Publisher to AV1 Converter

Publisher to AV1: a Silent Slideshow, Not a Document

This converts a Microsoft Publisher publication into an AV1 video clip. The publication is laid out and turned into a PDF, each page is rendered to a bitmap, and those bitmaps become the frames of a slideshow encoded with AV1 — AOMedia's royalty-free codec, encoded here by SVT-AV1. Two things about the result are fixed and worth knowing up front: it has no audio, because a page layout has no sound and the audio controls are removed from this route entirely, and the file is a Matroska stream written under an .av1 name, which some players refuse by extension until you rename it to .mkv. If what you actually want is a printable, shareable copy of the layout, Publisher to PDF is the conversion you are looking for; AV1 is for when the page needs to be footage.

How to Convert Publisher to AV1

1. Upload the .pub File: Drag the publication in or click "Add Files". Every page becomes one frame of the clip, in order. Merge strategy decides whether several uploaded publications become one clip or one clip each.
2. Set the Image Duration: This is how long each page holds on screen, preselected at 5 seconds per frame and adjustable from a fraction of a second up to 10 seconds. A six-page brochure at 5 seconds is a 30-second clip.
3. Choose a Video Resolution and Background Color: Video resolution opens on "Keep original", which for a 300 DPI page render means a tall portrait frame around 2480 × 3508 px — usually not what a timeline wants. Pick a fixed resolution such as 1920 × 1080 and the page is scaled to fit and padded to the frame; set Background Color to White so those bars match the paper instead of framing it in a contrasting colour.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert, then rename the download to .mkv if your player will not open it. No sign-up and no watermark; files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours.

What This Route Fixes For You

• No audio track at all. The audio codec controls are hidden for image and document sources, so nothing is encoded and nothing can be attached. Add narration afterwards in a video editor.
• One frame per page, encoded at 1 frame per second. A still page carries almost no motion information, so even a long clip stays small; the Image Duration setting is what turns a page into seconds of screen time.
• The container is Matroska. AV1 has no container of its own on this route, so the bytes are an MKV. Renaming the file is the whole fix — the stream inside is untouched.
• No bitrate or target-size modes. The file-size and bitrate options that appear on video-to-video conversions are removed here, because a still image has no source bitrate to scale against.
• Empty frame space is painted, not transparent. The letterbox bars left when a portrait page is fitted into a landscape frame — and anything the layout leaves transparent — take the Background Color, because video formats cannot store an alpha channel.

Rate Control: What Renders and What It Gives You

Fine type is the first thing any codec blurs at low quality, so if the page is text-heavy, keep the preset high and shed size by dropping the resolution instead — a 1080p frame of a legible page beats a 4K frame of a soft one.

Playing the Result

AV1 decode is now near-universal in browsers, but the .av1 extension is not a registered container type, so the friction is always about the file name rather than the codec.

Browser version support above is per the Can I Use AV1 table.

If the Conversion Fails

.pub is an undocumented Microsoft format. Reading it anywhere other than Publisher means reconstructing it — here through the Publisher import filter LibreOffice uses, which came out of the Document Liberation Project — and that reconstruction is the fragile link in this chain. Heavily layered publications, non-embedded or unusual fonts, assets linked from outside the file, and files from unusually old or new Publisher versions can shift, substitute or fail outright.

The reliable route in that case is to do the layout step in Publisher itself: open the publication, export or print it to PDF, and take that PDF to PDF to Image for one still per page or PDF to GIF for an animated flip-through. Publisher's own export is the only renderer that knows exactly what your layout meant, so it is worth using even when the direct conversion works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the clip completely silent?

Because there is nothing to encode. A Publisher page has no audio, and the audio codec controls are removed from this route, so the output is a video-only stream rather than a stream with a silent track. If the clip needs narration or music, add it in a video editor after the conversion — that also lets you match the audio length to the slide timing.

Why will my .av1 file not open in VLC or my browser?

The extension, not the codec. What we write is an AV1 video stream inside a Matroska container, but .av1 is not a registered container extension, so players that decide by file name refuse it before they ever look inside. Rename it to .mkv and desktop players open it immediately; for browsers or editors, AV1 to MP4 or AV1 to WebM puts the video in a container they stream natively.

How long will the clip be?

Pages multiplied by Image Duration. Five seconds per frame is preselected, so a four-page publication becomes a 20-second clip; drop the duration to 2 seconds for a snappier 8 seconds, or push it to 10 for a poster that lingers. The clip has no lead-in or tail — it starts on page one and ends when the last page's duration expires.

What resolution should I pick for a portrait page?

Not "Keep original", in most cases. A rendered page is a tall portrait frame — roughly 2480 × 3508 px for a 300 DPI A4 — which most timelines, players and signage screens handle badly. Choose a fixed resolution that matches the destination (1920 × 1080 for a landscape screen, 1080 × 1920 for a vertical one); the page is scaled to fit inside it and the leftover space is padded with the Background Color.

Can I set a specific file size or bitrate?

Not a file size. The target-size and constant/variable-bitrate modes that appear on video-to-video conversions are hidden here, because a sequence of stills has no source bitrate to scale from. Constraint Quality gives you a maximum bitrate if you need a hard ceiling, and Quality Preset is the practical control for everything else.

Will the text in my publication stay selectable?

No. Each page is flattened to pixels before it becomes a frame, so text, links and vector artwork end up as picture content in a video stream — nothing can be selected, searched or edited. Publisher to PDF is the conversion that keeps real text, and it is also the better archive of a layout.

Why AV1 rather than H.264 or MP4?

AV1 is royalty-free and compresses a still-heavy slideshow very efficiently, which makes it a good fit for web backgrounds and signage loops where bandwidth matters. The trade is compatibility: hardware decoders are still less common than for H.264, and Safari's support is only partial. If the clip has to play everywhere without thought, convert it onward with AV1 to MP4.

How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?

The publication is uploaded over an encrypted connection and converted on our servers, so no Publisher licence or installed software is needed at your end. Uploads and results are deleted automatically after a few hours, are never shared or made public, and no account is required. Nothing carries a watermark, and for large publications the practical constraint is upload time rather than page count.