LizardTech Announces Version 3.6 Upgrade to Document Express Desktop and Professional Editions
A report by James Rile, PlanetDjVu, October 10, 2002

LizardTech, Inc. today announced the Version 3.6 upgrade to Document Express Desktop and Professional Editions (previously called DjVu Solo 3.1).

Here is what LizardTech has to say on their website:

Desktop Edition Key Improvements
Now supports Windows 95, 98 and ME platforms for the LizardTech Virtual Printer (LVP), as well as Windows NT, 2000, and XP.
Enhanced application compatibility with the LVP for Microsoft Outlook, Adobe FrameMaker, and many others.
Improved rotation quality and handling within DjVu Editor.
Increased OCR flexibility, including feedback and cancel capabilities.

Professional Edition Key Improvements
Enhanced direct scanning of multi-page documents directly into DjVu format.
Integrated Express Cartridge Manager.
New GUI to access cartridge information, and for ordering new cartridges.

Here is what the datasheet for these products says (in total):

Document Express Desktop Edition
The Document Express Desktop Edition features basic editing, scanning, viewing, conversion and capture functions for the individual consumer or professional who needs to distribute or publish digital documents.

Document Express Professional Edition
Small businesses that need to scan documents that are larger than a single page benefit from Document Express Professional Edition. Professional Edition allows multiple page capture and an optional custom branded viewer. It also puts scanned paper documents and other digitally converted documents to work through smaller files, sharper text and smarter navigation.


As before, pricing is not announced, and neither is a trial download available or any more detailed information about these product upgrades, other than what is repeated above.

As mentioned elsewhere in the PlanetDjVu News section, LizardTech declines to release an evaluation copy to PlanetDjVu for review, so we can't give you any more details than what we can read on the LizardTech website.

If you are privledged to have and use a copy of these products, then we invite you to post your comments in the Forum of PlanetDjVu for the benefit of the DjVu user community.

For more information on purchasing these upgrades, we suggest that you contact LizardTech directly, as we no longer have a reseller license for DjVu products.  You can get contact information at: http://lizardtech.com/purchase/


In related news, along with a general update to their website, LizardTech has chosen to remove rather than correct the reference link to PlanetDjVu.  The reference link to DjVuZone remains.  Links to the open source implementation of DjVu, removed by LizardTech last June, remain absent.  We interpret this as indications of LizardTech's effort to absorb DjVu into its proprietary and exclusive Document Express line of products.

In other related news, the DjVuLibre 3.5.9 upgrade was released on October 6, 2002. You can read the upgrade details at: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=114905

In other related news, Feith Data Systems has removed its DjVuer and DjVuer Pro products, which encoded version 2.0 DjVu files, from their website.  They were never able to obtain licensing from LizardTech to update these products.

Also, ACDSee has dropped their DjVu viewer plugin in the current 5.0 version.  The DjVu viewer plugin, originally licensed from AT&T Labs, was never updated by LizardTech.  IrfanView has not upgraded their DjVu viewer plugin for the same reason, and it is not supported by the current 3.75 version.  See our earlier review of ACDSee and IrfanView here.

This leaves the DjVu browser plug-in from LizardTech as the only remaining DjVu viewer for Windows.

In other related news, we have conducted a survey of LizardTech DjVu product resellers on the web (since we are no longer one). The only three we can find are:


The first two are still listing the previous DjVu products that LizardTech pulled from the market four months ago.  The second two are listing the current product lineup.

We could not find any DjVu product resellers in the U.S. that make their offerings on the web.

Here at PlanetDjVu, we had listed the current DjVu products from LizardTech, even offering online click-and-purchase, but then our reseller agreement with LizardTech was cancelled by LizardTech, much to our dismay.  See our explanation here.

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