Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is OpenPublisher, and what are its main features?

OpenPublisher is a free, completely open-source desktop publishing application designed for creating professional flyers, brochures, multi-page newsletters, restaurant menus, promotional coupons, certificates, and booklets without advertisements, paywalls, subscriptions, or telemetry tracking.

You can use it immediately in your modern web browser at openpublisher.app without creating an account, or download the native standalone desktop application for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD from download.openpublisher.app.

Key highlights include:

• True Physical-Measurement Canvas: Design documents with millimetre, centimetre, inch, or pixel accuracy, including support for bleed margins and custom paper formats.
• Extensive Asset Libraries: Includes over 50 publication templates, 3,400+ vector and raster clipart graphics, 200+ customizable geometric shapes, and 60+ 3D WordArt styles.
• Professional Typography: Advanced text boxes with 100 preset card and banner styles, drop caps, multi-column linking, and automatic font best-fitting.
• Built-in Utility Suites: Native Charts & Graphs Studio, QR Code Generator, freehand brush drawing engine, and interactive progress bars.
• High-Fidelity Export: Direct export to 300 DPI print-ready PDF, high-resolution PNG/JPG, XPS, HTML, and self-contained Pack & Go bundles.

How do you use OpenPublisher? Is there a beginner's guide?

When you launch OpenPublisher, you are greeted by the Startup Dashboard (accompanied by a guided First Run Wizard on the desktop client). From here, you can select a standard blank page size (such as A4, US Letter, A3, or custom dimensions) or choose from pre-designed templates across flyers, certificates, and greeting cards.

If you have prior experience with Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, or LibreOffice Draw, the top ribbon interface will feel immediately intuitive. Tools are categorized under familiar tabs: File, Home, Insert, Page Design, Review, and contextual tabs like Picture Tools and Table Layout that appear whenever an element is active.

How do I download OpenPublisher, and is there a Windows desktop shortcut?

You can download the V5 standalone desktop installer for Windows, macOS, Linux, or FreeBSD directly from download.openpublisher.app or inspect release packages on the official GitHub releases page.

On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the installer automatically registers native Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts. Furthermore, it creates OS-level file associations for .opub documents, allowing you to double-click any project directly from File Explorer to launch OpenPublisher instantly.

Can I use OpenPublisher on my Xbox with a keyboard and mouse?

Almost! Because OpenPublisher runs entirely client-side in standard web browsers with no installation or account registration required, you can launch Microsoft Edge on your Xbox console and navigate to openpublisher.app to design right from your television screen.

Does OpenPublisher have a Wikipedia page or a Telegram group?

Currently, there is no official Telegram group and no Wikipedia article:

• Telegram: We have not created a Telegram channel because community discussions are centralized on GitHub discussions and issue trackers where technical feedback and bug tracking can be managed transparently.
• Wikipedia: In accordance with Wikipedia's strict Conflict of Interest (COI) and Neutral Point of View policies (WP:COI and WP:AUTOBIO), project maintainers and developers are not permitted to author encyclopedia articles about their own software. An independent, third-party Wikipedia editor must initiate the article based on reliable secondary coverage.

In the meantime, the best channels for reporting bugs, submitting feature suggestions, or communicating with the developers are our GitHub Issues Tracker or via email at info@openpublisher.app.

Does OpenPublisher work completely offline without an internet connection?

Yes! The standalone desktop application for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD operates 100% offline with zero cloud dependencies. It never phones home, logs telemetry, or requires internet connectivity to create documents, insert clipart, or export 300 DPI PDFs.

Furthermore, the web application at openpublisher.app incorporates a progressive web app (PWA) service worker cache, enabling it to load and operate seamlessly even when your browser loses connection.

How do I upload or open a file in OpenPublisher?

You can open files through two quick methods:

1. File Menu: Click the File ribbon tab and choose Open (or press Ctrl + O on Windows/Linux or Cmd + O on macOS).
2. Direct Drag-and-Drop: Simply drag any supported document or image directly from your desktop or folder window onto the OpenPublisher canvas.

Supported file formats include:

• Native Projects: .opub (OpenPublisher native layout project format).
• Raster & Vector Images: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, and .svg.
• Word Documents: .docx and .doc files (with options for editable text or layout-locked safe mode).
• Spreadsheets & Data: .xlsx, .xls, .csv, and .tsv tabular data.
• Microsoft Publisher: Legacy .pub and .pubx files.

How do I import a Microsoft Publisher (.pub) file into OpenPublisher to edit?

To open a Microsoft Publisher document, select File > Open or drag your .pub or .pubx file directly into the application workspace.

OpenPublisher features a dedicated Publisher Import Engine backed by our open-source document conversion server (located in the ServerSide branch of our main repository). This conversion pipeline unpacks the binary Compound File Binary Format (CFBF) streams and XML layers, extracting text runs, vector shapes, embedded pictures, tables, and page geometry directly into editable canvas elements.

How do I save as .pub in OpenPublisher?

OpenPublisher saves editable working projects in its own open, native .opub format rather than Microsoft's proprietary and retired .pub format.

Because Microsoft Publisher is scheduled for complete retirement by Microsoft in October 2026, saving to .opub guarantees long-term preservation, ensuring that your layered layouts, vector illustrations, custom gradient themes, and high-resolution assets remain fully editable on modern computers without requiring legacy Office licenses.

When you are ready to distribute or print your publication, OpenPublisher offers comprehensive export targets:

• 300 DPI PDF: Commercial-grade CMYK/RGB print proofs with embedded fonts.
• High-Resolution Images: Crisp PNG and JPG exports for websites, social sharing, and email.
• Web & Document Formats: Interactive HTML previews, Microsoft XPS, and self-contained Pack & Go ZIP packages.

Can I edit a PDF with OpenPublisher?

Full drag-and-drop vector PDF editing is currently on our active development roadmap. In the current release, OpenPublisher provides full PDF Export (generating 300 DPI print-ready documents), while document editing is supported across:

• Native .opub project files.
• Microsoft Word (.docx / .doc) files with two import choices: Editable Text Mode for full layout adjustments, or Flattened Image Safe Mode for 100% pixel-perfect graphic accuracy.
• Microsoft Excel and CSV spreadsheets (.xlsx, .csv) for automated table generation.
• Legacy Microsoft Publisher (.pub, .pubx) files.

Where is OpenPublisher's installed data on Windows?

OpenPublisher keeps 100% of your data completely local on your machine with zero cloud tracking. On Windows 10 and 11 systems, the application and user settings are stored in standard local application directories:

• Application Program Files:
  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Open Publisher
• Local User Data & Preferences:
  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\OpenPublisher\User Data

Your document files are stored wherever you choose to save your .opub files. In addition, if you ever experience a sudden system restart or power interruption, you can utilize the Interactive Backup Manager button located directly on the top application bar to restore auto-saved revisions, atomic recovery journals, and previous project snapshots.

How do I create a text box, and how can I make it look fancy and visually appealing?

Navigate to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click Text Box to draw a standard text container anywhere on the canvas. Alternatively, click the small dropdown arrow directly underneath the Text Box button to open the Styled Text Box Gallery.

The gallery features 100 pre-designed text presets, including Gradient Header Cards, Outlined Callouts, Sidebar Highlights, and Magazine Pull Quotes.

Whenever any text box is selected, the contextual Text Box Tools tab activates in the ribbon, providing instant controls for:

• Color Schemes & Gradients: Choose from 32 themed palette swatches or 8 smooth linear gradient fills.
• Border Styling: Customize borders with solid, dashed, or dotted strokes, custom pixel thickness, and corner rounding.
• Border Art: Apply 40 classic decorative Border Art frames (scalloped corners, vintage ribbons, modern geometric frames).

Can I outline text in OpenPublisher?

Yes! OpenPublisher provides two distinct ways to outline and stylize text:

• WordArt Engine: For eye-catching titles and display headings, go to the Insert tab and select from over 60 WordArt Styles. WordArt renders full vector outlines, 3D extrusions, metallic chrome gradients, and neon glow effects that print cleanly at 300 DPI.
• Standard Text Strokes: For standard text boxes, select your text, open the Format Properties sidebar window, and navigate to the Line & Border tab to configure precise text stroke color and outline thickness.

Does OpenPublisher have a Drop Cap feature?

Yes! OpenPublisher includes a dedicated editorial Drop Cap feature. Simply click inside any paragraph within a text box, right-click to bring up the context menu, and select Drop Cap.

OpenPublisher will automatically transform the initial letter of your paragraph into an enlarged, magazine-style capital letter spanning multiple text lines, formatted with proper baseline alignment.

Can you condense or auto-fit text in OpenPublisher?

Yes. If your text is slightly too long or short for its assigned container, right-click the text box, select Text Fit, and choose Best Fit (or toggle Shrink Text on Overflow).

OpenPublisher calculates the bounding box area and dynamically scales the font size down or up so your text fits cleanly without manual point-by-point experimentation or awkward overflow clipping. You also have exact point-level line spacing and paragraph spacing controls on the Home ribbon tab.

How do I spell check in OpenPublisher?

OpenPublisher features a built-in Spell Check & Visual Grammar Engine accessible under the Review tab. The engine automatically proofreads text across both standard text boxes and individual table cells.

Whenever a misspelled word or grammar warning is detected, a subtle wavy underline appears. Right-click the underlined word to see immediate correction suggestions, add the term to your local dictionary, or launch the Integrated Thesaurus to look up synonyms and contextual definitions.

How do I insert symbols or emojis into OpenPublisher?

• Typographic Symbols: Open the Insert ribbon tab and click Symbols to launch the glyph palette. This allows you to insert copyright symbols (©), registered marks (®), currency signs (£, €, ¥), arrows, and mathematical operators.
• Vector Emojis: Click the Emojis button on the ribbon. Unlike operating system font emojis that display differently on each platform, OpenPublisher renders high-resolution SVG vector emojis. Once placed, emojis function as full vector artwork: you can resize them to poster dimensions without pixelation, adjust fill tints via the Picture Tools tab, and export them at crisp 300 DPI print quality.

How do I convert a PNG so it can be uploaded to OpenPublisher?

You do not need to convert PNG files at all! OpenPublisher natively supports standard .png files, along with .jpg, .gif, .webp, and .svg formats, with full 8-bit and 16-bit alpha channel transparency preservation.

Simply drag your PNG file directly from your computer folder onto the canvas, or click Insert > Picture on the ribbon.

How do I resize pictures in OpenPublisher?

Click on any picture on the canvas to expose its eight surrounding transform handles. Click and drag any corner handle to resize the image.

To prevent accidental squashing or stretching of your photos, ensure that Lock Aspect Ratio is active in the contextual Picture Tools ribbon tab. You can also hold the Shift key while dragging any handle to temporarily enforce proportional aspect ratio locking.

How do I round the corners of an image or put a border around pictures?

• Rounding Corners: Right-click any image and select Rounded Corners to choose a corner radius preset (8px, 16px, 24px, or 32px), or click Quick Rounded Corners in the Picture Tools ribbon. You can also select Crop to Shape to clip the image into a circle, oval, shield, or one of 19 geometric vector silhouettes.
• Adding Borders: Select your image and use the Picture Tools ribbon or the Format Properties sidebar to add a solid stroke border, drop shadow, soft glow effect, or decorative Border Art frame.

How do I draw in OpenPublisher?

Go to the Insert ribbon tab and look for the Drawing group located on the far right. Select a brush or spray-paint tool, set your desired thickness (from 1px up to 50px), select a stroke color, and sketch directly onto the document.

When you click outside the drawing area, OpenPublisher's raster engine automatically crops away empty bounding whitespace and commits your sketch as a crisp, transparent PNG object. You can double-click any drawing later to resume editing, or select an existing photo and click Edit in Picture Tools to paint annotations directly over an image.

Can you insert ClipArt or create QR codes in OpenPublisher?

• Clipart Gallery: Yes! OpenPublisher includes a built-in gallery with over 3,400 transparent graphics categorized across business, education, holidays, nature, and food. You can search by keyword, insert items with one click, and recolor vector elements directly on the canvas.
• QR Code Generator: Go to the Insert tab and click QR Code. Enter your website link or text, and customize the module style (Standard square grid, Rounded corners, or Circular badge) along with custom foreground and background colors for high-contrast scanning.

How do I resize a table or insert columns in OpenPublisher?

• Resizing Table Columns & Rows: Hover your mouse cursor over any interior grid line until the cursor transforms into a double-ended resize arrow, then click and drag. OpenPublisher preserves the surrounding cell dimensions so altering one column width will not disturb adjacent table structures. To normalize cell dimensions evenly, click Distribute Rows or Distribute Columns in the Table Layout sidebar. To relocate the entire table, click and drag its outer boundary frame.
• Inserting Columns: Right-click inside any cell and select Insert Column (left or right), or click the column insertion buttons in the Table Layout ribbon. You can also import a complete CSV or spreadsheet to populate a structured table instantly.

How do I convert text to a table (or a table to text) in OpenPublisher?

OpenPublisher provides seamless two-way conversion between raw delimited text and structured table grids:

• Text to Table: If you have tab-separated or comma-separated values (CSV/TSV) copied from a text file, email, or spreadsheet, paste it onto the page or launch the CSV & Spreadsheet Import Assistant under the Insert tab. OpenPublisher parses the rows and delimiters into a formatted, customizable table.
• Table to Text: To extract tabular data back into raw text, select the outer boundary of the table, right-click, and select Convert Table to Text (also available under the Table Design ribbon). The contents are converted into cleanly tab-delimited text paragraphs.

Can I add a pie chart in OpenPublisher?

Yes! OpenPublisher features a native Charts & Graphs Studio. Click Chart on the Insert ribbon tab (or right-click the canvas and select Chart or Graph...) to open the studio.

You can generate Pie Charts alongside 8 other chart styles:

• Pie & Donut Charts
• Vertical Column & Stacked Column Charts
• Horizontal Bar Charts
• Line Charts & Area Charts
• Semi-Circular Gauge Meters & Radar Charts

You can customize slice hues, data labels, values, and legends in real time, or paste tabular figures directly from Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. The chart is rendered on your page as an ultra-crisp vector SVG graphic printing at 300 DPI, and you can double-click it at any time to modify data points or change chart types.

How do I group objects, and how can I arrange objects forward and backward (including shortcuts)?

Grouping (Bulk Selection Workaround): Permanent container grouping is temporarily decoupled in the codebase to safeguard the stability of the Undo/Redo history stack. However, you can easily work with multiple items simultaneously using Bulk Selection:

• Hold Ctrl and click each object, or click and drag a rectangular selection marquee over multiple elements.
• A unified bounding box encloses all selected items, allowing you to move, resize, rotate, and align them together as a single cohesive unit until you click away.

Arranging Layers Forward and Backward: Right-click any element to access stacking options:

• Bring to Front: Ctrl + Shift + ] (moves item to the very top layer).
• Send to Back: Ctrl + Shift + [ (moves item beneath all other objects).
• Bring Forward / Send Backward: Steps the element one layer up or down.
• Selection Pane: Open The Selection Pane from the Layout ribbon to visually drag and reorder every object layer in your publication.

How do I copy and paste in OpenPublisher?

You can use standard OS keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste on Windows/Linux; Cmd + C and Cmd + V on macOS), or right-click any element to use the context menu.

Additionally, OpenPublisher includes a Scrapbook Drawer on the ribbon. The Scrapbook saves a visual history of recently copied objects as interactive thumbnails, enabling you to stamp frequently used logos, badges, or headers onto different pages with a single click.

Can you add grid squares onto OpenPublisher for positioning?

Yes! Under the Layout and Page Design tools, you can enable three powerful alignment aids:

• Grid Guides: Overlays a customizable grid across the canvas with magnetic element snapping.
• Baseline Guides: Displays horizontal ruled notebook lines to align typography baselines across disparate text boxes and columns.
• Draggable Custom Guides: Click and drag custom guide markers directly from the top horizontal or left vertical rulers to establish precise custom alignment boundaries.

How can the OpenPublisher online version use A3 paper size, or print a C4 envelope?

When starting a document, the Startup Dashboard provides preset page formats, which can also be modified at any time via Page Design > Size:

• A3 Paper Size: A3 (297 x 420 mm / 11.7 x 16.5 inches) is built directly into the Startup Dashboard and the Page Design ribbon menu. Simply select A3 to configure the workspace canvas immediately.
• C4 Envelopes: While C4 is not listed in the standard pre-configured drop-down menu yet (expanded envelope presets are planned for future updates), you can easily create one using the Custom Size dialog. Enter the official C4 dimensions: 229 mm x 324 mm (or 9.0 x 12.75 inches). OpenPublisher will generate the exact envelope canvas with full 300 DPI print fidelity.

Why can't I drag my app window around after installing on Windows 10?

This issue occurs if you inadvertently downloaded and installed the legacy Windows XP-specific build (which utilizes the legacy Gecko runtime) on a modern Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer.

The specialized Windows XP edition relies on a legacy non-client window drag implementation that was necessary for XP compatibility, but modern Windows 10 and 11 desktop window managers block this legacy behavior for security isolation.