How to open a DjVu file on a Mac
macOS does not open .djvu files. Preview does not read the format, Quick Look
shows a blank document icon, and double-clicking usually produces “There is no
application set to open the document.” Nothing is wrong with the file - macOS
simply has never shipped DjVu support.
What you need
Section titled “What you need”A DjVu reader. On macOS the practical options are:
- Niraqua DjVu - a native Mac app that opens
.djvudocuments, searches and selects their text, recognizes text on scanned pages on device, exports to PDF, prints, and adds Quick Look previews in Finder. A one-time purchase that also covers iPhone and iPad. - DjVuLibre - the free open-source reference implementation. It is a command-line toolkit with an X11 viewer, so on a Mac it means installing Homebrew and XQuartz and reading in a window that does not behave like a Mac app. It works, and it is the right choice if you want a scriptable converter rather than a reader.
- Converting the file to PDF somewhere and reading that instead. Fine once, tedious as a habit, and online converters mean uploading the document.
Opening and reading
Section titled “Opening and reading”Once a reader is installed, double-click the .djvu file in Finder. You can
also drag it onto the app icon, or right-click and choose Open With.
From there, reading works the way it does in any Mac document app: scroll or swipe through pages, zoom in and out with Command-Plus and Command-Minus, fit the page to the window, and switch to a two-page layout for a book. The thumbnail sidebar shows where you are and lets you jump. See Reading and navigation.
Searching a scanned book
Section titled “Searching a scanned book”Press Command-F and type. What happens next depends on the file:
- Matches appear - the DjVu carries a text layer from whoever scanned it.
- Nothing is found, even for a word you can plainly see - the pages are images with no text behind them. This is very common in older scans.
For the second case, run text recognition. It reads the pages with macOS’s own on-device OCR and builds the missing text layer, after which search and text selection work normally. It runs entirely on your Mac - the document is never uploaded.
See Search and text selection.
Previewing DjVu in Finder with Quick Look
Section titled “Previewing DjVu in Finder with Quick Look”Select a .djvu file and press Space. With Niraqua DjVu installed, Finder shows
the actual first page instead of a generic icon, and Finder’s icon previews and
column view show page thumbnails too - which makes a folder of scanned books
browsable without opening anything.
See Quick Look.
Printing and exporting
Section titled “Printing and exporting”A DjVu document prints through the standard macOS print dialog, and exports to PDF with an optional searchable text layer when you need a copy something else can open. See Printing and converting DjVu to PDF.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”Niraqua DjVu needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It is a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store that also covers the iPhone and iPad app.