Scan cleanup
Deskew, despeckle, binarize, crop, and split two-page spreads with a native engine, and compare every page before and after.
Turn raw scans into searchable PDFs
EVB Viewer cleans up raw scans and DjVu files, recognizes their text, and saves searchable, annotatable PDFs. It works offline on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and it is free and MIT licensed.
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Recorded in the real app with a public-domain scan from 1880.
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What it does
OCR in 30 languages
Tesseract with the tessdata_best models adds a searchable text layer. English and Russian are included; other languages download once when you choose them.
Search and navigate
Search the recognized text on every page, jump between matches, and move through thumbnails, bookmarks, tabs, and split views.
Annotate in the file
Highlight, underline, strike out, draw, and add notes. The annotations are saved in the PDF itself.
Rework pages
Delete, extract, reorder, rotate, and crop pages, or combine PDFs, DjVu files, and images into one PDF.
Export
Save the result as a PDF, or export pages to PNG, JPG, TIFF, or DOCX.
Who it's for
Archives and libraries
Turn batches of raw scans into clean, searchable PDFs that are ready to catalogue and share.
Historians and philologists
Search old editions in their original languages and keep your notes on the page.
Students and researchers
Collect sources, highlight passages, and export the pages you cite.
Personal scan libraries
Clean up scanned books and DjVu files at home, offline, without uploading anything.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. EVB Viewer is free and open source under the MIT license, with no ads, accounts, or subscriptions.
Are my documents uploaded anywhere?
No. The desktop app cleans up, recognizes, annotates, and exports documents on your computer and works offline. The browser app processes the files you open in your browser.
Which languages can OCR read?
About 30, including English, German, French, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac. English and Russian come with the app; other models download once, the first time you choose them.
Which files does it open?
PDF, DjVu, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, WebP, and GIF. You can combine several of them into one PDF.
Can I use it without installing anything?
Yes, at web.evb-viewer.com. The browser app opens local PDFs, DjVu files, and images; OCR and large merges need the desktop app.
Does it use AI?
EVB Assistant is optional and off by default. If enabled, it uses your own Codex or Claude account and can expose a local MCP server, while scan cleanup, OCR, search, and export never use it.