Question 1

Will the PDF be searchable?

Accepted Answer

Yes, when the DjVu file has a text layer, which most scanned books from libraries and archives do: that text goes into the PDF, invisible over each page, so the PDF can be searched and copied from in any language. A DjVu file that is only scanned pictures has no text to carry over, and this page does not read the text from the pictures (OCR); the search box above says so when a book has none.

Question 2

Why is the PDF bigger than the DjVu file?

Accepted Answer

DjVu was designed for scanned pages and stores them in layers, sharp text on top of a soft background, more compactly than PDF can. In the PDF each page becomes a picture with the black-and-white text kept sharp, which usually takes two to ten times the space. Smaller quality brings colour and grey pages down; black-and-white text pages stay much the same at every setting.

Question 3

Can I convert just some pages?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Choose Pages and type the first and last page, such as 45 to 80 for one chapter. The book's bookmarks are kept only when all the pages are converted, since they point at pages that may not be in the part.

Question 4

My book is a folder of many .djvu files. Can it be converted?

Accepted Answer

Not as a folder. A DjVu book can be "indirect": an index file plus one file per page, as some sites serve them. This page reads the usual single-file (bundled) kind. DjVuLibre's free djvmcvt tool turns an indirect book into one bundled file, which then opens here.

Question 5

Is my DjVu book uploaded?

Accepted Answer

No. The file is read and converted by this browser tab, with djvu-rs compiled to WebAssembly; nothing is sent anywhere. A very large book may take a minute or two, and on a phone it can run out of memory; converting it in parts with the page range helps.

Free online DjVu to PDF converter