaller the output is.
Checksum — Detecting bit-level corruption.
CRC32 — The integrity check ZIP uses per entry.
Local file header — Per-entry metadata at the front of a ZIP.
Central directory — The index at the end of a ZIP.
Data descriptor — Trailing size/CRC for streamed entries.
EOCD — End of central directory record.
ZIP64 — Extensions for archives over 4 GB.
Store method — Packaging without compression.
Solid archive — Compressing many files as one stream.
Tarball — A tar archive, often gzipped.

About & legal

Who makes ZipTool and the policies that apply.

About — What ZipTool is and the privacy promise behind it.
Contact — Get in touch with feedback or questions.
Privacy policy — How client-side processing and analytics work.
Terms — Terms of use for the tool and content.