---
name: "djvutxt"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "djvulibre"
version: "3.5.30.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/djvutxt"
---

# djvutxt(1)

Extract the hidden text from DjVu documents.

## NAME

djvutxt - Extract the hidden text from DjVu documents.

## SYNOPSIS

**djvutxt \[***options***\]** *inputdjvufile* **\[***outputtxtfile***\]**

## DESCRIPTION

Program  **djvutxt** decodes the hidden text layer of a DjVu document  *inputdjvufile* and prints it into file *outputtxtfile* or on the standard output. The hidden text layer is usually generated with  the help of an optical character recognition software.

Without options **-detail** and **-escape**, this program simply outputs the UTF-8 text. Option **-detail** cause the output of S-expressions describing the text and its location. Option **-escape** uses C-style escape sequences to represent nonprintable non-ASCII characters.

## OPTIONS

- **--page=***pagespec*

  Specify which pages should be processed. When this option is not specified, the text of all pages of the documents is concatenated into the output file. The page specification *pagespec* contains one or more comma-separated page ranges. A page range is either a page number,  or two page numbers separated by a dash. For instance, specification **1-10** outputs pages 1 to 10, and specification **1,3,99999-4** outputs pages 1 and 3, followed by all the document pages in reverse order up to page 4.

- **--detail=***keyword*

  This options causes **djvutxt** to output S-expressions  specifying the position of the text in the page. See the manual page [**djvused**(1)](/djvused/1.md) for a description of the output format. Argument  *keyword* specifies the maximum level of detail for which text location is reported. The recognized values are: **page**, **column**, **region**, **para**,  **line**, **word**, and **char**. All other values are interpreted as  **char**.

- **--escape**

  Output escape sequences of the form  **"ooo"** for all non ASCII or non printable UTF-8  characters and for the backslash character.

## REMARKS

Use program [**djvused**(1)](/djvused/1.md) for more control over the text layer.

## CREDITS

This program was initially written by  Andrei Erofeev \<andrew\_erofeev@yahoo.com\> and was then improved Bill Riemers \<docbill@sourceforge.net\>  and many others. It was then rewritten to use the  ddjvuapi by Leon Bottou \<leonb@sourceforge.net\>.

## SEE ALSO

[**djvu**(1)](/djvu/1.md), [**djvused**(1)](/djvused/1.md)