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Viewing DjVu files in Windows - a status
report
 by James Rile,
PlanetDjVu, April 28, 2002 In July of
2001, we reviewed the DjVu Plugins for ACDSee v3.1 and IfranView 3.25.
Now we pay a return visit 9 months later and take a look at the
ACDSee v4.0 and IrfanView v3.7 application updates to see what
improvements have been made, and we look at the ability to view DjVu files
on the Windows platform in general. Both of
these popular multiple-format desktop viewers continue to provide
application plugins for the viewing of DjVu files. Both viewers have
been significantly upgraded since last year, but the Djvu plugins have not
been upgraded. They support only the now-outdated DjVu 2.0
format. In ACDSee
v4.0, when you attempt to open a DjVu 3.x file for display, the entire
application crashes. In IrfanView v3.7, when you attempt to open a
DjVu 3.x file, you get a "DjVu Decode Error" message. Since even
the open source library for DjVu now produces DjVu 3.x files, we find the
DjVu viewer plugins to be fairly useless unless you happen to have DjVu
2.0 files created while the DjVu format was still owned by AT&T.
Since then, we can find no other desktop viewers that support the
display of the DjVu format.
In our review last year, we concluded that these DjVu
application plugins were seriously out-of-date and in need of updating.
This remains the case. The DjVu
Solo 3.1 desktop application from LizardTech, which is a free download
from LizardTech, will open and display DjVu 3.x files, but it is not
designed to be a document viewer as ACDSee and IrfanView are. You
cannot see the text layer of DjVu 3.x files in DjVu Solo, which has not
received and updates or bug fixes in the last 18 months. We
conclude that there are no longer any desktop viewers to display
contemporary (v3.x) DjVu files, and so this just leaves the DjVu Web
Browser Plugin from LizardTech for the display of DjVu v3.x files on the
Windows platform. Click
Here for the review of ACDSee v3.1 and IrfanView v3.25 from
2001.
Click
Here for the recent review of the DjVu Web Browser
Plugin Status Report Update
5/31/2002: I am
writing this adendum as a result of numerous inquires that were recently
made. First, a
inquiry was made about distributing DjVu collections on CD-ROM with the
DjVu Web Browser Plugin included on the CD for those that do not have
internet connections. The answer is that, according to all the
various license agreements for the DjVu Web Browser (see the most
recent plug-in review which includes the license agreements), the
DjVu Plugin cannot be distributed. It cannot be obtained at all
other than as a download from the LizardTech web site. This is
unlike the Acrobat Reader, which can be freely distributed and also
provided on CD-ROMs. Note: You
don't have to be connected to the Internet in order to view DjVu files
stored locally in the DjVu Plugin to the web browser. Next, two
inquiries made about building (compiling) a DjVu viewer with
customizations like annotation support, for existing LAN-based document
management systems. Unfortunately no viewer code is available for
licensing. The DjVu Web Browser Plugin is not available in an SDK
form. The DjVu Encode SDK provides no viewer code, dispite the
declaration on the LizardTech site that (http://www.lizardtech.com/products/index.php?x=2&p=12&o=1)
that you can "Build support for creating, viewing, and
manipulating DjVu documents natively within third-party applications."
You can create DjVu documents with it, and you can manipulate them
within the limited set of SDK functions provided. There is no viewer
code so you cannot build viewers with this, and also you cannot manipulate
DjVu outside of the Encode SDK using the DjVu Reference Library, since
this would require a separate license to the Reference
Library. Finally,
someone asked about the ability to take the DjVuLibre plugin source code
for Linux, and recompile it for Windows. The answer is yes, this
could be done, but this viewer cannot be used in an application that is
commercially sold. So the
bottom line is that, at present, there will be no proliferation of viewers
for the DjVu file
format. |
