ACE (file format)

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ACE
File extension:	`.ace`
MIME type:	`application/x-ace-compressed`
Developed by:	e-merge GmbH
Type of format:	data compression

In computing, ACE is a proprietary data compression archive file format developed by e-merge GmbH. ACE offers superior compression compared to the ZIP file format, at the cost of a lower compression speed.

The file extension is .ace. The MIME-Type is application/x-ace-compressed.

WinAce, maintained by e-merge GmbH, is used to decompress and manipulate ACE files under Microsoft Windows. There are also older versions of a program called "unace", which are licensed under the GPL but cannot extract ACE archives newer than version 2.0. Besides that, there are some freeware or nagware archivers which can read the format, though none are free software.

ACE is also the name of a file format for sequence assembly, used by e.g. consed, phrap and CAP3.