If I zip a large file before uploading to SharePoint does it make it upload faster and use less space on the server?

Yes to both. I doubt if you will notice the difference on uploading but although there will still be an overhead for storing the file in the SP database, the overhead % will be on top of a smaller size (of course) making a smaller total size. 2010 Books: SPF 2010; SPS 2010; SPD 2010; InfoPath 2010; Workflow etc. 2007 Books: WSS 3.0; MOSS 2007; SPD 2007; InfoPath 2007; PerformancePoint; SSRS; Workflow Both lists also include books in French; German; Spanish with even more languages in the 2007 list.