Why your Mac can't open it
Publisher was only ever a Windows program. Pages, Preview, Word for Mac and Keynote can't read .pub files, and there's no official viewer. That's been true for years; now that Publisher has left Microsoft 365, even the person who sent you the file may not be able to re-save it for you.
Open it in your browser
- Open this page in Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Edge on your Mac.
- Drag the .pub file from Finder or your Downloads folder onto the page. Or press Choose .pub files.
- The pages appear in a few seconds. Click any page to see it larger.
- Press Download PDF. The PDF opens in Preview and can be printed, emailed or saved to iCloud.
It works on any Mac from the last several years, Intel or Apple silicon, and on iPad in Safari too. Nothing is installed and the file isn't uploaded anywhere.
Fonts on a Mac
Publisher documents are usually made with Windows fonts. The page draws them with bundled open fonts that have the same letter widths as Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Calibri and Cambria, so the text sits where it should even though your Mac doesn't have those fonts. Decorative fonts are drawn in the nearest plain style.
Need to change the words?
The Text button copies every word out of the file so you can paste it into Pages or Word. For editing the layout itself, LibreOffice (free, with a Mac version) can open .pub files in its Draw program.
Files sent by email
If the .pub file arrived as an attachment in Apple Mail, Outlook or Gmail, save it to your Downloads folder first, then drag it from there onto this page. In Mail, Control-click the attachment and choose Save Attachment. If someone sends you a whole folder of files as a ZIP, you don't need to unzip it: drop the ZIP on the page and every Publisher file inside opens in the list.
Printing from a Mac
Press Print to send the pages straight to your printer at their real size, or download the PDF and print it from Preview. For booklets and folded leaflets, printing from the PDF in Preview gives you the most control over paper size and scaling.