Microsoft Publisher

Description
Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing solution. It produces files with the extension ".pub". Note that this extension is shared by at least four different versions of the format:


 * Microsoft Publisher 98
 * Microsoft Publisher 2000
 * Microsoft Publisher 2010
 * Microsoft Publisher Template

File Identification
Publisher version 1.0 was a simple binary file format with the magic header:

Publisher versions 2.0 and onward use the Microsoft Compound File format. Within the OLE container, the "Contents" file is similar to version 1, with the magic header: (v2 - 2000) and  (2002 - 2019)

Beginning with version 11 (2003), the OLE container started using the OLE |"DocumentSummaryInformation" file format which contains a version number.

Versions

 * Publisher v1.0
 * Publisher v2.0
 * Publisher for Windows 95 (v3.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 97 (v8.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 98 (v8.5)
 * Microsoft Publisher 2000 (v9.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 2002 (v10.0)
 * Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 (v11.0)
 * Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 (v12.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 2010 (v14.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 2013 (v15.0)
 * Microsoft Publisher 2016/2019 (v16.0)

Pack and Go (PUZ files)
A Publisher feature permits the archiving of a document's files in a compressed archive format in order to move it to a different computer or send it to a commercial printing service; this uses PUZ files, which are actually Cabinet archives.

Sample Files

 * Sample Files
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/document/microsoftPublisher/

Links

 * Official Site
 * Microsoft Publisher
 * POI-HPBF - Java API To Access Microsoft Publisher Format Files (archived)
 * Zamzar -- a web-based file conversion service, can apparently convert .pub files
 * Microsoft Publisher - Reverse Engineering
 * libmspub: library to import MS Publisher documents
 * Microsoft Publisher converter officially released