A PDF is the safest place for an old Publisher file to end up: it opens on any computer, prints exactly as it looks, and will still open in twenty years. You can make one for free in a few minutes. Here's how, for one file and for a folder of them.
That's it. The PDF lands wherever you saved it, and the .pub file is untouched.
Most Publisher documents use Calibri or Cambria, which come with Microsoft Office and are often missing elsewhere. Without them, text is reflowed into a substitute font and lines break in different places. Two free fonts, Carlito and Caladea, are built to the same measurements as Calibri and Cambria. Install them before converting and text takes up exactly the space it did before. It's the single biggest fix for documents that "come out wrong".
If you're comfortable with a command line, LibreOffice can convert in bulk without opening each file. On a Mac or Linux, from inside the folder that holds your files:
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf *.pub
On a Mac, soffice lives at
/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice. On Windows, open PowerShell in
the folder and run:
Get-ChildItem *.pub | ForEach-Object { & "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\soffice.exe" --headless --convert-to pdf $_.FullName }
This works one folder at a time, gives you PDFs only, and won't tell you which files failed, so check the output yourself. For a few dozen files in one place it does the job well.
Text, images, colours, page size and the position of things on the page normally come through intact. Worth a second look: documents that used fonts you don't have, heavily overlapping elements, automatic date or page-number fields, and very old files. Publisher 95–98 documents convert less reliably than anything from 2000 onward. Open anything important before you send it to print.
A PDF is perfect for reading, printing and archiving, but awkward to change. If you might need to edit a document again, such as next year's version of the same newsletter or a certificate with a new name, also save an editable copy: in LibreOffice Draw, File → Save As → ODF Drawing (.odg). Keeping both costs nothing and saves rebuilding the layout later.
Everything above works one file at a time, which is the right answer for a handful. For an archive, PubRevive converts everything at once: every file comes back as a PDF and an editable ODG copy, your folders stay as they were, and a report shows exactly what converted.
Upload the folder and you'll see page one of one of your files rescued, with the exact price, before you pay anything. If fewer than 80% of your files rescue, you get a full refund.
Yes. LibreOffice is free and open source, with no trial or account, and its PDF export has no watermark or page limit.
Usually very close. Fonts are the most common cause of differences, which is why installing Carlito and Caladea first helps so much. Complex overlapping layouts can shift slightly, so check important documents before printing.
Not with LibreOffice, which is a desktop program. Upload-based converters avoid the install, but they mean sending your file to someone else's server, so check what happens to it afterwards.
The command-line method handles one folder at a time and reports nothing about failures. For a large or nested archive, a batch service that keeps your folder structure and reports on every file is far less work.
Last updated 16 October 2026.