Convert Publisher (.pub) to PDF after Microsoft Publisher retirement

What changed with Publisher retirement

Microsoft began removing Publisher from Microsoft 365 on October 1, 2026. Support for the perpetual edition ended on October 13, 2026. A licensed perpetual edition can still open files after support ends. Microsoft Publisher retirement guidance

If you have a folder of newsletters, flyers, or brochures, keep the original .pub files and make PDF copies for viewing, sharing, and printing. OfficeIMO reads supported Publisher files locally without a Microsoft Office installation.

Convert one .pub file in your browser

Open a .pub file up to 25 MiB or try the included sample, then choose Convert to PDF. Review the page preview before downloading. The diagnostics are available under More files and next steps. The browser processes the publication on your device. Open the Publisher to PDF converter

Convert one .pub file from the command line

Install the .NET tool, then run the conversion from the folder containing the publication.

dotnet tool install --global OfficeIMO.Tool
officeimo convert brochure.pub brochure.pdf

Omit the destination to write brochure.pdf beside the source file. The CLI writes diagnostics to standard error and keeps existing PDFs unless you pass --force. Add --require-no-loss to reject a conversion that reports fidelity loss before it writes the PDF.

Convert a Publisher archive with PowerShell

Install PSWriteOffice in PowerShell 7 or Windows PowerShell 5.1, then use Convert-OfficeDocument for a single file.

Install-Module PSWriteOffice -Scope CurrentUser
Import-Module PSWriteOffice

Convert-OfficeDocument -LiteralPath ./brochure.pub -OutputPath ./brochure.pdf -NoClobber

For a folder, select only .pub files and write the PDFs to a separate directory. Use -Plan to inspect the selected files and destinations before writing. -NoClobber skips existing PDFs, and -SummaryVariable retains the final batch counts. Use paths without symbolic links or junctions for batch conversion.

$archive = @{
    LiteralPath = './publications'
    Recurse = $true
    Extension = '.pub'
    To = 'Pdf'
    OutputDirectory = './pdf'
    NoClobber = $true
}

Convert-OfficeDocument @archive -Plan
Convert-OfficeDocument @archive -SummaryVariable summary
$summary

Check the returned results for failures, skipped files, and fidelity diagnostics. See the PowerShell command reference.

Convert from .NET

Add the OfficeIMO.Publisher.Pdf package to your application. The adapter uses OfficeIMO.Publisher to read the file and returns a report with source and PDF diagnostics.

dotnet add package OfficeIMO.Publisher.Pdf

using System.Text.Json;
using OfficeIMO.Publisher;
using OfficeIMO.Publisher.Pdf;

var publication = PublisherDocument.Load("brochure.pub");
var report = publication.SaveAsPdf("brochure.pdf");

Console.WriteLine(JsonSerializer.Serialize(report.Diagnostics, new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true }));

Check the PDFs before relying on them

OfficeIMO preserves page order and physical dimensions, and supported text remains searchable. Compare a few representative files with a known good copy where possible. Check page count and size, font substitutions, line breaks, pictures, and graphics. Earlier Publisher formats, encrypted files, and damaged files outside the reader's supported profile require a separate migration path. Publisher support contract

The PDF is a fixed-layout copy. If you need to keep editing, save the original and rebuild the document in the target application. You can also convert the PDF to Word to recover editable content, then review the resulting layout.