#+title: Reading pdf or djvu in Emacs
#+date: <2022-02-17>

DocView mode is a versitile builtin major mode in emacs, with the
ability to display pdf, djvu, odt etc.

However, it is not really cut for the job for displaying large pdf or
djvu.  It can be slow, and may hang emacs when opening large djvu
files.

If you want to view pdf, [[https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools][pdf-tools]] is a great alternative.  It is much
faster (I'd say as fast as external pdf viewers like zathura), and
offers an outline mode style toc navigation.  It also supports fast
regexp isearch as well as occur.  There's a nice demo which you can
view with mpv, youtube-dl
etc. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bc1is_pdf-tools-tourdeforce_tech?forcedQuality%3Dhd720

For djvu, I recommend use the [[https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/djvu.html][djvu mode]] instead.  It does not make
emacs hang, and allows quick switch between image and text.