.djvu.djv

DjVu file: what it is and how to open it

A DjVu file is a scanned document, often a whole book, compressed to a fraction of the size of the original scans. Open it in a free reader such as SumatraPDF, DjView or ReadEra, or convert it to PDF.

Check a DjVu file here

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What is a DjVu file?

DjVu is a format for scanned documents: books, journals and manuals turned into page images. Researchers at AT&T Labs designed it in the late 1990s so high-resolution scans could be shared on the web. A magazine page scanned in color at 300 dpi takes about 40 to 60 KB.

AT&T sold DjVu to LizardTech in 2000. A free implementation, DjVuLibre, is still maintained; version 3.5.30 came out in May 2026. You meet DjVu mostly as scanned books and old technical documents shared online.

No operating system opens DjVu by itself, and our apps do not open it either. Free readers exist for Windows, Mac and Android, and DjVuLibre converts a DjVu file to PDF.

What is inside

DjVu splits each page into layers. A black-and-white mask holds the text and line art at full resolution, compressed with JB2, which stores each repeated letter shape once and then only where it appears. The background (paper and photos) is kept at lower resolution and compressed with IW44 wavelets, and a small color layer paints the text.

The file uses the IFF chunk layout: AT&T, then FORM and the type, DJVU for one page or DJVM for a document of several. A multipage document has a DIRM directory and is either one bundled file or an indirect set of one file per page plus an index file. A TXTz chunk adds an invisible text layer for search when the scan was run through OCR.

book.djvuAT&T FORM:DJVM

├─ DIRMdirectory of pages and shared parts

├─ FORM:DJVI Djbzletter shapes shared by several pages

├─ FORM:DJVUpage 1

│ ├─ INFOsize and resolution

│ ├─ Sjbztext and line art, black and white (JB2)

│ ├─ FG44the colors of the text

│ ├─ BG44paper and photos (IW44 wavelets)

│ └─ TXTzhidden text layer, if the book was OCRed

└─ FORM:DJVUpage 2 …

A bundled multipage DjVu book. Each page carries its own layers.

How to open a DjVu file

Windows

SumatraPDFFree and open source. Opens DjVu along with PDF, EPUB and XPS.
DjViewFree from the DjVuLibre project. Continuous scrolling, side-by-side pages, thumbnails and the book’s outline.

Mac

DjViewFree from the DjVuLibre project; the Mac download was last updated in July 2025. Shows thumbnails, outlines and side-by-side pages.

Android

ReadEraFree, with no ads or in-app purchases. Reads DjVu books offline.
LibreraFree with ads. Reads DjVu alongside PDF, EPUB and other book formats.

In a browser

DjVu.js ViewerFree and open source, written in JavaScript. Opens local .djvu files from its web page or a Chrome or Firefox extension.

Won’t open?

Nothing on my computer or phone opens it

Windows, macOS, iOS and Android have no DjVu reader. Install SumatraPDF or DjView on a computer or ReadEra on Android, or use the DjVu.js viewer in a browser.

A website asks for a DjVu plug-in

Older sites showed DjVu through a browser plug-in, and browsers dropped plug-ins years ago; Chrome removed them in 2015. Download the file and open it in a reader, or use the DjVu.js extension.

I cannot search or copy the text

Only DjVu files with a hidden text layer are searchable. Without one, convert to PDF and run OCR; Universal File Opener for Android reads scanned PDFs with offline OCR.

Only one page opens, or pages are missing

It is an indirect DjVu: one file per page plus an index file. Keep all the files together in one folder and open the index file.

Convert a DjVu file

To PDFInstall DjVuLibre and run ddjvu -format=pdf book.djvu book.pdf. The pages become images, so a scan without a text layer still needs OCR before you can search it.
To TIFFRun ddjvu -format=tiff book.djvu book.tif for archives or OCR software that expects TIFF.
To PDF without a command lineOn Windows, open it in SumatraPDF, choose Print and pick Microsoft Print to PDF. The copy has no searchable text.

DjVu files in our apps

Our apps do not open DjVu. Read it in a free DjVu reader, or convert it to PDF with DjVuLibre and open the PDF in Universal File Opener, where offline OCR can make scanned pages searchable.