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Aretus
Convert files

How the converter works

Last updated

Upload your Publisher files, check every page of the first 10 free, then pay once to download. Here's what happens to your files.

What happens to your files

  1. They're uploaded over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
  2. Each file is opened on its own, in a locked-down sandbox, by LibreOffice's open-source Publisher importer: macros off, no internet access, and a 90-second limit per file.
  3. Our layout repairs run next: linked columns on a page are flowed in order, text is wrapped around pictures, text that overflows its box is shrunk to fit (down to 70% of its size; anything still too long is hidden, as Publisher does), and missing fonts get the closest free lookalike.
  4. You see a watermarked preview of every page of the first 10 files, with a note on anything that didn't convert well.
  5. If you pay, you get one ZIP in the same folders you uploaded: a PDF, PNG and JPG images of every page, an ODG you can edit in free LibreOffice Draw, a DOCX with the text, and a report listing every file.
  6. Everything is deleted 24 hours after upload. The one exception: if you report a file that didn't convert well and tick "keep this file", we keep that file until we've fixed the problem, for at most 90 days.

What we're good at

  • Newsletters and brochures. Stories that run across linked columns flow once, in order, and text goes around pictures instead of under them. On our test newsletter, plain LibreOffice left 48.6% of the words on top of other text; ours left none.
  • Whole archives. Up to 2,000 files per batch, your folders kept, and a report of every file.
  • Speed. A median of 2.8 seconds per file in our tests, converting 4 files at a time and making the PDF, ODG and DOCX in one pass. Big batches and busy times take longer.
  • Seeing before paying. Every page of the first 10 files is free to check, and files that fail are never charged.
  • Fonts. Free lookalikes for 30+ fonts common in Publisher files, like Gill Sans, Garamond and Franklin Gothic.

How we measured this, file by file: our PUB to PDF test results.

Not affiliated with Microsoft

Aretus is an independent service, not made, endorsed or sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft and Microsoft Publisher are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, used here only to describe the files we convert.