diff --git a/core/src/processing/core/PApplet.java b/core/src/processing/core/PApplet.java
index be6f184d7..c9decd336 100644
--- a/core/src/processing/core/PApplet.java
+++ b/core/src/processing/core/PApplet.java
@@ -7192,20 +7192,55 @@ public class PApplet implements PConstants {
     return null;
   }
 
+
   /**
    * @nowebref
    */
   static public byte[] loadBytes(File file) {
-    InputStream is = createInput(file);
-    byte[] byteArr = loadBytes(is);
     try {
-      is.close();
+      InputStream input;
+      int length;
+
+      if (file.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(".gz")) {
+        RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile(file, "r");
+        raf.seek(raf.length() - 4);
+        int b4 = raf.read();
+        int b3 = raf.read();
+        int b2 = raf.read();
+        int b1 = raf.read();
+        length = (b1 << 24) | (b2 << 16) + (b3 << 8) + b4;
+        raf.close();
+
+        // buffered has to go *around* the GZ, otherwise 25x slower
+        input = new BufferedInputStream(new GZIPInputStream(new FileInputStream(file)));
+
+      } else {
+        long len = file.length();
+        // http://stackoverflow.com/a/3039805
+        int maxArraySize = Integer.MAX_VALUE - 5;
+        if (len > maxArraySize) {
+          System.err.println("Cannot load files larger than " + maxArraySize);
+          return null;
+        }
+        length = (int) len;
+        input = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file));
+      }
+      byte[] buffer = new byte[length];
+      int count;
+      int offset = 0;
+      while ((count = input.read(buffer, offset, length - offset)) != -1) {
+        offset += count;
+      }
+      input.close();
+      return buffer;
+
     } catch (IOException e) {
       e.printStackTrace();
+      return null;
     }
-    return byteArr;
   }
 
+
   /**
    * @nowebref
    */
@@ -7223,6 +7258,7 @@ public class PApplet implements PConstants {
     return null;
   }
 
+
   /**
    * ( begin auto-generated from loadStrings.xml )
    *
diff --git a/core/todo.txt b/core/todo.txt
index 16f8017d9..da9183e17 100644
--- a/core/todo.txt
+++ b/core/todo.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
 0259 (3.3.2)
+X add (far) more efficient file loading for loadBytes(File)
 
 andres
 X Assigning Pixels Vertically Flipped in P2D
 X   https://github.com/processing/processing/issues/5013
 
+gohai
+X improve loadBytes() performance 
+X   https://github.com/processing/processing/pull/5027
+
 
 high
 _ implement sketch scaling into PApplet