You've found an old book or journal online, but the download ends in .djvu instead of .pdf. You want to read the pages or share a PDF, without installing a reader just for one file.

Look Scanned added experimental DjVu support in version 5.44.0 on October 13, 2026. You can now select a .djvu or .djv file on the scan page, preview its pages and export a PDF in your browser. No separate DjVu reader or browser extension is needed.

What is a DjVu file?

DjVu is a document format designed to compress scanned pages efficiently. It is often used for digitized books, old journals and document collections with a mixture of text and pictures.

Converting a book to PDF makes it easier to open in familiar document viewers, share or print. Here, Look Scanned renders the DjVu pages as images and packages the result into a PDF. The scan effects are adjustable, so you can keep them low when readability matters most.

How to convert DjVu to PDF

  1. Open Look Scanned and select or drag in your .djvu or .djv file. The format's beta notice is a reminder that support is experimental.
  2. Browse the preview. Check page order, small text, illustrations and page edges before generating the whole book.
  3. Adjust the scan settings. For a book that is already scanned, start with blur and noise at zero, set rotation and rotation variance to zero, and turn off the yellowish effect. Keep color if the book has color plates or annotations you need to read.
  4. Choose PDF as the output format. Adjust resolution if needed, checking that small print remains legible; increasing resolution also increases processing work and can make the file larger.
  5. Select Generate Scanned PDF, then Download Scanned PDF. Open the downloaded PDF and check the pages before sharing it.

The source DjVu file is processed locally in your browser; it is not sent to a processing server. On first use, stay online while the DjVu components load. Simply having visited the site before does not guarantee that DjVu will work offline.

Which DjVu files work?

The current implementation accepts single-page DjVu files and bundled multipage documents, where the pages and required resources are stored together in one file.

An indirect DjVu document is different: it uses an index that points to separate companion files. That form is not supported at present. If your download includes a small index file and a folder of page files, ask the source for a bundled DjVu or a PDF version.

Current decoder limits are 256 MiB per input file and 1,000 pages per document. These are upper limits, not a guarantee that every book within them will convert. Very large page images, limited device memory or unsupported file features can still prevent rendering. Experimental support means you should check the result, especially for long books.

Will the PDF have searchable text?

Not with the current DjVu conversion. Some DjVu files contain a searchable text layer, but Look Scanned currently exports page images from DjVu and does not carry that text layer into the PDF. The "Preserve original text" option is not available for DjVu, and this conversion does not perform OCR.

If you need to search or copy the book's text, keep the original and use a separate OCR tool on the exported PDF. The PDF may also be larger than the DjVu: converting formats does not guarantee a smaller file.

If a book won't open or a page looks wrong

  • Check the file type. Renaming .djvu to .pdf does not convert it. If it is an indirect document, obtain a bundled version first.
  • Try a lower resolution if rendering fails at a high setting. This can reduce output size and memory use, but it cannot fix unsupported documents or oversized source pages.
  • Check the original download if pages are missing or damaged. A successful preview does not establish that the source file is complete.
  • Keep the original. If this experimental path cannot render your book correctly, request a PDF from the provider or use a dedicated DjVu tool to export it.

Working with EPUB or Kindle files instead? See our e-book to scanned PDF guide. For the difference between a PDF and individual page images, see PDF, JPG or PNG for scanned documents.

Ready to open that book? Try your DjVu file in Look Scanned and check the preview before exporting.