Open a Microsoft Publisher File

Microsoft retired Publisher in October 2026, so a lot of you have bulletins, newsletters and flyers saved as .pub files that nothing on your computer opens anymore. Krumzi opens them. Attach the file and the AI rebuilds it as a Krumzi design you can edit: same page size, same pages, every text box, picture and shape where you put it.

Try it free, without an account

Want to see your file come back before you sign up? Go to krumzi.com/create/microsoft-publisher-alternative and drop your .pub in. Every page opens in your browser, you can move, resize and retype anything, and you can download it as a PDF with a small Krumzi mark on each page. One file a week is free this way. See Free AI tools and claiming your design.

Bring a Publisher file into Krumzi

1. Open the AI Designer.

2. Drag your .pub file onto the prompt box, or click the attach button and pick it. The chip shows "Opening Publisher file…" for a few seconds while Krumzi reads it.

3. Tell Krumzi what you want, for example "Bring this back exactly as it was", and send.

4. Krumzi starts the design at the file's own size (US Letter, A4, a half-letter bulletin, whatever it used) with the same number of pages, and the AI puts everything back in place. Then change anything by asking, or click Open full editor.

Want a fresh look instead? Say so: "Redesign this bulletin in our brand" gets you a new design built from the file's words and pictures.

You can also attach a .pub in the chat of a design you already have. Rebuilding it there replaces what's on the canvas and sets the canvas to the file's size. If you change your mind, ask Krumzi to put the earlier version back.

What comes through

• Text, with its sizes, colors, bold and italic, alignment and spacing.

• Pictures and the old clip art.

• Shapes, colored boxes, borders and lines.

• Tables, drawn as boxes with their text.

• Newsletter columns that continue into the next column or page. Publisher links those text boxes, and Krumzi flows the story through them the same way.

• Text that flows around a picture.

• Up to 12 pages per design.

Good to know

• Fonts are swapped for close matches. Publisher uses Windows and Office fonts Krumzi can't use, so each one is replaced with the nearest Google font. Calibri becomes Carlito and Arial becomes Arimo, which have the same letter widths, so text breaks where it did. When a replacement runs a little wider, the text gets slightly smaller so it still fits its box.

• Text wraps around pictures like Publisher's default. Text flows above, beside and below a picture laid over it. If wrapping would leave the text too long for its box, Krumzi takes that as a sign it didn't wrap in your file either and leaves the picture where it was, so now and then a photo sits on a few lines. Ask Krumzi to move it, or drag it yourself.

• Text Publisher never printed stays out. When a text box held more than it could show, Publisher kept the extra text hidden in overflow. Krumzi leaves it out too, so the page looks the way it printed.

• Some things don't come across: WordArt, mail merge and a few special effects.

• Longer files: a design holds 12 pages. Krumzi brings in the first 12 and tells you. Ask for the rest in a new design, starting at page 13.

• Very old files from Publisher 97 and 98 may not open.

• Files up to 60 MB. Opening the file uses no credits. Rebuilding or redesigning it uses credits like any other design.