# ASiC-E Reader: read the documents inside a signed container

> Opening the container is half the job. An ASiC-E reader also has to display what is inside: a twenty-page PDF, a Word contract, a spreadsheet with a price list.

Source: https://asiceviewer.com/en/blog/asice-reader/
Published: 2026-11-10 · Digixy

## In short

- A reader renders the documents themselves, not just their names.
- PDF, Word, Excel, OpenDocument, images and text are displayed without extra software.
- Accented letters are decoded correctly, including older Baltic code pages.

## Reading PDF documents

Most signed containers hold a PDF. In [ASiCE Viewer](https://asiceviewer.com/en/#tool) the pages are drawn one below another, and only the pages near the visible area are rendered, so a long document opens quickly. Use the plus and minus buttons to zoom between 50% and 300%; each zoom level is re-rendered at full sharpness rather than stretched.

A password-protected PDF cannot be previewed. The reader says so and offers the download button, so you can open the file in a PDF program with the password.

## Reading Word and Excel files

- **DOCX** documents are laid out page by page with their fonts, tables and images.
- **XLSX, XLS and ODS** workbooks are shown as tables with a tab per sheet. Very long sheets are limited to the first 2,000 rows for speed.
- **ODT and PPTX** are shown as text only, which is enough to read the content.

## Letters that turn into question marks

Text files do not declare their encoding. A file written years ago on an Estonian Windows machine may use the windows-1257 code page, in which `õ` and `š` are stored differently from today's UTF-8. A reader that guesses wrong shows `õ` or `?`.

ASiCE Viewer tries UTF-8 first, then the Baltic and Western European code pages, and shows which encoding it used under the text.

## Reading on a small screen

On a phone the file list and signatures appear first and the document below. Tapping a file scrolls to its preview. For regular reading on Android the [app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digixy.asiceviewer&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dasiceviewer.com%26utm_medium%3Dblog-md) adds pinch-to-zoom that re-renders the page at the screen's resolution, and a text mode for selecting and copying.

## When a document cannot be displayed

Some formats have no browser renderer, for example old `.doc` files or CAD drawings. The reader then shows the beginning of the file in hexadecimal and lets you download it for the program that understands it. Nothing is lost; the file is simply handed over. For the list of documents typically found in containers, see [ASiC-E document viewer](https://asiceviewer.com/en/blog/asice-document-viewer/).

## Frequently asked questions

**Can I copy text from a document in the reader?**

Text, Word and spreadsheet previews allow selecting and copying. PDF pages are drawn as images in the web reader; download the PDF to copy text from it.

**Is there a file size limit?**

No fixed limit. Very large containers are bounded by your device's memory; files of tens of megabytes open comfortably on a typical computer.

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Open your .asice file now: https://asiceviewer.com/en/
ASiC-E Viewer on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digixy.asiceviewer