DMG Packager Editor's Review

DMG Packager is an application that gives you the possibility to build your own disk images.

This tool is useful for developers who would like to use this kind of package for their applications. It gives you all kind of settings for the desired output file.

The application provides you the possibility to create a new DMG image or use an existing one. Using an existing image is restricted to images that have read or write capabilities.

Setting the application is very easy. This can be done in just a few mouse clicks. When creating a new DMG file you need to provide the path to the preliminary image file and the path to the final packaged DMG. The application works in the following way. In the first phase, it generates a preliminary DMG image, then it gives you the possibility to customize the layout and the content of this preliminary output, and then it generates the final output file.

The background image functionality is available only for Tiger users, even though the application runs on Panther too. The desired file for the background can be added in the list of the files that are packaged by the application, and then all you need to do is to check if the file is used as a background picture.

The program has the possibility to add a SLA (Software License Agreement). It provides the possibility to import that SLA from a file, and it also provides you a tool, which can be used to build a SLA within this application. DMG Packager includes the support for building multi-language SLAs.

Pressing the 'Package DMG' starts the whole process: generating the preliminary image, which can be customized as desired, and then the final disk image. The process is usually fast, but this depends on the size of the included files.

If the included files are large, then the program gives you the possibility to split the image in smaller volumes. This option can be found in the 'Advanced Options'. You can find there other features, like 'Internet enable' and the possibility to use encryption for output disk image. The used encryption algorithm is AES-128.

Besides creating the disk images, the application gives you the possibility to create other package types, such as archives. It has the support for creating: ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ, TGZ, TAR, BZ2, and TBZ2 archive types. Depending on the desired format you can use a compression level from a scale from one (fastest compression) to nine (best compression). The archive module has the support for content filtering, but it doesn't have the possibility to create encrypted archives.

Pluses: various options for the desired output DMG image. It has the possibility to use various types of compression. The possibility to use a custom layout and a background image, it has the support for AES-128 strong encryption for the disk images, it has the support for creating ZIP archives, it has built in a SLA multi-language generator or the possibility to import SLAs from files. The application is user friendly and it is pretty easy to use.

Drawbacks / flaws: the archive module doesn't have the support for encryption.

In conclusion: this is one of the best DMG creating software. The targets for this product are the developers, who would like to distribute their software into professional look disk images. The alternative of DMG Packager is CreaDMG, a free tool, but with fewer features.

version reviewed: 1.4.3