5 CHM viewers for the Mac
Monday July 27th, 2009CHM stands for Compiled HTML, and it’s used by Microsoft Windows for help files, documentation, magazines and eBooks.
There are a lot of eBooks – some being even Mac-related – in .chm format while Mac OS X does not come with any built-in .chm viewer.
There are some 3rd party CHM file viewers for the Mac, though, and some of them are absolutely free:
Chmox
Chmox is a viewer for Microsoft Help “CHM” (aka Compiled HTML) files on Mac OS X. It is open source, free, fast and efficient, 100% native Cocoa (uses Safari engine) application.
License: Free, open-source (GNU)
xChm
xCHM is a cross-platform GUI front-end to chmlib, with borrowed bits from Pabs’ chmdeco project.
Originally written for UNIX systems (Linux, *BSD, Solaris), xCHM has been since ported to Mac OS X and Windows. xCHM can show the content tree if one is available, print pages, change font face and size, remember bookmarks, display a searchable index, and search for words in the current page and the whole book.
License: Shareware (The author of the software is broke and can no longer afford a Mac, so support him to get a Mac to continue his development on the Mac)
Chimp
Chimp lets you view all those pesky CHM files that are floating around. CHM stands for Compiled HTML, and it’s originally used by Microsoft Windows. Chimp lets you open these files with the elegance and ease you’d expect from OS X.
Features:
- Document-wide searching
- Document-wide printing
- Editable bookmarks
License: Shareware
iChm
iChm is an ebook reader for CHM (Microsoft Compiled HTML Help) files.
- Features
- Fully built with Cocoa. No ugly window and slow rendering.
- Tab browsing
- Search. Result sorted by relevance.
- Text encoding detecting/switching
- Find in the page
- Tag powered bookmark
- Index
- Back/Forward
- Text zoom
- Export to PDF
- Continuous reading with Page down/Page up
iPhone & iPod Touch version also available. See the author’s web site (link below) for more information.
License: iCHM is open-sourced under MIT license. Check the project page at code.google.com for the source code.
ArCHMock
ArCHMock is another CHM viewer / reader for Mac OS X hosted on Google Code – the source code is also available.
License: Free (MIT License)
Tubby
Tubby is a CHM file expander. It opens Combined HTML Help files and outputs their contents in a folder of the same name.
License: Shareware (The author of the software is broke and can no longer afford a Mac, so support him to get a Mac to continue his development on the Mac)
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Great Content and site, deserve share.
is there a program that allow me highlighting CHM text on Mac Os???
thx
Yes, there is, iChm does that.
Thx
I tried the iChm, unfortunately I couldn’t highlight, can you please instruct me how or give me an alternative for MacLion
the best program for IOS in my opinion is Chmate
Thank you
I tried the iChm, unfortunately I couldn’t highlight, can you please instruct me how or give me an alternative for MacLion
the best program for IOS in my opinion is Chmate
@hossen, try “Chm View for Mac” ( http://www.enolsoft.com/chm-view-for-mac.html ) – it’s exclusively available for download from the Mac App Store, Lion-compatible, allows selecting, copying text and printing with a search engine.
Back to the times, Macs rule!
thx
I think i tried almost all CHM viewer available and non of them support highlighting. iChm and Chm view support copying text and printing only
The only Chm reader that has highlighting feature is Chmate and unfortunately it does not work on Mac but it does work on IOS
@hossen, I think the problem’s either with your system or you’re using a very old version of the application, or maybe it’s the chm file (locked for highlighting or something). I tested both iChm and the Chm view, they work just fine, allow highlighting, copying text, etc.
I think you should update the article to reflect the addition of Chm View for Mac (and OS X Lion compatible, also which might be the best CHM reader on the mac out there and it’s free!) http://www.enolsoft.com/chm-view-for-mac.html and also available for download from the Apple’s Mac App Store for free.
Chmox has never been even not long before this article came out. Chimp which relies on Rosetta (I think it still has some ancient Mac OS Carbon code – never blessed with the touch of Mac OS X Cocoa framework) is orphaned (author’s web site seems dead).
iChm has a newer Mac OS X lion compatible version.
Yes, I should. I’ll mention the most promising newcomer CHM readers as soon as I have the time. Anyone interested in iOS version of these .chm readers for iPhone and iPad as well?
Yeah, You hit the point! We should update the articles recently in order to provide more informative messages.
I think other website owners should take this web site as an model – very clean and great style and design, as well as the content. You’re an expert in this area!
What about a CHM reader for the iphone and the ipad? ibooks is great for reading ebooks in epub and pdf format, but I have a lot of ebooks in chm format which I want to open and view on ios
ViewCHM for iOS from enolsoft reads chm files on iOS devices.
@Marissa , is it a free or a paid app? Feel free to post any links to the product / download page (even an App Store link if any).
Maclord, why can’t I reply to you since I would like to tell you the product page? Yes, it’s a free App!