Affinity Photo app installed size much larger than size listed on Appstore

[PhotoHobbyist]

Hi, I just purchased and installed the Affinity Photo application on my iMac and noticed that the size of the app is 2.65 GB on the Mac, but on the Appstore download area, the size claimed is 758.8 MB.  Is the the 758.8 MB just the download size of a compressed file perhaps?  Thanks.

[Old Bruce]

41 minutes ago, PhotoHobbyist said:

Hi, I just purchased and installed the Affinity Photo application on my iMac and noticed that the size of the app is 2.65 GB on the Mac, but on the Appstore download area, the size claimed is 758.8 MB.  Is the the 758.8 MB just the download size of a compressed file perhaps?  Thanks.

Pretty sure that is the compressed size, or the download size, on the Mac App Store. Pretty sure, meaning I don't know for certain.

[R C-R]

Like @Old Bruce said, I am not 100% certain but I am reasonably sure that all apps from the Mac App Store (not just the Affinity ones) are supplied highly compressed, & automatically expanded during the install process.

This is based on comparing the size as reported in the store to the installed size for several different apps including both Affinity & other apps I bought from that store. For all of the them installed size is at least twice as large as the store data indicates, & most are considerably larger than that.

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Part of the issue (in my view problem) is the use of fat binaries - binaries intended for both Intel and Apple chips.

IIRC, I was seeing this in MAS apps long before there was an M1 Mac, so I am not sure that is relevant.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

It's entirely relevant. A fat binary uses about twice as much disk space as a single architecture binary. All we need is somebody to check how much space an installation of APhoto uses on a Windows machine to compare it.

I'm  not sure that's really relevant, but the basic application files for Photo 1.10.5, from the Affinity Store, are about 1.05 GB on my machine.

[v_kyr]

Well the by MAS shown sizes are always the compressed package/archive sizes, since that's what one finally downloads over the internet connection. - Once downloaded from MAS the whole will be uncompressed/extracted/unarchived and installed. The final installed app (after it's installment) takes space wise of course much more disk space than just the beforehand downloaded compressed installer package.

Further, since most apps nowadays have to support both Apple hardware platform lines (those with Intel & M1 based CPUs), actual apps are build as multi-architecture (... fat binaries), so they can run on either platform system. Such multi-architecture apps will logically occupy even more space than just an app which was build-up for just one architecture.

One way to smaller MacOS multi-architecture (aka fat binary) apps size wise, would be to run the LIPO tool on them, in order to strip out the unneeded binary architecture!

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, LondonSquirrel said:

t's entirely Itrelevant. A fat binary uses about twice as much disk space as a single architecture binary.

I am not disputing that. However, note that the MAS AP download is only about 1/3 the size of the installed fat version. On my iMac as installed, it is the same 2.65 GB as the OP reported, while at the MAs it is being reported as a 758.8 MB download.

Conclusion: the file is delivered as compressed & then uncompressed during installation.

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm  not sure that's really relevant, but the basic application files for Photo 1.10.5, from the Affinity Store, are about 1.05 GB on my machine.

Is that as downloaded or as installed?

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Is that as downloaded or as installed?

Installed.

As delivered I think they're something over 500 MB.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Installed.

As delivered I think they're something over 500 MB.

So about 2:1 compression overall as delivered. The MAS fat binaries seem to be delivered at about 3:1 compression compared to as installed. The only Mac Affinity app I bought from the Affinity store is APub. It was delivered as a 770.12MB DMG & as installed is about 2.6 GB, more or less comparable to the ratio for the MAS versions.