How to use the deja vu program. Programs for djvu

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.

But it’s surprising: the DjVu format (pronounced “déjà vu”) has been used since the late 90s, but it gained fame and recognition only almost 5 years later. And if until recently, the main stream of documentation and e-books was in PDF format, now you can already find giant portals filled with gigabytes of various literature in DjVu format.

However, despite this prevalence, you can still come across the question “ How to open a DjVu file?"After another similar question that came to our editorial office, this article was written.

No, we will not describe in detail the boring image optimization algorithm (although we will touch on it a little) and compression methods. The purpose of this article is to help the average user understand the advantages of this format and answer the most common questions.

DjVu – a little history

DJVU technology was developed by the company in 1996, but some time later it was sold to the company, which to this day is considered the main supplier of professional programs of this class. However, due to the fact that the DjVu standard is open, a lot of alternative free and shareware programs have appeared on the market over time. We will get to know some of them a little later.

A few words about the scope and technology of DjVu

Why is it so beneficial to use encoding in the DjVu format and why is it not rational to store a scanned document in TIFF format or compress it into JPEG? The answer is simple - it's all about the volume of information. Despite the fact that global, and after them Russian, Internet channels have noticeably increased, the issue of file size is still quite acute. And the DjVu format allows you to significantly reduce the size of the document, and, as a result, the time it takes to send or download it.

Thus, a color page compressed by DjVu weighs 5-10 times less than one converted to jpeg, and a black and white page weighs about 10-20 times. Compared to PDF, DJVU also has a gain, usually on the order of 3-10 times. A more detailed comparison of the different formats can be seen in this figure:

The secret is that during conversion, the image is decomposed into components, each of which is compressed in a certain way and according to a certain algorithm:

Mask - the text itself, diagrams, and graphics are stored here. That is, the clearest details of the image. Has the highest resolution.
Background , which stores the document's background and illustrations. Resolution is significantly reduced.
Foreground contains information about the color scheme of the mask. The strongest compression is applied to this layer.

Another undeniable advantage of DjVu over a conventional graphic image is the ability to recognize text. This technology is called OCR (optical character recognition- optical character recognition) - that is, recognized text from a DjVu document can be copied.

From all of the above, I think it is clear that the DjVu format is extremely beneficial to use for storing multi-page documents, subject to a limited amount of digital storage media, for sending over communication channels, and simply for more comfortable and faster work with files.

DjVu - applications

To look at a number of popular programs that work with DjVu on the Windows and Windows Mobile platforms, you can refer to the materials in our magazine, written specifically for this article:

- professional environment for converting and creating djvu documents, built on the basis of the once popular program .
-one of the very first programs to appear designed for viewing djvu documents.
- plugin for viewing djvu documents using browsers , and .
- small free viewer for djvu files, does not require installation and is able to associate itself with djv files

At its core, the DjVu format is a set of pictures (“photographs”) of pages of paper books, glued together into a single document. And if you want to create your own DjVu file, you will have to photograph a real book, manual or magazine yourself, page by page, and then convert them through the program. Instead of a camera, you can use a scanner to increase the speed and quality of images.

Let's look at ways to create your first e-book in the instructions below.

Method 1 - how to create djvu from pictures

Let's assume that you already have photographs or scanned copies of pages. Place them in one shared folder, then download the converter from this link:

Open the archive and run the file “Djvu Small Mod.exe”. Select an encoding operation, then click the Open Files button.

It supports creating djvu from images in jpg, bmp, gif, tiff, pnm and raster files. Select all the images in the folder (to do this quickly, press CTRL+A) and open them.

The process is not long; on a modern PC, it takes an average of 1 second to process 50 pages. At the end, if you do not uncheck the “show result” option, you will be asked to open the resulting book in one of the programs for reading DjVu files installed on your computer.

Method 2 - creating djvu during the scanning process

If you have a scanner at home, there is no point in pre-photographing each page; you can scan them and convert them to DjVu on the fly. True, this will require another program that works only on Windows XP and 7 - DjVu Solo (we didn’t try it on the eight, but it didn’t start on the ten).

Download DjVu Solo, install and launch. On the top panel, find the scanner icon and click on it. The standard scanning utility will open.

If nothing happens, go through the menu to “File” - “Select source”, and select your scanner from the list of devices. If it is empty, check whether the drivers included with the device are installed? Try reinstalling them, then restarting the program.

After scanning through the utility, the image will open in a separate window on the Solo desktop. Through the menu, go to “File” - “Convert to DjVu”, then save the created file. This is not a book yet - only one page of it.

Next, the algorithm of actions is as follows: click on the scanner icon on the top panel of the program again, scan a new page, save and convert it to DjVu again. The created file will open in a new window - that is, now there will be 2 open windows with files in the Solo program. Close this new window and go to the first window. Then, through the menu, go to “Edit” - “insert pages at the end of the book” and insert the second one to the first file.

Then scan the third page and add the resulting file again to the end of the book, that is, to the file from the first window. Do the same with the fourth and all subsequent pages in turn until the book is finished.

djvu- a relatively recently appeared format for compressing graphic files. Needless to say, the compression achieved by this format allows an ordinary book to be placed in a file of 5-10 MB in size! The pdf format is far from this...

Basically, books, pictures, and magazines are distributed over the network in this format. To open them you will need one of the programs listed below.

How to open a djvu file

1) DjVu Reader

An excellent program for opening djvu files. Supports adjusting image brightness and contrast. You can work with documents in two-page mode.

To open a file, click on file/open .

After this you will see the contents of the document.

Program for opening djvu files. One of the most dangerous competitors for DjVu Reader. This program is more convenient: there is scrolling of all open pages with the mouse wheel, faster work, tabs for open files, etc.

Program features:

Tabs for open documents. There is an alternative mode for opening each document in a separate window.
Continuous and single-page viewing modes, ability to display spreads
Custom bookmarks and annotations
Text search and copying
Support for dictionaries that translate words under the mouse pointer
List of page thumbnails with custom size
Table of contents and hyperlinks
Advanced Printing Options
Full screen mode
Quick zoom and zoom by selection modes
Export pages (or part of a page) to bmp, png, gif, tif and jpg
Rotate pages 90 degrees
Scale: full page, page width, 100% and custom
Adjusting brightness, contrast and gamma
Display modes: color, black and white, foreground, background
Navigation and scrolling with both mouse and keyboard
If required, associates itself with DjVu files in Explorer

Open file in WinDjView.

How to create a Djvu file

1) DjVu Small

A program for creating a djvu file from pictures in bmp, jpg, gif format, etc. By the way, the program can not only create, but also extract from djvu all graphic files that are in a compressed format.

It's very easy to use. After launching the program, you will see a small window in which you can create a djvu file in a few steps.

1. First, click on the Open Files button (red one in the screenshot below) and select the pictures that you want to pack into this format.

2. The second step is to select the location where the created file will be saved.

3. Choose what to do with your files. Document -> Djvu- convert documents to djvu format; Djvu Decoding - this item must be selected when you select a djvu file instead of pictures in the first tab in order to extract it and get its contents.

4. Select encoding profile- choice of compression quality. The best option would be to experiment: take a couple of pictures and try to compress them, if the quality suits you, then you can compress the entire book with the same settings. If not, then try to increase the quality. Dpi- this is the number of points; the higher this value, the better the quality, and the larger the size of the source file.

5. Convert- a button that starts the creation of a compressed djvu file. The time for this operation will depend on the number of pictures, their quality, PC power, etc. It took about 1-2 seconds for 5-6 pictures. on an average powerful computer today. By the way, below is a screenshot: the file size is approximately 24 kb. from 1 MB of source data. It is easy to calculate that the files were compressed 43* times!

Another good program for creating and extracting djvu files. Many users find it not as convenient and visual as DjVu Small, but we will still consider the process of creating a file in it.
1. Open image files that you scanned, downloaded, borrowed from friends, etc. Important! First, open just 1 image out of all the ones you want to convert!
Important point! Many people cannot open pictures in this program, because... By default it opens djvu format files. To open other graphic files, simply put the value in the file types column as in the picture below.
2. Once your one picture has been opened, you can add the rest. To do this, in the left window of the program you will see a column with a small preview of your image. Right-click on it and select “Insert page after” - add pages (pictures) after this one.
Then select all the pictures you want to compress and add them to the program.
3. Now click on file/Encode As Djvu - encode in Djvu.
In the next step you are asked to specify the location where the encoded file will be saved. By default, you are offered the save folder from which you added the image files. You can choose that too.
Now you need to select the quality with which the program will compress the images. It is best to choose it experimentally (since many people have different tastes and it is useless to give specific numbers). Just leave it at default first, compress the files - then check if you're happy with the quality of the document. If you are not satisfied, then increase/decrease the quality and check again, etc. until you find your balance between file size and quality.
The files in the example were compressed to 28kb! Pretty good, especially for those who want to save disk space or those who have slow Internet.

Hi all! If you often download e-books and manuals on the Internet, then you have probably already come across such an e-book format as djvu. As a rule, many people immediately have the question of how to open djvu. It would seem that a regular PDF file viewer should be suitable for these purposes, but not everything is so simple. To view déjà vu files, you need special programs that can work with this format. In most cases, such e-books contain graphs, formulas and drawings that are very difficult to convert to another format for editing. I would like to note that this format was developed quite a long time ago, about 15 years ago, and managed to gain great popularity. E-books in the deja vu format contain both graphic images and text and are very light in weight.

Advantages of the Djvu format.

Before we figure out how to open djvu, let's take a little look at the advantages of this file format. As a rule, the most important advantage is that the files are very light in weight, while the quality remains high.

What we get:

An image scanned into the Djvu format is compressed 10 times more than the popular . And the most important advantage is that the scanned document will be of impeccable quality without any blurring or loss;
Saved in déjà vu format, the scanned color document will weigh approximately 50 KB. And if the paper medium contained only text and a black and white image, then its electronic version will weigh approximately 10 KB. If you scan the same document and save it in another format, for example, Jpeg or tiff, then the weight of the electronic document will be tens or even hundreds of times greater;
Unlike, in a book in Djvu format it is possible to conduct a full search, thanks to a special text layer. Moreover, if the book contains some kind of background, you can remove it if desired.

As you can see, this e-book format has a lot of advantages, but this was more informational information, since now our task is a little different.

How to open djvu on a computer.

There are not many programs that can work with Djvu files, but there are also universal solutions that can open files of almost any e-book. There are also editor programs that allow you to make changes to déjà vu files, as well as create your own books.

WinDjView

Many users have this program in their arsenal, as it has proven itself only on the positive side.

You can download the program from the official website of the developer – ru.windjvu.com

The program has a Russian interface. By the way, when installing WinDjView, the Yandex search engine offers to install its elements, as well as . Here you can refuse such an intrusive offer by unchecking the appropriate boxes.

The main program window has a menu bar and a toolbar. It provides functions such as:

The program can work with several e-books at once, opening each of them in a new tab. WinDjView allows you to read a document in full screen mode, and you can only use the mouse to turn pages. If there is very small text on the pages of a book, you can use a screen magnifier.

In the program settings in the “Display” tab, the user can easily correct the colors of the image to suit his vision.

Here you can enable color inversion. This way you can read white text on a black background.

DjVu Reader

Another rather old program for reading déjà vu files. By the way, the program has not been supported by developers for quite a long time, namely since 2005, but still remains in demand among many users. Therefore, if you are still wondering how to open djvu, then DjVu Reader will certainly help you.

You can download the program on the official website of the developer - djvureader.org

DjVu Reader does not require installation on your computer and is launched from the downloaded folder with files. Therefore, if you need to quickly open an e-book, then download this reader and use it.

Pay attention! Since the program has not been supported by developers for quite a long time, it may not work entirely correctly on new versions of the Windows operating system.

STDU Viewer

This program is the most universal solution than the readers described above. Since it can work not only with Djvu files, but also with PDF, EPub, FB2 and many other e-book formats. This makes the program an incomparable leader among other similar solutions, since you do not have to keep several different utilities on your computer.

You can download the program on the official website of the developer: www.stduviewer.ru

Pay attention! To use the program for free, during installation you must check the box “I will not use STDU Viewer for commercial purposes.”

Also, when installing the reader, you can specify what types of files it will work with. To do this, check the boxes in the “Associate extensions” window.

STDU Viewer is liked by many users for its well-thought-out interface, which allows you to comfortably work with e-books. In the working window of the program there are many toolbars, with the help of which the user can easily customize the program to suit his needs.

The program has the following settings:

Selecting the document display mode;
Adjusting brightness and contrast;
Quick search by document;
Copying text if there is a special layer in the document;
Text highlighting;
Restoring an open document in case of an emergency termination of the program;
Setting up page division (horizontally or vertically);

The program also has a number of settings, which can be accessed by going to the “File” - “Program Settings” menu.

As you can see, STDU Viewer is a powerful tool for working with djvu files, with a huge number of settings; having this reader in your arsenal, you will not have any questions about how to open djvu.

Let's summarize.

Today we looked at three wonderful programs that can work with e-books in Djvu format. I advise all e-book lovers to have at least one of the described programs in their arsenal, since if you have them, you will no longer have questions about how to open djvu.