The Zamzar Blog

Free your emails – Convert EML and MSG files to PDF, DOC, HTML and more

by The Zamzar TeamOctober 3, 2014October 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Don’t leave your old emails locked up ! Zamzar now has the ability to convert email files from the popular “EML” and “MSG” file formats into PDF, DOC, TXT, HTML and other formats.

Files which have an .eml extension are email messages which have been created by email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Eudora. Files with a .msg extension are email messages which have been exported from Microsoft Outlook into a proprietary binary format, which can make them difficult to read if you don’t have the software to open them. You can read more technical details about the MSG format here.

We now offer the ability to convert these files into formats which are easier to share with friends and colleagues, such as PDFs. You can use Zamzar to perform all of the following conversions online for EML files:

doc – Microsoft Word Document
html – Hypertext Markup Language
html4 – Hypertext Markup Language
html5 – Hypertext Markup Language/li>
jpg – JPEG compliant image
pdf – Portable Document Format
rtf – Rich Text Format
tiff – Tagged image file format
txt – Text Document

You can convert MSG files to all the same formats:

doc – Microsoft Word Document
html – Hypertext Markup Language
html4 – Hypertext Markup Language
html5 – Hypertext Markup Language
jpg – JPEG compliant image
pdf – Portable Document Format
rtf – Rich Text Format
tiff – Tagged image file format
txt – Text Document

Go liberate that email !

Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.

Convert CR2 files to JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDF and more

by The Zamzar TeamJuly 29, 2014 Leave a comment

A Canon RAW Image (.cr2) file is the go-to file-type for avid photographers using Canon digital cameras. You can now use Zamzar to convert your .cr2 files to other image formats.

If you’ve just splashed out on a brand-new digital camera, have rented one for an important event, or have been emailed files containing the images of your special occasion, it can be frustrating to realise you don’t have the correct image-editing software to open and view your images.

At Zamzar we now offer support for converting .cr2 files into a range of popular image formats, such as tiff, png, jpg and pdf. There’s no need to download any additional software; you can simply convert your files for free online, quicker than you can get everyone to say “cheese!”

The .cr2 format is a RAW image format that stores data taken directly from a camera’s sensor. This file type offers the best quality-to-size ratio, and allows for detailed post-processing of an image. It also avoids the image quality loss that can occur with other more common file formats like .jpg and .png. However, with .cr2 files the image isn’t readily viewable, meaning that specific software is needed in order to view and edit the pictures. This is fine if your camera came with a RAW software package, but not so simple if you’ve purchased your camera second-hand, have borrowed or rented one, or have been sent photos in the .cr2 format by a friend. If this is the case, simply use Zamzar to convert your .cr2 files to any or all of the following formats:

bmp – Windows bitmap
gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
jpg – JPEG compliant image
pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
pdf – Portable Document Format
png – Portable Network Graphic
tga – Truevision Targa Graphic
tiff – Tagged image file format
wbmp – Wireless Bitmap File Format
webp – Lossily compressed image file

If you’re a budding photographer wanting to progress beyond simple point-and-shoot cameras, cameras that save images in RAW format are a great choice, allowing you to experiment freely and edit images later. If you’re confused by all your camera’s different picture styles and filtering options, or find you keep forgetting to select the correct options for that all-important shot, simply save your photographs as .cr2 files. That way, you can relax in the knowledge that you can edit your images later and correct any issues at that point – something that’s often not possible with images saved as .jpg files.

With Zamzar’s free online file-conversion tool, there’s no need to purchase or download specialist image-editing software for .cr2 files. Anyone with access to a camera that saves images in RAW format can view, share and print their photos.

Happy snapping !
The Zamzar Team.

Convert AI files to JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF and more

by The Zamzar TeamJune 10, 2014 Leave a comment

Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files are widely used by web designers for developing artwork and graphics for webpage designs … but if you haven’t splashed out hundreds of dollars on Adobe Illustrator it can be a pain to open or view them.

Not any more ! Zamzar now provides support for converting .ai files into a variety of common image formats (GIF, JPG, PNG & more) online and for free.

The AI file format is a proprietary format developed by Adobe for saving out files from its popular Adobe Illustrator program. Files tend to be single-page, vector-based drawings composed of paths connected by points. They are commonly used for logos and also print media, and as AI files are saved in this vector format they can be resized without losing image quality. Some graphics programs can open AI files, but they can rasterize the image, meaning that they will lose the vector data when converting the image.

Zamzar now allows you to convert AI files to all of the following formats:

bmp – Windows bitmap
gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
jpg – JPEG compliant image
pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
pdf – Portable Document Format
png – Portable Network Graphic
tga – Truevision Targa Graphic
tiff – Tagged image file format
wbmp – Wireless Bitmap File Format
webp – Lossily compressed image file

… which means you can avoid this:

Adobe Illustrator file - email

Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.

Zamzar and Heartbleed

by The Zamzar TeamApril 9, 2014April 11, 2014 Leave a comment

TL;DR: We’re happy to report that after auditing our services Zamzar has not been affected by the Heartbleed vulnerability. Read on for more info …

Two days ago on 7th April 2014 a major security vulnerability – CVE-2014-0160 (nicknamed “Heartbleed”) was announced.

This bug has the potential to affect any site which runs “secure” HTTPS traffic (usually identified by the little padlock you see in your web browser).

Current estimates put the number of affected sites at half a million, with renowned security expert Bruce Schneier calling it “Catastrophic” … On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11.

Our response

We run HTTPS services here at Zamzar for our business customers, as part of our efforts to keep your files and data secure, and were naturally concerned when we heard about this issue. We’re happy to report that after auditing our services Zamzar has not been affected by the Heartbleed vulnerability – We do run the software which can be affected (OpenSSL), but the version we run – 0.9.8 – does not have this bug.

We take our responsibilities to customers very seriously, which is why we conducted a full audit of our services on the same day that this bug was announced, on the 7th April 2014.

Other sites

If you use other services and software, please be aware that they could still be vulnerable to this issue – you can check whether they are by using a number of tools to test for the Heartbleed vulnerability (although, please make sure you have permission first):

Given the severity of this problem – passwords can be stolen, sessions hijacked, traffic and files spied upon – you should be asking the other websites you use what they are doing to fix the problem.

Patching your own sites

If you run your own web servers for customers you should check to make sure they are not vulnerable – If they are you should upgrade to a fixed version of OpenSSL as soon as possible by using your operating system’s package manager (e.g apt, yum or up2date) or by downloading and installing the latest release from OpenSSL.

Conclusions

We take the security of your data very seriously here at Zamzar, and will work hard to protect it on your behalf. If you have any questions or concerns about this or any other issue please do shoot us an email at info@zamzar.com.

Thanks,
The Zamzar Team.

Convert NEF files to JPG, PDF, PNG, TIFF and more

by The Zamzar TeamNovember 21, 2013 Leave a comment

We’re always looking to add new conversions to our list of available formats and we can now add NEF to that list. You can now convert your NEF files to JPG, PDF, PNG and TIFF using Zamzar, online and for free !

NEF (the Nikon Electronic Format) is a camera image format, developed as Nikon’s version of the RAW image format.

Raw image formats are intended to capture as closely as possible the characteristics of the scene being photographed, and to preserve as much detail as possible. The downside is that filesizes tend to be huge, and we want to make it as easy as possible to convert those RAW images into smaller, more portable image formats as quickly and easily as possible.

We’re pleased to announce you can use Zamzar’s free online tool to convert your NEF files to any of these formats – PNG and JPG probably offer the best compromise of quality vs filesize.

bmp – Windows bitmap
gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
jpg – JPEG compliant image
pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
pdf – Portable Document Format
png – Portable Network Graphic
tga – Truevision Targa Graphic
tiff – Tagged image file format
wbmp – Wireless Bitmap File Format
webp – Lossily compressed image file

Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.

Convert WebM files to AVI, FLV, MP4 and MPG amongst others

by The Zamzar TeamOctober 31, 2013 Leave a comment

You can now convert WebM files to AVI, FLV, MP4 and MPG using Zamzar, online and for free !

WebM is an open, royalty-free, media file format designed for the web, developed by Google and others and based on the VP8 video codec. Video is at the core of the web experience and an open video format was needed, free from the normal patent regulations that come with many other formats – hence WebM. WebM video files play directly in your web browser using HTML5 – for instance Google now offers WebM videos as part of its HTML5 player within YouTube.

We’re pleased to announce you can use Zamzar’s free online tool to convert your WebM files to any of these formats. We also support conversion the other way too – if you need to convert any of these formats into the more open WebM format.

3gp – 3GPP Multimedia File
3g2 – 3GPP2 Multimedia File
aac – Advanced Audio Coding File
ac3 – AC3 Audio File
avi – Windows video file
flac – Free Lossless Audio Codec
flv – Flash video
gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
iPad – MPEG-4 (H264) Video File
iPhone – MPEG-4 (H264) Video File
iPod – MPEG-4 (H264) Video File
mp3 – Compressed audio file
mov – Apple QuickTime Movie
mp4 – MPEG-4 Video File
mpg – Moving Picture Experts Group File
ogg – Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File
wav – Windows audio file
wmv – Windows Media Video

Let’s help spread the WebM file type !

Flash RIP

Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.

Convert XPS files to BMP, JPG, PDF and TIFF amongst others

by The Zamzar TeamOctober 25, 2013 Leave a comment

You can now convert XPS files to PDF using Zamzar, online and for free !

The XPS format is an alternative to the PDF file format for Microsoft platforms only, created using the “Microsoft XPS document writer”. If you are on a non-Microsoft operating system such as OSX or Linux it can be helpful to convert these files to something more useable such as a PDF file.

We’re pleased to therefore announce you can use Zamzar’s free online tool to convert your XPS file to any of these more convenient formats:

bmp – Windows Bitmap
gif – Compuserve graphics interchange
jpg – JPEG compliant image
oeb – Open eBook File
pcx – Paintbrush Bitmap Image
pdf – Portable Document Format
png – Portable Network Graphic
tiff – Tagged image file format

This means you no longer need to be tied to Microsoft !

Microsoft Lock In

Happy converting,
The Zamzar Team.