DJVU is one of the most common e-book formats. Scanned documents, magazines and books are distributed in this format. When downloading such files from the Internet, users are often faced with the fact that they do not know how to open a DJVU file. Most computers simply do not have programs installed to work with this format.
In this article we will look at a number of free programs with which you can open DJVU files, and also briefly talk about this e-book format.
There are not many programs for working with DJVU, and there are even fewer high-quality and free programs. Now we will look at a number of free programs. After installing one of them, you will no longer have problems opening DJVU files.
is one of the best programs of this type. WinDjView is a fast and convenient program for reading documents in djvu format. The program provides a large number of different functions for convenient work with the document. If this is your first time dealing with this format and you don’t know how to open a djvu file, I recommend using this program. This way you can avoid unnecessary problems and save your time. Using the link provided above you can download the free djvu program without any problems.
Let's look at the main features of the WinDjView program:
- Supports all versions of the Windows operating system, starting with Windows 2000.
- View the document in single-page or continuous mode, view in spread mode.
- Supports a large number of languages. Among which there is a Russian one.
- Ability to create custom annotations and bookmarks.
- View page thumbnails.
- Open multiple documents in tabs or separate windows.
- Ability to work in full screen mode.
- Dictionary support for translating individual words in text.
- Saving pages as separate images.
- Rotate the page 90 degrees.
- Page display settings. Change the scale, brightness, gamma and contrast.
- Control and navigate the document using the keyboard and mouse.
is another fairly popular program designed for opening djvu files. The program has low system requirements, a simple interface and can work without installation. In order to start using DjVu Reader, just download the archive with the program and unpack it to any folder.
Other features of the DjVu Reader program:
- Working with documents in single-window and double-window modes.
- Ability to customize document display. The user can set brightness, contrast and other parameters.
- Search by document text.
- Copying text and pictures.
- Several document display modes. One or more pages can be displayed on the screen at a time.
- Navigate through the document using the keyboard or mouse.
— a universal program for viewing e-books. With this program you can open not only files in djvu format, but also other popular e-book formats. However, versatility is not the only advantage of this program. The program supports the Russian language and is equipped with everything necessary for full-fledged work with electronic documents.
Other features of STDU Viewer:
- Supports all popular e-book formats. Among them: PDF, DjVu, Comic Book Archive (CBR or CBZ), XPS, FB2, ePub, TCR and many others.
- Supports popular image formats. With STDU Viewer you can view BMP, JPEG, JPG, GIF, PNG and other image formats.
- Simple and intuitive interface with tab support and page thumbnails.
- Ability to create custom bookmarks.
- Search by text.
- Manage font settings.
is another high-quality universal program for working with e-books. With its help you can open DJVU files, as well as files in FB2, CHM, EPUB, TXT, RTF, DOC, MOBI, PDB, HTML and TCR formats. CoolReader is an open source software. There are versions for all popular operating systems: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, Android and Symbian OS.
Other features of the CoolReader program:
- View one or more pages at the same time.
- View the book in full screen mode.
- Reading the text aloud.
- Recognition of various text encodings.
- Create custom bookmarks.
- Search by text.
- View footnotes.
- View books directly from the archive without unpacking.
- Work without installation.
Djvu format
Djvu format is designed for storing scanned images. It was designed for easy viewing of scanned books, magazines, scientific materials and other text documents.
The use of this format is especially relevant in cases where the text contains a large number of elements, the recognition of which is complicated. Such elements can be formulas, tables, diagrams, drawings. This format is also often used to store text information that is not intended for recognition. For example, for storing scanned parchments or other historical documents.
For many libraries, the Djvu format has become the main format for storing digitized books. Therefore, it is simply necessary to know how to open a djvu file. Otherwise, you will not be able to work properly with digitized versions of many books.
DjVuReader And WinDjView- optimal tools for reading DjVu format. They have an extremely simple interface and provide many tools for setting up viewing modes.
Sumatra PDF And STDU Weaver- multifunctional software, copes well with opening files in different text and graphic formats. If you plan to view more than just Deja Vu, choose one of these utilities.
Universal Viewer is a powerful media processor that can not only open, but also modify almost any file. An excellent option for users who want to read books, listen to music and watch videos in one program.
How to open djvu on Android or online?
CoolReader And FBReader- small programs for smartphones and tablets. A good alternative to computer applications. First can read aloud. Second- contains a text translator.
Please note that you can also find various online reading services on the Internet.djvu, one of the most popular is Djvu.js Viewer. There are also special additions to browsers, for example, a plugin DjVu Browser Plug-in from LizardTech, supporting Chrome, Firefox, Opera. There are also various web resources on the RuNet where you can convert Deja Vu into any format convenient and suitable for you.
The selection does not include several good e-book viewers: IrfanView, Okular, Evince, ABBYY FineReader Pro, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Foxit PDF.
The DjVu file format typically uses the .djvu extension and was developed as an alternative to the Adobe PDF format in 1996. Thanks to advanced compression algorithms, DjVu is optimized for scanned documents that contain both images and text. In most cases, DjVu files are more compact than comparable PDF files. This was the short answer to your question. However, most likely you came to this page because you recently came across a DjVu file and wondered how to open it. Therefore, the first part of this article will provide you with all the tools and algorithms to open a DjVu file. But if you also want to have a deeper understanding about DjVu, you have come to the right place: The second part of this article will provide you with historical and technical background information about this interesting file format, so stay tuned!
How to open a DjVu file?
| DjVu Specifications | |
| File name extensions | .djvu, .djv |
|---|---|
| Internet media type | image/vnd.djvu, image/x-djvu |
| Designed by | AT&T Labs – Research |
| Initial release | 1998; 19 years ago ( 1998 ) |
| Latest issue |
Version 26 |
| GNU GPLv2 | |
- 1. To convert any DjVu file to PDF, you can directly use our converter DjVu to PDF.
- 2. If you prefer to install software to view DjVu directly, on the other hand, you may be interested in our updated list of DjVu players.
Best DjVu Players
Conversion is always accompanied by quality losses, unless, of course, you are ready to put up with output files larger than the source document. Since DjVu documents are quite similar to PDFs and are even searchable in many cases (which is often forgotten), and perhaps sticking to the original document while choosing a suitable player would be a good choice. There are a number of DjVu players for almost every operating system available on the Internet, a small selection of which are summarized here:
Sumatra Reader (with DjVu support)
Sumatra Reader is one of the lesser known DjVu players available for Windows. Compared to other alternatives presented here, it not only allows you to open and view DjVu files, but also supports basic operations for processing and editing them. Therefore, it is probably the best choice for running DjVu on Windows.
DjView
DjView is a good DjVu player that is available free of charge for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. It allows you to search DjVu documents and can show an outline of the document and thumbnail images of specific pages.
WinDjView, MacDjView
Another useful tool that offers roughly the same functionality as DjView. It also allows you to select and copy text using your cursor, much like working with a PDF document. Also the user interface is very similar to most PDF players. The names already imply that the software is available for Windows and MacOs.
STDU Viewer
STDU Viewer is a free (for non-commercial and educational use) and powerful document viewer that also supports DjVu. The software is available in different languages. It does a great job with files that have a text layer and can therefore be useful if you want to export simple text from DjVu and other supported documents.
X Djvu for iPhone and iPad
Yes, you can read DjVu documents using your iPhone! X Djvu is a useful application that allows you to read DjVu documents using your iPhone or iPad and offers many different features. A smaller version of X Djvu Lite can be downloaded for free for testing.Ebookdroid - document reader for Android
You want to read your DjVu documents on your Android smartphone. No problem! There are many free document players available that allow you to open DjVu files on Android. A good one is, for example, Ebookdroid, which also supports PDF. Installation is very easy via the Google App Store.
Where did the DjVu file format come from?
The DjVu format was developed as an alternative to the PDF format in 1998 at AT&T Labs, where some pioneering inventions such as the transistor were made. The main contributors to the development of DjVu were Yann LeCun, Leon Bottu, Patrick Haffner and Paul G. Howard, and the leading idea behind the development of DjVu was to create a file format that is optimized for scanned documents that contain both images and text. The key requirement here was that the new file format works better than PDF for this type of document. The key advantage of DjVu is the limited size of DjVu files. Therefore, it is often used to distribute scanned documents online. Unlike PDF, it is an open file format, which means it can be used by both open source and proprietary software. The DjVu format usually uses the extension .djvu or sometimes just .djv.
Why are DjVu files special?
DjVu files use advanced compression technologies that are approximately 5-10 times better than JPEG and Tiff files. A scanned page in color (300 DPI) with a file size of, say, about 25 MB, can easily be compressed to 100 KB (!) using DjVu. All DjVu files can be equipped with a text layer, which will make them searchable. These searchable DjVu files are very similar to PDF documents. The key to achieving this superior compression is so-called multi-scale two-color clustering, which allows the separation of foreground and background masks, which is more general than standard text/image segmentation. Along with a suite of soft template matching algorithms, the JBIG2 compression that DjVu uses outperforms the JBIG1 compression that has been the standard for bilayer images for a long time. The JBIG2 encoding principle is as follows: First, the method identifies nearly identical shapes on a page, such as multiple occurrences of a particular character in a given font, style, and size. It then compresses the bitmap of each unique shape separately and then encodes the locations where each shape appears on the page. Likewise, similar shapes are compressed only once rather than multiple times, which explains the advantage in terms of file size that DjVu files typically show. Other key components of the compression technique used by DjVu are the multi-scale sequential projection algorithm and the so-called ZP encoder.
DjVu files with hidden OCR layers
It is still possible to think of DjVu files as a loose collection of bitmap images that do not contain searchable text information and are therefore difficult to process. So, we need to get used to the fact that PDF is an undeniably prettier format? Of course not! The DjVu authors were smart enough to find a clever job here: in order to make DjVu files searchable and similar to PDF files, they added a hidden OCR layer to the file format definition. This is a very cost-effective way of providing searchable text information on the one hand, and a strict separation between the visual appearance of the document and the content that can be viewed by the reader. Most DjVu files that are distributed on the Internet contain such a text layer. The main difference between DjVu and PDF is that the DjVu format is a raster image format, whereas the PDF format is a scalable vector file format. This trick even allows you to easily copy and paste text from any DjVu that is equipped with a layer like the one used to work with PDF files. Licensing and adaptation of DjVu DjVu appeared first as an open source incarnation that was called "DjVuLibre" and used the GNU General Public License. However, copy rights to commercial encoding software designs have been assigned to several different companies over the years, including AT&T Corporation, LizardTech, Celartem, and others. Although PDF is used more often than DjVu, despite some experts believing that DjVu is actually a better document format due to superior compression algorithms, DjVu has achieved a significant level of adoption due to this open source licensing. Since DjVu was developed at the peak of the digitization era when many books were scanned, many people still use DjVu to scan documents and books over the Internet. Additionally, in 2002, the Internet Archive, with its million-dollar book project, which provides millions of public domain scanned books, also decided to support DjVu along with PDF.
Technical characteristics of DjVu files
DjVu was originally derived from the Interchange File Format (IFF), which is based on hierarchically organized chunks. As with IFF, its structure is preceded by a 4-byte AT&T magic number. This identifier is followed by a marker indicating whether to make a single-page document (DJVU) or a multi-page document (DJVM), respectively. A more detailed discussion is undoubtedly beyond the scope of this article. Another important specification, however, is the Internet mime type for DjVu - image/vnd.djvu or image/x-djvu. The current version of DjVu is version 26, released over 10 years ago.
The future of DjVu
Although not much progress has been made in DjVu development in recent years, the number of DjVu files released is eventually increasing again. This may be due to the most compelling benefit of DjVu files, namely their incredibly compact file size. At a time when the world wide web is increasingly being used by mobile devices and bandwidth is still a cost factor, using DjVu's superior compression can help save time and money. Meanwhile, there are also applications that can be used to display DjVu files on smartphones and tablets. Of course, this is pure speculation, but perhaps DjVu's future could be brighter than its past. In fact, the name DjVu conveys some kind of hidden message, as it is inspired by the French expression DjVu [déjà vu], which means something like “already seen.” Since you are now familiar with DjVu, you can be absolutely sure that you will see it again very soon as long as you live in the Internet world.
The Djvu format is scanned books, magazines and other documents.
Most often, students are interested in which program to open a djvu file, because they constantly need to look for information for coursework and exams.
There are quite a few who simply read books frequently, and when downloading them from the Internet, do not understand how to open them. By default, there is no suitable software on the computer.
That's why we will get acquainted with several programs for working with the djvu format. These programs are completely free and easy to use.
Programs for opening Djvu file
Open with Djvu Reader
The first free and popular program that we will get acquainted with is Djvu Reader.
Select the file you want to open via “File > Open” on your computer.
And this is what open books look like:
- Features of the Djvu Reader program:
- Capable of working in two file display modes: single-window and double-window;
- You can adjust the brightness and contrast of the document;
- Ability to search for necessary information in the text;
- You can use the keyboard and mouse to navigate the document;
- Pictures and text can be inserted into any document later;
- The document can be viewed either in full screen mode or with several or one pages displayed on the screen;
Free software product WinDjView
The second software on our list is WinDjView. It is also a completely free program for reading e-books in djvu format.
If this is your first time encountering the opening of this format, then you will like WinDjView.
For it to become an indispensable assistant for you, you must first download it.
The installation of the program is carried out as usual, so there is no point in describing it in detail. Just run the downloaded exe file and follow the instructions.
Appearance of the program:
- Description of the WinDjView program- its features:
- Works on all versions of Windows without exception. It will run even on old Windows 2000;
- Allows you to make bookmarks, which allows you to return to the place in the document where you stopped reading;
- Allows you to translate text words into other languages with built-in dictionaries;
- Allows you to control brightness and contrast;
- You can save a djvu document to a text file for opening with any text editor, and also supports saving in JPG, GIF, PNG and other formats;
- You can rotate pages and scale them if you cannot see something;
- Do you want to print the book? This possibility also exists.
Well, these two programs are quite enough to satisfy any of your desires :)
Many users are faced with the need to open files in the DjVu format on their computer. The DjVu format, along with the PDF format, is the most popular format for storing scanned documents.
The name of the DjVu format comes from the French word déjà vu - “already seen”. This format saves scanned electronic books and magazines, mainly of an encyclopedic, educational, scientific and technical nature, which contain a lot of graphics: images, pictures, diagrams, etc. Users scan books with a large number of images and then save them in electronic form in a DjVu file format.
The DjVu format has gained popularity, partly due to the fact that a DjVu file weighs much less than a similar PDF file. This is especially true for mobile devices and is also useful for computers. Very large files are difficult to open even with specialized programs - viewers for files of this type.
Therefore, in many cases, it is optimal to save documents and pictures in the DjVu graphic format. A document in DjVu format is several times smaller in size than a similar file saved in PDF format.
How to open DjVu? In this article I will tell you how to open a DjVu file on a computer using the Windows operating system. To do this, we need a program that opens DjVu files.
Which program can open files with the DjVu extension? To open files in the djvu format, you can use specialized programs for opening files in the djvu format, or applications that support opening several types of text format files, including déjà vu.
In this article I will talk about 5 programs. Two programs: WinDjView and DjVu Reader, are specially created for viewing the djvu format, and three others: STDU Viewer, Sumatra PDF, Universal Viewer Pro have support for several formats, including DjVu.
