DjVu all over again...

[Ross Macintosh]

This thread is a continuation of an earlier thread about DjVu image compression. You can find the original thread here. Both these threads could have (and perhaps should have) been in the main Xara Forum instead of this gallery. I originally started the post here as a way to demonstrate the power of DjVu to display high resolution images of our Xara art. In that regard perhaps the gallery is the right place.

Below is an example of a simple DjVu interface using xara-developed gels. You need the DjVu browser plugin to see it. If you don't have it you can get it free at DjVu.Com Note: Plugin reportedly works for some Opera users and not for others.

The image-map-like links and mouseover comments are entirely within the DjVu compressed file. Links are set to open in new windows. Try them and see where they lead you... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

<EMBED TYPE="image/x-djvu" SRC="http://www.designstop.com/test/gelinterface.djvu" HEIGHT=500 WIDTH=325 ZOOM=stretch PASSIVE=yes>

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 14, 2001 at 07:13 AM.]

[Ross Macintosh]

This thread is a continuation of an earlier thread about DjVu image compression. You can find the original thread here. Both these threads could have (and perhaps should have) been in the main Xara Forum instead of this gallery. I originally started the post here as a way to demonstrate the power of DjVu to display high resolution images of our Xara art. In that regard perhaps the gallery is the right place.

Below is an example of a simple DjVu interface using xara-developed gels. You need the DjVu browser plugin to see it. If you don't have it you can get it free at DjVu.Com Note: Plugin reportedly works for some Opera users and not for others.

The image-map-like links and mouseover comments are entirely within the DjVu compressed file. Links are set to open in new windows. Try them and see where they lead you... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

<EMBED TYPE="image/x-djvu" SRC="http://www.designstop.com/test/gelinterface.djvu" HEIGHT=500 WIDTH=325 ZOOM=stretch PASSIVE=yes>

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on April 14, 2001 at 07:13 AM.]

[bytheway]

I'm a big fan of Opera and the plug-in works fine for me.

[John F Dye]

Ross,
Persuant to our previous discussion....
That is a very good Idea! We could expand that to related areas also. The museum is intersted I puting a teaching package to gether and is going after grant money to used the WWII ship to show technology threads a CD with all the illustrations could be part of the package!
As an example of what DjVu can do I have a TIFF of a big drawing I had created in Xara (before my Export problems) about 35" long by 12" high. converted at 200dpi. About 33Megs converted in DjVu 247k. Makes me a beleaver. Oh look the same as the TIFF at any resonable zoom levels.
John

[Ross Macintosh]

Bytheway - That is good news regarding Opera. I've edited my earlier post to reflect this information.

JohnD - Try exporting your Xara drawing as a jpg with a reasonable amount of compression (if that's the right word for what jpg "quality" settings do). Then DjVu encode that. You could end up with a smaller file size and still have reasonble quality.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[jens g.r. benthien]

Ross,

Since you already work with DJVu: is it a lossless quality compression or does it inherit a certain amount of loss in picture quality ?

I am working with LuraTech (www.luratech.com), the basis of the new jpg 2000 format to be released end of this year. You can compress any file either lossless or you have to sacrifice on quality if you run higher compression levels. I doubt that there is a real lossless compression algorythm with a ratio of 1:1000...

Tell us more!

jens

[Ross Macintosh]

Jens - I had just about finished one-finger typing a lengthy reply when my three-year old came over and pressed the Esc key erasing all my poor finger had achieved [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Now I'll try a more to the point reply. DjVu is marketed as a means of making documents more bandwidth friendly and thus more accessible. It is used in archiving systems as well as to facilitate web distribution.

The format can encode multi-page documents complete with a thumbnail index and encoded hyperlinks. The LizardTech site gives the example of a 110 page report that in a PDF format was 133mb while the equivalent in DjVu was 3mb. I don't think DjVu are trying to be a prepress solution so much as a distribution option that makes sense.

The DjVu encoding is not promoted as lossless. In my limited experience, in photo mode, it seems to reproduce the file you are encoding quite accurately. Encode a high res uncompressed tif and you'll get a similarly high quality DjVu image. Encode a low quality jpeg, you'll get an even smaller file size, and the quality will stay about the same.

Lizardtech also markets their MrSID's family of products. They claim it is lossless. I haven't played with it much so I can't report on it. Gary did a review on it so maybe he can tell us more.

I haven't seen anything about Luratech before today. I guess I'll have to play with it too!

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Erik Heyninck]

and Irfanview already shows the djvu.

Bytheway: how did you get the plugin working in Opera?

I first installed it as netscape (Opera's typical way of getting plug-ins) but it crashed upon opening this thread. Then I uninstalled, and installed in Explorer to be able to view etc. Works fine, but Opera keeps on crashing when it faces a djvu. Help!!!

[Ross Macintosh]

Irfanview's DjVu display isn't full featured. For instance, it won't display the mouseover comments or links embedded in the DjVu image above.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Erik Heyninck]

I already mailed Irfan about it. When djvu splits text and bitrmap into different layers, and puts the text on top, Irfanview only shows the top layer. he'll come up with a solution, I'm shure. And quicker than most others, despite the fact his viewer is free. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]
(seen with IE5.5, Opera still gets a runtime error fit whatever I try. Perhaps it is the djvu browser plugin exe that allows only one setup?) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]