In a world where the increasing digitization is greatly changing our society, it is inevitable to keep up with the trend to create our own digital collections by transferring the knowledge or information on physical papers into digital files. Various file formats stand out to meet this kind of demand, of which, DjVu is one of the tops of this profession.

What Is a DjVu File

DjVu is a graphic file format originally created to store scanned files, images, or even handwriting papers.

Developed by AT & T Labs in the late 20th century, DjVu is equipped with a strong capacity of document compression that supports image layer separation of text, progressive loading, and other features. The compressed files can be stored in a minimum of space with high quality and readability.

Considering its great performance of compression, DjVu is widely applied to different types of documents such as newspapers, ancient books, manuals, and eBooks, especially before the standardization of PDF.

DjVu VS PDF

PDF is another popular file format that is developed to view digital files or images  conveniently. People nowadays must be familiar with it. As another wonderful file format which shares some of the same features as DjVu, we could not help wondering what the differences are between the two or which one is better?

  1. DjVu Saves Smaller Volumes for Scanned Documents

Compared to PDF format, DjVu can save more space for scanned files, large eBooks, and textbooks in particular. DjVu’s technique of image layer separation can help separate the textures from images or the background respectively and compress the image only, which preserves the readability of the text and keeps the pixel to an acceptable quality.

While PDF does not have this ability, so its files usually are saved in a larger volume in order to reach the same level of quality.

  1. DjVu Opens Graphics Faster

To present a complete graphic for its viewers in a rapid way, DjVu decompresses the graphic which is shown on the screen rather than decompressing all images contained in a file at once.

What’s more, when opening files, DjVu will display images from a lower quality first and then increase the quality step by step.

  1. DjVu Is Good for EBook Reading

DjVu possesses an interface that is eBook reader-friendly. If someone does not like carrying a bunch of heavy books or having insufficient storage for his/her eBook reading device, the DjVu format is a nice choice!

How to Open a DjVu File

Though DjVu is not as influential as it was before, it is still active in the market. If anyone wants to further explore the functions of DjVu or is one of its users, a quick way to view DjVu file is to drag it to any web browser window.

Besides, DjVuLibre is another recommendation. As a cross-platform DjVu reader, it can support both Windows and Mac.

To sum up, DjVu keeps a good balance between the quality and volume of a digital file. Due to this feature, in spite of the widespread use of Office, it is still good assistance for a number of users, especially eBooks readers.

Lydia

Columnist