compressed serialization module

[Mark]

I used pickle and found the file was saved in text format.  I wonder
whether anyone is familiar with a good compact off-the-shelf module
available that will save in compressed format... or maybe an opinion
on a smart approach for making a custom one?  Appreciate it!  I'm a
bit of a n00b but have been looking around.  I found a serialize.py
but it seems like overkill.

Mark