Publisher to PDF Converter

Convert Publisher (.pub) to PDF

Microsoft Publisher files are a dead end for anyone who does not own Publisher: .pub is a proprietary binary layout format that Word cannot open and no image library can decode. PDF is the format Microsoft itself points Publisher owners toward, and it is the only output that keeps a publication's page geometry, text positions and vector shapes intact for people who will never install Publisher.

This converter routes your .pub through LibreOffice's Draw component — the same libmspub import library the Document Liberation Project maintains — and exports the result with Draw's PDF filter. That means the publication's own page size, orientation and object positions are reproduced rather than re-laid-out.

How to Convert Publisher to PDF

1. Upload Your Publisher File: Drag your .pub onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Publisher documents are usually small (a few hundred KB to a few MB) because artwork is stored compressed inside the file.
2. Set "Combine?" to Individual PDFs for a Batch: If you queue several .pub files, choose "Individual PDFs" so each publication is exported as its own document. This is the one control on the page that genuinely changes how a .pub batch is handled.
3. Leave the Page Setup to Publisher: The export reproduces the page size and orientation the publication was designed with, so you do not need to guess between A4 and Letter — whatever the document was built on is what you get.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download the PDF. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark, no Publisher licence required.

What Actually Happens to Your File

A .pub is an OLE2 Compound File — the same container Microsoft used for legacy .doc and .xls. Inside it is Publisher's own object model, not a page description language, which is why the conversion needs a real Publisher reader rather than an image decoder.

Because Draw's PDF export is the last stage, the layout controls that appear under Advanced Options (paper size, margin, image placement, image alignment) belong to the image-to-PDF pipeline and do not re-flow a Publisher document. If a page comes out the wrong size, the fix is the page setup inside Publisher, not a setting here.

Publisher Retirement: What Changes and When

Microsoft has confirmed that Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026. The dates differ depending on how you licensed Office.

Microsoft's own guidance is to convert to PDF for viewing, and to go .pub → PDF → Word when you need to keep editing the text. That second hop is a PDF to DOCX conversion, and the result is optimised for text editing rather than for reproducing the original layout.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "A font looks different in the PDF" — Publisher references fonts by name and does not always embed them. If a typeface is not present on the rendering machine, a metric substitute is used, which can shift line breaks. Re-exporting from Publisher itself with fonts embedded is the most faithful option while you still have the app.
• "The PDF is too large to email" — Publisher documents with full-resolution photographs produce large PDFs. Run the result through our PDF compressor rather than re-exporting at lower quality.
• "I queued five files and only got one PDF" — Switch "Combine?" to "Individual PDFs" before converting. Leaving it on "Single PDF" bundles the batch into one job, which is the wrong shape for Publisher documents.
• "I want the five publications in one document" — Convert them individually, then combine the PDFs with our PDF merger. That preserves each publication's own page size instead of forcing them all onto one.
• "Nothing converts at all" — Confirm the file really is a Publisher document and not a renamed file. A genuine .pub starts with the OLE2 signature D0 CF 11 E0; a file that has simply been renamed to .pub will not open.

When This Doesn't Work

Password-protected publications cannot be opened by any third-party reader, including LibreOffice, because the content is encrypted rather than merely proprietary. Publications that link to external images or fonts stored elsewhere on the original author's machine will render with those pieces missing, since they were never inside the .pub. Very early Publisher files (the pre-2000 generations) are the weakest area for the libmspub importer, and complex effects — transparency groups, some WordArt, certain gradient meshes — can be simplified. If you still have Publisher installed, File → Export → Create PDF/XPS from the app remains the highest-fidelity route; this converter exists for the far more common case where you do not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Microsoft Word open a .pub file directly?

No. Word has no Publisher import filter, and Microsoft's own retirement guidance routes you through PDF instead: convert the publication to PDF, then convert that PDF to Word if you need editable text. The Word document you get back is optimised for text editing, so expect the layout to differ from the original publication.

Will the text in the PDF stay selectable, or does it become an image?

Text is exported as text. The Draw PDF filter writes glyphs, not a flattened raster, so the resulting PDF is searchable and the text can be copied. This is the main practical difference between converting the source file and using a "print to PDF" driver, which can rasterise parts of a complex page.

Does the PDF keep the publication's original page size?

Yes. The exporter uses the page geometry stored in the publication, so a US Letter newsletter comes out as a Letter PDF and an A4 flyer comes out as A4. You do not need to select a paper size — and selecting one under Advanced Options will not override the document's own page setup for a .pub source.

What happens to a multi-page Publisher document?

Page count is preserved one-to-one. A four-page booklet produces a single four-page PDF in the original page order. If the publication was laid out as facing spreads, the PDF reflects however the spreads were set up in Publisher — it does not re-impose or re-paginate them.

Why can't I convert a .pub with an ordinary image converter?

Because .pub is not an image format. Publisher stores a live object model inside an OLE2 container, so image toolkits reject it outright: libvips reports "not a known file format" and ImageMagick reports "no decode delegate for this image format `PUB'". Only a real Publisher importer — libmspub, as used by LibreOffice Draw — can turn one into a rendered page.

Are password-protected Publisher files supported?

No. Encryption is applied to the file contents, so an importer cannot read the layout without the password, and there is no supported way to supply one here. Open the publication in Publisher, remove the protection, save a copy, and convert that.

What are my options once Publisher stops working entirely?

PDF for anything you only need to view, print or send. PDF then Word for text you still need to edit. If you need to keep designing, LibreOffice Draw opens .pub files on Windows, macOS and Linux for free, and Scribus is the closest open-source equivalent for page layout work — both are more realistic destinations than trying to rebuild a publication in Word.

How large can the file be, and what happens to it after conversion?

Publisher documents rarely stress the limits; the practical constraint is upload time on a slow connection rather than anything about the format. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — never shared, never made public, and no account is required. If you want the whole format's other targets, the PUB converter hub lists them, including Publisher to JPG for a quick page preview.