rmellis/open-publisher

Open Publisher, Free, professional-grade desktop publishing
Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD.
No ads. No subscriptions. No compromises.

 

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Overview

Open Publisher is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) desktop publishing application built as a free alternative to tools like Microsoft Publisher. Whether you are creating newsletters, flyers, business cards, posters, booklets, or marketing materials - Open Publisher gives you precision layout tools, rich typography, image manipulation, and comprehensive export capabilities, entirely free.

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📖 Documentation & Knowledge Base

This README is a quick-reference overview. For complete, up-to-date guides packed with step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and tutorials, visit our interactive knowledge base:

🚀 Visit the Open Publisher Knowledge Base (kb.openpublisher.app)

Looking for the legacy documentation? (PDF)

You can still download the original manual here: Open Publisher User Guide (PDF)

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Table of Contents

• What's New in Version 5
• Features at a Glance
• Installation and Platform Support
• The Dashboard and Startup Experience
• The Interface and Workspace
• Data Integrity, Saving and Recovery Systems
• Page and Document Management
• Physical Measurement Units and DPI
• Master Pages and Themes
• Text Boxes, Typography and Spellcheck
• Tables
• Images, Graphics and Clipboard Scrapbook
• Picture Tools Ribbon
• Shapes and Drawing
• WordArt
• Clipart, Emojis, and Symbols
• Marketing and Promotional Tools
• AI Studio (Layout, Image and Vector)
• Layout and Workspace Tools
• Export, Presentation and Multi-Page Output
• Developer Tools and Diagnostics
• Document Security and Privacy
• The .opub File Format
• Keyboard Shortcuts Reference
• Developers

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What's New in Version 5

Version 5 is the most significant release in Open Publisher's history - a complete re-engineering of the desktop wrapper, canvas engine, and print pipeline. Every area of the application has been rebuilt or substantially improved.

🔍 Expand to see all V5 feature highlights

🛡️ Saving, Backups and File Safety

• Atomic Save Pipeline - Every save uses a 4-step crash-safe write: write to .tmp, verify byte length, rotate existing file to backup, atomically rename. If anything fails, the original is never touched - corruption is physically impossible.
• Auto-Save on Idle - Automatically saves named documents silently after 10 minutes of system inactivity using Chromium's idle detection API. No user action required.
• Idle Save Modal - For unsaved new documents, a single draggable in-app dialog appears after 10 minutes of inactivity prompting Save As. Never stacks duplicate dialogs no matter how long you're away.
• Backup Manager - A draggable, searchable modal listing all .bak backup files with publication name, date/time, file size, and page count. Open any backup as a safe independent copy; saving it triggers Save As rather than overwriting the archive.
• Backup Directory Relocation - Backup files are now stored in AppData\Local\OpenPublisher\Backups instead of your working project folder. Old .bak files in working directories are cleaned up automatically on the next save.
• Previous Versions - Automatic timestamped snapshots every 15 minutes for documents with unsaved edits, plus a snapshot before every manual save. Up to 50 snapshots per document. Includes search, filter by current document, manual "Take Snapshot", "Open as Copy", and "Restore" with safety backup.
• External File Watcher - Monitors the open .opub file for external changes (cloud sync, other editors). Detects modifications and prompts you to reload. Intelligently ignores events from the app's own save process.
• Non-Blocking Async Save - Saving large documents never freezes or stutters the UI. The entire save pipeline runs on a background IPC stream.
• Power Management Keep-Awake - The OS is prevented from sleeping or activating the screen saver during saves and exports. Normal power behavior resumes immediately afterward.
• Native Desktop Save Notification - A native OS notification toast appears after every successful save.

📋 Clipboard and Copy/Paste

• Canvas Element Copy, Cut and Paste - Fully functional copy, cut, and paste of canvas elements via Ctrl+C/X/V, ribbon buttons, right-click menu, and the native menu bar. Correctly distinguishes between copying a canvas element vs. copying text inside an active text box.
• Clean Native Clipboard Paste - The Paste button in the ribbon and right-click menu silently invokes the native OS clipboard paste, bypassing web security restrictions. Preserves all rich clipboard data including fonts, RTF, and images.
• Clipboard Bug Fixes - Fixed double-pasting, ribbon Paste button ignoring newly copied external content, internal canvas tokens leaking as raw text into text boxes, and copy failing in sandboxed environments.
• Clipboard Scrapbook - A persistent floating sidebar drawer that monitors the OS clipboard for images every 2 seconds and caches the last 25. Insert any image onto the canvas with one click or drag-and-drop. Persists across application launches.
• Paste Image Separation - When pasting mixed content from a website, images are automatically separated from text. Text pastes into the text box; images are independently placed on the canvas as separate objects.

📁 Drag and Drop

• Drag-and-Drop Publication Opening - Drag any .opub or .json file from Windows Explorer onto the app window to open it. A full-screen "Drop to open publication" overlay appears during the drag.
• Document Pour Animation - When any document opens, canvas elements animate into place from top to bottom with a smooth organic stagger and a teal-green wave sheen. Eliminates the old flash-of-content glitch.
• Image Drag-and-Drop Import - Drag image files (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, SVG, BMP, ICO, AVIF, TIFF) from any folder directly onto the app window to import them onto the canvas. The publication-open overlay is suppressed for image drags.

🖥️ Window and Titlebar

• Rounded Corners and Drop Shadow - The frameless window has a 12px border radius and ambient drop shadow via Windows DWM alpha compositing.
• Ghost-Frame Resize Engine - A transparent preview overlay shows exact new dimensions and a live size badge while dragging any edge or corner. Eliminates all resize flicker and lag.
• Window State Persistence - Size, position, and maximized state saved and restored exactly across restarts. If the saved monitor is disconnected, the window reappears safely on the primary display.
• Always-on-Top Pin Button - Pushpin icon in the titlebar. Glows green when engaged. Tooltip updates between "Pin window" and "Unpin window". Auto-hides on narrow windows.
• F11 Fullscreen - Native borderless fullscreen toggle. Titlebar controls stay accessible as an overlay.
• Dirty-State Asterisk (*) - Appears next to the document title in the titlebar whenever unsaved changes exist. Disappears immediately on save.
• Smart Exit Dialog - The close button only shows an unsaved-changes warning if edits actually exist. Clean documents close instantly with no prompt.
• Modernized Exit Dialog - Left-aligned text, pill-shaped buttons, OS-standard 6px corners. Save as primary; "Don't Save" and "Cancel" as outlined secondary buttons.
• Show in File Explorer - Folder icon button in the titlebar highlights the current file in Windows Explorer instantly. Dims when no file has been saved yet.
• Close to System Tray Toggle - When enabled, clicking X hides the app to the tray instead of closing. Re-launching restores and focuses the existing instance.
• Single Instance Enforcement - Opening a second .opub from Windows Explorer loads it in the existing window rather than opening a duplicate.

🗂️ System Tray

• System Tray Integration - Full right-click jump list: Show/Hide Window, New Publication, Open Publication, Save, Recent Publications submenu (synced live with in-app list, with Clear History), Backup Manager, Previous Versions, Developer HUD toggle, and Exit with unsaved-changes guard.
• Global OS Keyboard Shortcut - Ctrl+Shift+O / Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+O/P on macOS) brings Open Publisher to the foreground from anywhere on the OS, even if minimized or hidden in the tray.

📊 Taskbar Integration

• Taskbar Progress Bar - The taskbar icon shows a live progress bar during saves (indeterminate) and exports (real percentage fill).
• Taskbar Attention Flash - When a save or export completes while the app is minimized or in the background, the taskbar button flashes to notify you. Stops automatically when you switch back.
• Export Priority Elevation - During active exports, the OS process priority is elevated to above-normal for maximum CPU allocation, then returned to normal on completion.

📤 Export and Print Queue Monitor

• Export and Print Queue Window - A standalone floating dark-glass window showing real-time progress for all active PDF, image, and print jobs. Includes job history, percentage progress, status indicators, filter by type (All/Print/PDF/Image), "Open in Folder", and direct file launch.
• Real-Time Export Progress on Taskbar - Live export percentage from the webapp is reflected on the OS taskbar progress bar (0-100%).

📂 Recent Files

• Recent Files Dropdown - Titlebar button lists the last 10 opened documents with filename and full path. Clicking an entry fully restores the document's DPI, format, unit, orientation, margins, and spread mode.
• Single Instance File Association - Double-clicking a .opub from Windows Explorer while the app is open loads it in the existing instance rather than spawning a new window.

🎬 Presentation Preview

• Presentation Preview Window - A standalone floating frameless window that mirrors the active canvas in real time using pure DOM/SVG cloning (no html2canvas - crisp vector output). Has its own page thumbnail strip, zoom presets (50% to 200%), mouse-wheel zoom, and a dedicated fullscreen presentation mode. Independently moveable; closes with the main app.

🚀 Startup and Splash Screen

• Unified V5 Splash Screen - Single-phase splash replacing the old double-splash. Features a faceted geometric backdrop, V5 vector branding, real-time boot console with 178 color-coded milestones, and a smooth subpixel progress bar that never goes backwards.
• Adaptive Dual-Theme Splash - Teal/green gradient with white logo in light mode; deep dark slate with cyan accents in dark mode. Dynamic status labels update throughout loading.
• Dynamic OS Edition Detection - The splash footer automatically displays the correct platform: Windows Edition, Mac Edition, Linux Edition, or FreeBSD Edition - each with its own illuminated platform icon.
• First-Run Wizard - An 8-step interactive onboarding tour on first launch. Glassmorphic card design, clickable pill step navigation, Arrow key and Escape support, and a confetti burst on completion. Re-triggerable from the Developer HUD at any time.

🎨 Theming and Appearance

• Theme Persistence Fix - Theme selections now correctly persist across restarts without resetting to default teal.
• Window Controls Color Auto-Heal - Titlebar button icons always render in the correct color for the active theme. Stale incorrect colors from previous sessions are automatically corrected on startup.
• Custom Dark Scrollbars - Export Queue and Presentation Preview windows have custom dark navy track / teal thumb scrollbars matching the dark window aesthetic.
• Subpixel Font Rendering - Subpixel antialiasing and hardware-accelerated GPU rasterization across all UI text and vector icons.
• Smooth Image Interpolation - Scaled icons and images in the ribbon appear smooth and anti-aliased rather than pixelated.

🔤 Text Editing, Styled Text Boxes and International Typography

• 100 Styled Text Box Presets - Browse and insert 100 handcrafted callout boxes, quote frames, sidebars, badges, and decorative containers directly from the Insert > Text Box gallery, complete with instant keyword search and category filtering.
• Clipart Border Art Engine (40 Presets) - Frame any text box with 40 repeating decorative borders (florals, stars, certificates, geometric patterns, and seasonal motifs). Borders dynamically recalculate perimeter spacing as you resize the box and automatically pad interior text so your writing never overlaps the frame.
• Native Spellcheck and Grammar Engine - Bundled offline Hunspell dictionaries for English US (en-US) and English GB (en-GB) expanded with thousands of UK/US towns, cities, retail brands, and honorifics. Red squiggly underlines catch spelling errors with phonetic suggestions, while green underlines highlight grammar, punctuation, and name/title capitalization issues.
• Native Right-to-Left (RTL) and Bidirectional Support - First-class support for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu with automatic script direction detection, dedicated LTR/RTL paragraph ribbon buttons, and standard Ctrl+Shift directional shortcuts.
• Highlighted Text Drag-and-Drop - Select any word, phrase, or sentence inside a text box and drag it directly to a new position within the text flow.
• System Fonts Integration - All locally installed Windows fonts discovered from the registry and merged with Google Fonts into one alphabetically sorted dropdown. Local fonts show a monitor icon; Google Fonts show a "G" icon. Opens in under 20ms using lazy rendering.
• Horizontal Scrolling and 360-Degree Pasteboard - Hold Shift and scroll the mouse wheel to pan horizontally, or scroll freely in any direction across the scratch area with a floating Return to Page button whenever the page moves out of view.

🎨 Theme Studio, Smart Arrows and Creative Design Tools

• 700+ Curated Page Themes and Live 6-Slider Studio - Expanded 8-column Page Design gallery and pin-open auditioning popover with 700 themes across Classic, Pastel, Neon, Corporate, Fine Textures, and Geometric styles. Fine-tune any theme in real time using 6 live sliders (Pattern Zoom, Contrast, Hue Shift, Brightness, Saturation, and Opacity), and assign independent themes to individual pages.
• Dedicated Smart Arrows Engine (98 Parametric Arrows) - A dedicated Smart Arrows gallery on the Insert ribbon featuring 98 vector arrows across 7 categories. Unlike standard shapes that distort when stretched, Smart Arrows use parametric stem-only scaling so arrowheads stay sharp and proportional at any length, with an interactive yellow handle to customize tip depth and wing width live on the canvas.
• 214 WordArt Styles and Ultra High-DPI Print Baking - Expanded WordArt Studio with 214 styles, zoom-aware anisotropic supersampling, embedded Google Fonts, full 3D extrusion stacks, and unconstrained cursive swash overflow so curved and shadowed typography prints with razor-sharp edges.
• 280+ Ready-Made Publication Templates - Built-in template library spanning 15 categories including Flyers, Posters, Menus, Business Cards, Brochures, Newsletters, Resumes, Certificates, Invitations, Magazines, Reports, Labels, Letterheads, Calendars, and Social Media graphics.
• Multi-Element Group Resizing and Orbit Rotation - Select multiple elements together to scale the entire layout proportionally or rotate objects in unison around a shared center point, paired with a floating quick-action pill and Ctrl+D one-step duplication.
• Rounded Image Corners with Contour Shadows - Round the corners of any picture or cropped image from 0px to 100px with drop shadows and outer glows that smoothly hug the curved border both on screen and in print.

🖨️ Multi-Up Card Imposition and Legacy File Import

• Business Card and Label Sheet Imposition (Multiple Copies per Sheet) - Design a single business card, gift tag, or label and automatically tile multiple copies across an A4 or Letter sheet when printing. Includes configurable rows, columns, gutter spacing, bleed guides, professional corner crop marks, and double-sided duplex alignment.
• Dual-Canvas Microsoft Publisher (.pub) and Word (.doc / .docx) Import - Upgraded import pipeline that separates background vector artwork, tables, and embedded photos from foreground typography. Choose Editable Mode to reconstruct color-matched, shadow-aware editable text boxes over crisp original page graphics, or Flattened Image Mode for 100% pixel-identical archival reproduction.

🤖 Clippy Assistant

• Clippy (Microsoft Agent) - Summoned from File ribbon Help group, Alt+H, or right-click canvas. Features 41 mapped animations, cursor gaze tracking, 101 Open Publisher-specific tips with 20-second auto-dismiss, idle behaviors after 3 minutes, right-click context menu (size scaling 1x/1.5x/2x, CRT filter, silence tips, mute sound), and full preference persistence. Assets fetched on-demand from CDN; offline fallback modal if unreachable.

🔧 Developer HUD and Diagnostics

• Developer Mode HUD - Ctrl+Shift+D opens a floating HUD with real-time RAM, FPS, and DOM node metrics plus Quick Action buttons for Reload, DevTools, First-Run Wizard, Backup Manager, Previous Versions, Safe Mode, and Crash Renderer.
• Tearaway HUD Window - The Developer HUD can be popped out into an independent floating window on any monitor. Dock button re-attaches it. Live metrics update in both states simultaneously.
• Live Memory Chart - Rolling bar chart of Webview RAM usage with dynamic min/max auto-zoom and a live rate-of-change display (+KB/s, -KB/s, or Steady).
• IPC Traffic Sniffer - Toggleable real-time log of all bidirectional IPC messages between the wrapper and webapp, with color-coded [IN] and [OUT] badges and timestamps.
• Crash Recovery - Renderer crashes are automatically intercepted. A fresh instance launches with a branded recovery dialog ("Well, This Is Awkward...") offering Attempt Recovery, Let It Burn, or Pretend This Didn't Happen. A full diagnostic crash log is written to the Desktop and a native Windows notification appears.
• Safe Mode - Clears Chromium cache and all localStorage on reboot. A red [SAFE MODE] badge appears in the titlebar. Triggerable from the HUD or the --safe-mode launch flag.
• Open AppData Button - One-click access to the application's hidden data directory in Windows Explorer.
• Memory Limits Uncapped - V8 JavaScript heap raised to 8GB. GPU renderer allocated up to 4GB VRAM. Ceilings only - no pre-allocation.

🌐 Platform Support

• FreeBSD Native Port - Full Electron build with .opub file association, XDG icon hierarchy, desktop launcher, and global openpublisher CLI command. Standalone .pkg installer with zero external dependencies.
• Universal Linux Flatpak - Works on SteamOS, Fedora Silverblue, ChromeOS, and any Flatpak-enabled distribution.
• Linux .run Self-Extracting Installer - Installs on any Linux distribution without requiring a package manager.
• Linux .deb Package - Native package for Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives.
• Linux .rpm Package - Native package for Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE, and derivatives.
• Linux Bundled Noto Color Emoji Font - COLRv1 emoji font bundled for Linux systems without a system emoji font. Scoped to emoji codepoints only; all text rendering uses system fonts.

🪟 Windows Integration

• MyDockFinder Native Menu Bar - Open Publisher integrates with MyDockFinder (a Windows application that provides a macOS-style global menu bar on Windows). Full native menu bar support via a custom 64-bit hook DLL (op_menu_hook.dll) that intercepts Win32 window messages Chromium would otherwise ignore. Standard File, Edit, Insert, and View menu commands work from the global MyDockFinder menu bar.

🖼️ Bulk Image Import

• Unified Bulk Image Import - Select or drag-drop multiple images at once. A modal prompts whether to place all images on the current page in a staggered cascade or create a dedicated new page per image automatically. Single images bypass the modal. Sequential async pipeline ensures strict creation order on large batches.

📐 Physical Measurement Units and DPI

• Physical Measurement Units - Design using Centimeters (cm), Millimeters (mm), Inches (in), or Pixels. Canvas rulers, dialogs, and coordinate displays all speak your chosen unit.
• DPI Resolution Control - Choose from 96 DPI (Screen), 72 DPI (Draft), 140 DPI, 150 DPI, 300 DPI (Print), or a custom value. Page pixel dimensions update in real time.
• New Document Dialog Overhaul - Quick format preset buttons (A4, Letter, A3, A5, Legal, Tabloid, Business Card, Square), orientation toggle, units selector, DPI picker, and a live pixel preview banner.
• Resize Document Dialog Overhaul - Format presets, live unit conversion, DPI selector, and real-time dimension preview.
• Custom Margins Dialog - Enter margins in any physical unit; values convert dynamically.
• Zero-Spillage 300 DPI Print Engine - A 300 DPI A4 document (2480x3508px) prints on exactly one sheet with no blank trailing pages or multi-sheet slicing.
• DPI-Aware Format Detection - The page format badge (A4, Letter, etc.) correctly identifies formats at any DPI without reverting to "Custom".
• Format and DPI Saved in .opub - Page format and DPI are stored as document metadata so documents always reload with the exact paper size and resolution they were saved with.
• Spread Mode Saved in .opub - Two-page spread mode is stored per-document. Documents saved with spreads open with spreads; documents saved without do not. Eliminates high-DPI documents incorrectly activating spreads on load.

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📦 Release Notes & Version History

Looking for detailed changelogs, patch notes, or download binaries for previous and current versions? Every release is documented in detail with installer and asset downloads on GitHub:

🚀 View All Releases & Full Changelogs on GitHub

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Features at a Glance

Category	Highlights
Platforms	Windows (Installer, Portable, Windows XP), macOS (.dmg), Linux (.flatpak, .AppImage, .run, .deb, .rpm), FreeBSD (.pkg), Web & Installable PWA
Engine and Limits	Uncapped 8GB RAM / 4GB GPU VRAM, asynchronous IPC streams, 60 FPS hardware acceleration
Physical Units and DPI	CM, MM, Inches, Pixels; 72/96/140/150/300 DPI or custom; DPI-aware margins, rulers, and print engine
300 DPI & Multi-Up Print	Zero-spillage single-page printing, Booklet imposition, and Business Card / Label multi-up sheet printing with crop marks
Data Protection	4-step atomic save, 15-minute shadow snapshots (50 per document), external file watcher, Backup Manager, Previous Versions
Page Formats & Templates	A3, A4, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Business Card, Square - plus 280+ ready-made templates across 15 categories
Typography and Proofing	100 Styled Text Boxes, 40 Clipart Border Art frames, RTL language support, Windows font discovery, offline spellcheck & grammar
Theme Studio	700+ curated page themes & fine textures, 6 live background adjustment sliders, per-page independent themes
Clipboard and Assets	Unified clipboard engine, 25-item Clipboard Scrapbook drawer, intelligent paste separation, drag-and-drop shockwave feedback
Bulk Image Import	Select or drop multiple images; choose single-page collage or one page per image automatically
Shapes and Smart Arrows	200+ SVG vector shapes, 98 parametric Smart Arrows with stem-only scaling, 3D rotation engine, custom point editing
Images and Graphics	Picture placeholders, batch picture swap, non-destructive crop, rounded corners with contour shadows, 14-shape clipping
Tables	100 styled templates, multi-cell selection, Excel import (xlsx/xls), convert to text, line height control
WordArt	214 creative styles (Curved, Neon, 3D Extrusion, Holographic, Vaporwave), live hue shifting, high-DPI vector font print baking
Clipart and Emojis	3,403 high-quality transparent images, searchable Twemoji gallery with skin tone picker, symbol inserter, QR code generator
AI Studio & Assistant	Prompt-driven page layouts and scalable SVG vectors via a 7-node AI cluster, FLUX.1 raster image generation across a 7-node image cluster, workspace commands, and single-step undo (no sign-up or API keys required)
File Import	Open and edit PDFs directly, plus dual-canvas Microsoft Publisher (.pub) and Word (.doc/.docx) import with editable text & preserved background graphics
Multi-Page Overview	Decoupled from zoom, explicit toggle, keyboard navigation, thumbnail grid with double-click to edit
Security and Recovery	AES-GCM password encryption, Document Inspector, automated crash dumps, safe mode launch flags
Workspace and Shell	360-degree scratch area scrolling, ruler selection span markers, group orbit rotation, system tray, developer HUD
Export and Output	High-fidelity PDF, standalone export queue, live presentation preview, Pack and Go, HTML with SEO meta tags

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Installation and Platform Support

Windows

Open Publisher ships in three primary distribution formats for Windows:

• Standard Installer (.exe) - Full installer with Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, multi-resolution 10-frame high-DPI icon embedding (up to 256x256), and .opub registry file association.
• Portable Version (.exe) - Self-contained zero-install executable. Ideal for USB drives, restricted workstations, or running without administrator rights.
• Windows XP Client (.exe) - Dedicated standalone client for Windows XP SP3, featuring a customized chromeless runtime, integrated window controls, and full native branding.
• OpenPublisher Lite (Gecko Runtime) - In-progress lightweight native port optimized for multicore scaling and low-spec hardware (see Gecko Port Progress).
• Safe Mode Startup - Launch with --safe-mode or --reset from the command line to purge cached data, reset layout bounds, and troubleshoot faulty extensions.
• MyDockFinder native menu bar integration support.

macOS

Open Publisher provides first-class native integration on macOS (Intel):

• Native macOS menu bar with commands categorized across tabs (File, Home, Insert, Page Design, Review, View, Picture).
• Dynamic accelerator keys that automatically adapt to Cmd instead of Ctrl.
• Authentic process identity ("Open Publisher") across the menu bar, Dock, and system task monitors.
• Native unsaved-changes confirmation dialogs, high-DPI Retina canvas scaling, and zero-flicker boot sequencing.

Linux

Open Publisher is packaged in five formats for universal Linux distribution across all systems:

Package	Recommended Use Case
.flatpak	Universal Sandbox: Best for modern distributions, especially immutable / atomic OSes (SteamOS / Steam Deck, Fedora Silverblue, openSUSE MicroOS, ChromeOS). Isolates dependencies and uses XDG Desktop Portals.
.AppImage	Standalone Portable: Single executable file running out of the box on any Linux desktop without installation or root privileges.
.run	Universal Self-Extracting Installer: Single-file shell installer script. Installs cleanly to /opt/openpublisher (or user directory), sets up desktop icons, and configures .opub MIME types on any distribution.
.deb	Debian and Ubuntu: Native package for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, and Pop!_OS.
.rpm	Fedora and RHEL: Native package for Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux, and openSUSE.

Installing via .run script:

chmod +x openpublisher-5.2.x-linux.run
./openpublisher-5.2.x-linux.run

All package formats install cleanly, register application/x-openpublisher MIME types, and automatically refresh icon and desktop application caches.

** Linux Emoji Support:** A bundled Noto Color Emoji font (COLRv1) ensures emoji characters render correctly even on Linux systems without a system emoji font installed. The font activates only for emoji codepoints, leaving all text rendering to system fonts.

FreeBSD

Open Publisher V5 introduces an official native FreeBSD distribution:

• Standalone Package (.pkg) - Self-contained FreeBSD package built on an Electron runtime bridge (electron-preload.js) that polyfills the entire NW.js API surface.
• Smooth 60 FPS Resizing - Uses hardware-synchronized requestAnimationFrame hitboxes across 8 in-window perimeter points, eliminating legacy window manager stutter under X11.

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The Dashboard and Startup Experience

Splash Screen

The V5 startup splash screen features an adaptive dual-theme design: a signature elevated teal radial gradient in default/light mode, and a deep studio slate with ambient cyan glow in dark mode. A live status console displays boot progress ("Initializing workspace... Loading publishing engine... Preparing canvas... Ready") during startup.

First-Run Wizard

On first launch, Open Publisher presents a glassmorphic 8-step interactive onboarding wizard. The wizard highlights key workspace areas including the Ribbon tools, WordArt gallery, free clipart stickers, ready-made templates, colour themes, and the .opub document format. Step pill navigation allows jumping directly to any slide. The wizard is also accessible by launching with --firstrun.

Dashboard (Start Screen)

The Dashboard greets you when no document is open, providing:

• Recent Documents: A visual grid of your last opened publications. Clicking any card restores the full document state including page size, DPI, unit, margins, ruler origin, and spread mode.
• New Document: Opens the New Document dialog with format preset buttons, orientation toggle, unit selector, DPI picker, and a live canvas pixel preview.
• Templates Gallery: Browse and apply professionally designed templates for newsletters, flyers, menus, certificates, resumes, and more.
• Status bar loading progress: Clicking a recent file immediately activates a green glow progress bar with live status text ("Loading Document... Document Loaded!").

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The Interface and Workspace

The workspace is designed for uncluttered creative productivity:

Area	Description
Ribbon Toolbar	Tabbed command interface: File, Home, Insert, Page Design, Review, View, and contextual tabs
Infinite Pasteboard and Canvas	The central high-precision design canvas surrounded by a full horizontal/vertical pasteboard
Navigation Pane	Left-hand sidebar providing live page thumbnails, page notes, and drag-and-drop page reordering
Status Bar	Bottom bar with zoom sliders, view mode toggles, DPI badge, cursor coordinates, and notification toasts
Floating Contextual Toolbar	Appears instantly above selected text or WordArt for rapid font, style, and alignment adjustments
Auxiliary Drawer Panels	Non-modal sliding sidebars for the Clipboard Scrapbook, Format Picture, WordArt, and Table Layout

• Contextual Tabs - Selecting any element automatically activates its specialized ribbon tab (Text Box Tools, Picture Tools, Drawing Tools, Table Design) with relevant editing controls.
• Dynamic Dirty State Asterisk (*) - The window titlebar automatically reflects document status, appending an asterisk (*) when changes are pending and clearing it upon saving.
• Recent Documents Dropdown - Click the Recent Files button in the topbar to view and load your last 10 documents with a visual loading bar.
• System Tray Integration - Minimize Open Publisher to the system tray with background jump list shortcuts, optional "Close to System Tray" preference, Backup Manager and Previous Versions shortcuts in the tray menu.
• Always-on-Top Pin Button - Click the pin icon in the titlebar controls to float Open Publisher above all other windows. The pin rotates and glows green when engaged. Perfect for referencing source material on a second monitor.
• Window Shadows and Rounded Corners - The frameless application window features a 12px border radius and ambient OS drop shadow, using DWM alpha-channel compositing on Windows and native CoreAnimation on macOS.
• Show in File Explorer - A folder icon button in the titlebar instantly opens Windows File Explorer with the current document file highlighted. Disabled (dimmed) when the document has not yet been saved.
• Smart Exit Dialog - Closing the window only prompts about unsaved changes if the document actually has unsaved edits. Clean, already-saved documents close instantly without any dialog.
• F11 Fullscreen - Toggle native borderless fullscreen with F11. The application fills the entire display with no OS chrome.
• Multi-Monitor Support - Tearaway auxiliary windows (Export Queue, Presentation Preview, Developer HUD) can be moved independently across monitors.
• Single Instance Enforcement - Opening a second .opub file from Windows Explorer while the app is already running loads the file in the existing instance rather than opening a duplicate window.

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Data Integrity, Saving and Recovery Systems

Open Publisher V5 incorporates enterprise-grade protections to ensure your creative work is never lost:

• 4-Step Atomic Save Pipeline:
  1. Writes serialized document data to an isolated temporary file ([filename].opub.tmp).
  2. Verifies the written file on disk to guarantee complete, non-zero byte length.
  3. Safely rotates the existing saved document into the backup directory ([filename].opub.bak).
  4. Atomically renames the temporary file into place via OS-level fs.renameSync.
• 15-Minute Background Snapshots (Previous Versions):
  • Operates automatically in the background, capturing rolling snapshots every 15 minutes when unsaved modifications exist.
  • Only activates for named (saved) files - unsaved drafts are skipped.
  • Maintains a 50-snapshot FIFO history per document.
  • Open snapshots via the Previous Versions button in the titlebar to inspect, restore, or open as a fresh copy.
  • On-Demand Snapshots: Click "Take Snapshot" inside the dialog to capture a version instantly at any time.
  • Scope Filter: Toggle between viewing versions for only the active document or across all projects.
• Backup Manager:
  • Draggable modal dialog accessible from the titlebar, Developer HUD, and system tray.
  • Chronological listing of all .bak files with publication name, date, file size, and page count.
  • Open any backup directly as a working copy (decoupled from the original file path, so Ctrl+S triggers Save As).
  • Real-time search filter and direct folder access for manual archive management.
• External File Modification Watcher:
  • Uses filesystem observation to monitor open files. If a document is updated externally (e.g., via Dropbox, OneDrive, Git, or another editor), a debounced prompt alerts you to reload the latest version.
• Chromium Idle Background Auto-Save:
  • Automatically saves named documents after 10 minutes of system inactivity. Runs completely in the background without any UI interruption.
  • For brand new, never-saved documents, a single non-stacking in-app modal prompts you to Save As when you return. No stacked system dialogs.
• Non-Blocking Async Save:
  • Saving large documents never freezes or stutters the UI. The entire save pipeline runs on a background IPC stream, leaving the canvas fully responsive throughout.
• Power Management During Save/Export:
  • The OS is prevented from sleeping or activating the screen saver while a save or export is in progress. Normal power behavior resumes immediately afterward.
• Native Desktop Save Notification:
  • A native OS notification toast appears each time a publication is successfully saved, confirming the save completed without needing to watch the status bar.
• Backup Directory Relocation:
  • Backup rotation files (.bak) are stored in a dedicated system directory (AppData\Local\OpenPublisher\Backups) rather than cluttering your working project folder. Old .bak files in working directories are automatically cleaned up on the next save.
• Renderer Crash Recovery:
  • Webview crashes are intercepted immediately; a replacement process launches automatically with the --recovered flag, presenting an interactive session restore modal and generating a diagnostic crash dump on the Desktop.
• Taskbar Progress Indication:
  • The Windows taskbar button shows a live green progress bar during saves and document loads, matching the status bar glow animation.

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Page and Document Management

• Multiple ways to add pages - Navigation Pane button, right-click context menu, or workspace background right-click.
• Page operations - Duplicate, Move Up/Down, Delete, all from the thumbnail right-click menu.
• Two-Page Spread Mode - Display facing pages side-by-side for booklet and magazine design. Spread mode is stored as document metadata; documents remember whether spreads were on when they were saved.
• Page Notes - Attach custom labels to page thumbnails (e.g., "Front Cover", "Chapter 3") displayed in bold teal beneath thumbnails.
• Multi-Page Overview Mode - Explicit toggle via the status bar or View ribbon. Zoom freely without triggering the mode automatically. Keyboard navigation (Arrow keys, Enter, Escape) works within the overview grid.
• Scratch Area - Off-canvas staging zone for elements not yet placed. Toggle visibility from View > Show.
• Auto Page Numbering - Dynamic, self-updating page number elements via Insert > Page Number.
• Template Saving - Save any document as a reusable template.

Page Setup

Setting	Options
Page Size	A3, A4, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Business Card, Square
Orientation	Portrait / Landscape
Margins	Normal (0.5"), Narrow (0.25"), Moderate, Wide (1"), Zero (borderless)
DPI	72, 96, 140, 150, 300, or Custom
Units	Centimeters (cm), Millimeters (mm), Inches (in), Pixels (px)

Locale-aware defaults: US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Philippines default to Letter; all other regions default to A4.

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Physical Measurement Units and DPI

Open Publisher V5 introduces a mathematically authoritative physical unit and DPI engine designed for real-world print production.

Unit Conversion System

The centralized UnitConversionService handles bidirectional conversion between all unit types at any DPI:

Unit	Conversion
Inches	Pixels = Inches x DPI
Centimeters	Pixels = (cm / 2.54) x DPI
Millimeters	Pixels = (mm / 25.4) x DPI
Pixels	1:1 direct mapping

DPI Presets

DPI	Use Case
72 DPI	Draft and low-resolution screen
96 DPI	Standard web and CSS default
140 DPI	Medium resolution
150 DPI	Medium print quality
300 DPI	High-resolution professional print
Custom	Any numerical value

Physical Rulers

When a unit other than pixels is selected, the canvas rulers display tick marks in your chosen unit (cm, mm, or in). Ruler origin can be dragged from the intersection box to set a custom zero point.

Print Precision at 300 DPI

• Zero-spillage printing: At 300 DPI, an A4 page measures 2480x3508px. The print engine calculates @page dimensions in correct physical inches (not raw pixels), ensuring the page prints on exactly one sheet of paper.
• Blank page elimination: Sub-pixel rounding protection prevents a 0.0022mm overflow from generating a blank trailing sheet.
• DPI-aware margin presets: The Normal (0.5"), Narrow (0.25"), Wide (1") ribbon margin buttons automatically scale margin pixels based on the document's active DPI.

Format Persistence

Page format and DPI are stored in .opub files as explicit metadata. When you reopen a saved 300 DPI A4 document, it loads at 300 DPI A4 - not at "Custom" 96 DPI.

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Master Pages and Themes

Master Pages serve as document-wide templates for consistent headers, footers, logos, and backgrounds across all pages. Edit the Master Page once and all standard pages update automatically.

• Quick Jump - Double-click the top or bottom 100px of any page canvas to jump directly to the Master Page header or footer area.
• Per-page override - Right-click any page thumbnail > Master Pages > None (Hide) to exempt a page (e.g., a full-bleed cover page).

Theme Studio (Page Design ribbon) applies consistent visual styling across your publication or to individual pages:

• 700+ Curated Page Themes - Browse an 8-column ribbon gallery or open the pin-open auditioning catalog with instant keyword search across Classic, Pastel, Neon, Corporate, Fine Textures, Geometric, and Gradient categories.
• 6-Slider Live Background Adjustment Suite - Customize any theme background in real time directly from the Page Design ribbon using six dedicated sliders: Pattern Zoom, Contrast, Hue Shift, Brightness, Saturation, and Opacity.
• Per-Page Independent Themes - Assign distinct themes and slider adjustments to individual pages within a multi-page publication, or click Ignore Theme to exempt a specific page (such as a cover or photo spread).
• Colour Schemes - Classic, Pastel, Neon, and Corporate palettes that dynamically recolor theme-linked shapes and layout accents.
• Page Borders - 100 scalable SVG border styles in categories: Classic, Geometric, Layered/3D, Craft/Deco. Fully customisable colour and thickness.

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Text Boxes, Typography and Spellcheck

Text boxes are the primary container for all written content in Open Publisher.

• Insert a standard box via Insert > Text Box (or press T while the canvas is focused), or pick from 100 Styled Text Box Presets in the dropdown gallery.
• Contextual Text Box Tools ribbon, Format Properties Studio, and Floating Toolbar provide complete typography and frame control.

Styled Text Boxes and Clipart Border Art

• 100 Handcrafted Styled Text Box Presets - Ready-to-use callout boxes, pull-quote frames, badges, sidebars, certificates, and modern card containers with real-time search and category filtering.
• Clipart Border Art Engine (40 Decorative Presets) - Surround any text box with repeating decorative vector and clipart borders (florals, stars, certificates, geometric motifs, and seasonal frames). Borders dynamically recalculate perimeter spacing as you resize the box and automatically pad interior text so your writing never overlaps the frame.
• Box Fill, Outline and Rounded Corners - Customize background colours, gradients, border thickness, dash styles, and corner radius, or open the unified Format Properties dialog for numeric precision and 3D perspective tilt.

Advanced Typography, Proofing and International Languages

• Native Offline Spellcheck and Grammar Engine: Integrated offline Hunspell dictionaries (English US and GB) expanded with thousands of UK/US towns, cities, retail brands, and honorifics. Red squiggly underlines flag spelling mistakes with phonetic suggestions, while green underlines catch grammar, punctuation, and name/title capitalization issues.
• Native Right-to-Left (RTL) and Bidirectional Support: Full support for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu with automatic script direction detection, dedicated LTR/RTL paragraph buttons on the Home ribbon and floating toolbar, and standard Ctrl+Shift directional shortcuts.
• Highlighted Text Drag-and-Drop: Select any word or phrase inside a text box and drag it directly to a new position within the text flow.
• Windows System Fonts Discovery: Merges all installed TrueType and OpenType fonts from the Windows registry with Google Fonts into a single alphabetically sorted list. System fonts display a desktop monitor icon; Google Fonts display the Google "G" icon. Both render in their actual typeface in the dropdown.
• Subpixel Font Smoothing: Safari-style text anti-aliasing and geometric vector precision across all zoom levels.

Text Flow Options

Feature	Description
Shrink Text on Overflow	Automatically reduces font size live as you type more than fits
Grow Box to Fit	Expands the text box downward automatically as you type
Linked Text Boxes	Chain text boxes across pages for flowing long-form articles

Ruler and Spacing Controls

• Paragraph Indent Markers - Three interactive markers on the ruler: First Line Indent, Hanging Indent, Left Indent master handle.
• Tab Stops - Left, Center, Right, Decimal alignment with Dotted, Dashed, Solid, or no tab leaders - perfect for tables of contents and menus.
• Line Spacing - Set exact point values via the Line Spacing button.
• Vertical Alignment - Top, Middle, or Bottom alignment within the text box container.
• Drop Cap and Best Fit - Stylize opening letters or auto-scale typography to fill text boxes precisely.

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Tables

Insert tables in multiple ways:

• Standard Grid - Insert > Table, drag to select rows/columns.
• Styled Templates - 100 beautifully pre-formatted table designs.
• Right-Click Context Menu - Insert > Table directly from the canvas.
• Drag-and-Drop Excel - Drop a .xlsx or .xls file directly onto the canvas.

Table Features

Feature	Description
Multi-cell selection	Click and drag across cells; apply formatting and text direction to groups
Table Layout Sidebar	Insert/delete rows and columns, 9-way cell alignment grid
Line Spacing in Tables	Same point-value line height control as text boxes
Convert Table to Text	Export table data as tab, comma, paragraph, or custom-separated text
Excel Import Wizard	Styled Data Mode (xlsx, preserves colours/fonts) or Raw Data Mode (xls/xlsx, plain)

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Images, Graphics and Clipboard Scrapbook

Images can be imported into your publication through multiple intuitive workflows:

• Drag-and-Drop - Drop images directly onto the canvas with visual shockwave ripples, particle bursts, and badge feedback.
• Universal Clipboard Paste - Ctrl+V / Cmd+V or Ribbon Paste. Intelligent paste separation extracts web images into standalone canvas objects while inserting text into active boxes.
• Automated Clipboard Scrapbook - A 25-item background OS image cache in a dark acrylic slide-out drawer (Home -> Clipboard or Insert -> Illustrations). Click or drag any cached image onto the canvas.
• URL and File Dialogs - Insert > Picture or Insert > Insert from URL.
• Bulk Image Import - Select multiple images via the toolbar or drop a batch onto the canvas. A modal offers "Place all on current page" or "Create a new page for each image".

• Picture Placeholders - Block out image positions with dashed-border frames; double-click to swap with real photos.
• Batch Picture Swap - Drag multiple images onto the canvas to fill all placeholders automatically, in top-to-bottom/left-to-right order.
• Non-Destructive Crop - Drag crop handles inward; pan the image within the frame; settings persist across save/load and bake cleanly at full print resolution.
• Rounded Corners with Contour Shadows - Round the corners of any picture or cropped image from 0px to 100px; drop shadows and outer glows follow the curved silhouette both in the editor and in print.
• Crop to Shape - Clip any image to one of 14 shapes: circle, star, triangle, heart, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, cross, arrows, trapezoid, parallelogram, shield, speech bubble.

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Picture Tools Ribbon

Selecting any image on the canvas activates the Picture Tools contextual ribbon tab with the following controls:

Control	Description
Recolor	Apply color filter presets to transform image tone
Shadow	Add configurable drop shadows that contour to rounded corners and shapes
Glow	Apply an outer glow halo around the image perimeter
Rounded Corners	Smoothly round image corners from 0px to 100px (supported on cropped images too)
Brightness / Contrast / Hue	Non-destructive live image adjustments preserved across undo/redo
Opacity	0-100% transparency slider
Crop	Enter non-destructive crop mode with drag handles
Crop to Shape	Clip image within 14 predefined vector shapes
Compress Image	Reduce embedded image file size
Lock Aspect Ratio	Checkbox at the right of the ribbon. When checked, resizing the image maintains its original proportions exactly without needing to hold Shift.
Reset Picture	Restore original image without adjustments

Lock Aspect Ratio: Click either the checkbox or its text label to toggle. When enabled, all resize handles maintain the original width-to-height ratio automatically.

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Shapes and Drawing

Open Publisher includes a library of 200+ vector shapes built from mathematical SVG paths - infinitely scalable at any zoom level or document size - alongside a dedicated Smart Arrows engine.

Shape categories: Basic Geometry, Arrows and Lines, Callouts and Speech, Stars and Bursts, Hearts and Shields, Banners and Ribbons, Flow and Process, Frames and Borders.

Dedicated Smart Arrows Engine (98 Parametric Arrows)

Accessible directly from Insert > Smart Arrows, Open Publisher provides 98 parametric vector arrows organized across 7 categories (Basic, Block, Curved, Bent & U-Turn, Callout, Connector, and Decorative/Tail):

• Stem-Only Parametric Stretching - Lengthening a Smart Arrow extends only its shaft while keeping the arrowhead sharp and geometrically proportional, avoiding the stretched, distorted arrowheads common in standard SVG shapes.
• Interactive On-Canvas Tip Handle - Drag the yellow control diamond directly on the canvas to adjust arrowhead depth and wing width in real time with a live measurement badge.
• Floating Styling Controls - Customize fill colour, outline stroke, opacity, and contour drop shadows directly from the floating toolbar.

Shape Fill Options

Fill Type	Details
Solid Colour	Full colour picker with hex, RGB, and swatches
No Fill (Transparent)	Hollow shape with border only
Gradient	Gold, Chrome, Bronze, Silver, Sunset, Ocean presets + custom two-colour tool; Linear, Diagonal, or Radial
Textured Patterns	8 styles: Tiny Dots, Polka Dots, Diagonal Lines, Vertical Lines, Horizontal Lines, Crosshatch, Checkerboard, Square Grid

Advanced Shape and Object Features

• 3D Rotation Engine - Rotate shapes, images, and text boxes along X, Y, Z axes with perspective depth in the Format Properties studio. Automatically flattened to a high-quality PNG for print fidelity. Non-destructive: double-click to restore live 3D editing.
• Multi-Element Group Resizing and Orbit Rotation - Select multiple shapes, images, or text boxes together to scale the entire arrangement proportionally or rotate all selected items in orbit around their shared center.
• Rotation-Aware Resizing - Resize rotated objects naturally along their tilted local axes with orientation-matched resize cursors.
• Custom Shape Points Editor - Right-click > Edit Points to drag individual vertices and morph shapes into custom polygons.
• Opacity Slider - 0-100% transparency for semi-opaque overlay effects.
• Rotation and Flip - Rotate Right/Left 90 degrees, Flip Horizontal/Vertical, or type any exact degree value.

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WordArt

The WordArt Studio generates styled typographic art across 214 creative styles:

Category	Examples
Classic	90s Rainbow Gradients, 3D Blue Extrusions, Silver Chrome, Vintage Serif
Modern and Minimal	Clean shadows, thin metallic outlines, flat fills, editorial titles
Neon and Glow	Neon wireframes, electric glow halos, cyberpunk outlines
Holographic	Glass-like prismatic gradients, holographic foil effects
Vaporwave and Retro	Sunset gradients, synthwave purples, pastel 80s palettes
3D and Depth	Extruded letter stacks, bevelled edges, multi-layer cast shadows
Curved and Arched	Arch Up, Arch Down, Wave, Sine Wave, Zig-Zag, Triangle peak, Circle paths

Key WordArt behaviours:

• Double-click to re-edit - Reopens the generator pre-filled with your original text, font, and style.
• Dedicated Floating Toolbar - Edit Text / Change Style buttons in a pill-shaped teal toolbar.
• WYSIWYG Freeform & Proportional Resizing - Stretch WordArt freely to fit any banner space, or hold Shift (or enable Lock Aspect Ratio) for proportional corner scaling.
• Ultra High-Resolution Print & Zoom Supersampling - WordArt renders with anisotropic supersampling on screen and embeds Google Fonts, 3D extrusions, and drop shadows at high print resolution with unconstrained cursive swash overflow so wide script letters are never clipped at the box edges.
• Hue Shifting - Shift the entire colour spectrum of any WordArt in real time without regenerating.
• Save as Picture - Export a pixel-perfect transparent PNG from the right-click menu.

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Clipart, Emojis, and Symbols

• Clipart Gallery - 3,403 high-quality transparent images with live search, lazy loading, and fast multi-mirror fallback racing on slow connections. Gallery shuffles with a Fisher-Yates algorithm every session for fresh results.
• Emoji Studio with Skin Tone Picker - Categorized Twemoji vector library with instant keyword search and a floating Fitzpatrick skin tone selector toolbar whenever a hand or person emoji is selected on the canvas.
• Insert Symbol - Rich modal for special characters without memorising Unicode codes.
• QR Code Generator - Insert > QR Code to generate a scannable code from any URL or text string.

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Marketing and Promotional Tools

• 280+ Ready-Made Templates Gallery - Browse File > New > Templates (or open from the startup Dashboard) to launch nearly 290 professionally designed templates across 15 categories: Flyers, Posters, Menus, Business Cards, Brochures, Newsletters, Resumes, Certificates, Invitations, Magazines, Reports, Labels, Letterheads, Calendars, and Social Media.
• Ad Templates and Stickers - Pre-built marketing badges, retail sale bursts, and promotional banners.
• Coupons - Ready-to-print promotional coupon layouts with dashed cut lines.
• QR Codes - Insert from the ribbon or canvas right-click menu.

Note: Loading a template replaces only the currently selected page, making it easy to combine different template layouts inside a multi-page publication.

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AI Studio (Layout, Image & Vector Generators)

• Natural-Language Page Design - Generate complete, editable page layouts or add elements to an existing page from a plain-English prompt, with no sign-ups, API keys, or ads required.
• 21 Editable Canvas Elements - Create and position text boxes, styled callouts, WordArt, clipart, emojis, symbols, tables, charts, shapes, smart arrows, ad badges, page parts, progress bars, coupons, QR codes, business info blocks, vector drawings, and custom HTML/CSS cards.
• AI Image Generator - Generate high-resolution photos, watercolors, 3D renders, and seamless page background textures powered by a 7-node FLUX.1 image cluster with automatic failover, style presets, and automatic SVG fallback.
• AI Vector (SVG) Generator - Create crisp, scalable vector graphics, icons, badges, and illustrations that scale infinitely to any print size with transparent backgrounds and customizable styles.
• Dual 7-Node AI Infrastructure - Backed by a 7-node layout and vector cluster (Gemini, Qwen, and GPT-OSS) alongside a separate 7-node FLUX.1 image cluster for reliable, zero-setup generation.
• Page Setup and Workspace Control - Adjust paper size, orientation, margins, colour schemes, Theme Studio backgrounds, Border Art, watermarks, headers/footers, UI themes, grid/guides, colour proofing, and review tools from one prompt.
• Quick Access & Single-Step Undo - Launch from Home > AI Studio or Insert > AI Studio (AI Layout Assistant, AI Image, or AI Vector), and revert any generation in one step with Ctrl+Z.

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Layout and Workspace Tools

Rulers, Guides and Snapping

• Physical Rulers with Selection Span Markers - Run along the top and left canvas edges in the active unit (cm, mm, in, or px). Selecting any object illuminates a teal span band inside both rulers showing its exact physical width and height, alongside 60 FPS real-time cursor position hairlines.
• Custom Ruler Origin - Drag the intersection box to set a new 0,0 point; double-click to reset.
• Three Independent Snapping Modes - Snap to Grid, Snap to Guides, Snap to Objects (toggle each individually).
• Hold Ctrl while dragging to temporarily bypass grid snapping without changing the setting.
• Smart Guides - Teal alignment lines appear when dragging near edges/centres of other elements; smooth fade-in/out.

Canvas Navigation, Selection and Customization

• Auto-centering on load: Opening any document automatically fits the page to the viewport and centers it. No manual scroll needed.
• 360-Degree Scratch Area Scrolling & Return to Page Button - Scroll freely in all four directions (including left and above the page) with automatic pasteboard expansion. If you scroll the page out of view, a floating directional Return to Page button appears to recenter your work in one click.
• Shift + Mouse Wheel Horizontal Navigation - Smooth horizontal panning across the wide canvas pasteboard at all zoom levels.
• Zoom-Invariant Selection UI & Quick-Action Pill - Selection handles, rotation grips, and bounding outlines remain crisp and consistently sized regardless of zoom level. Selecting an object displays a compact floating action pill for one-click Duplicate (Ctrl+D), Bring to Front, Send to Back, and Delete.
• Customizable Ribbon Layout - Rearrange ribbon button groups to match your preferred workflow in File > Options.
• Pan Hand Tool - Click and drag the canvas to navigate. Activates from the View ribbon, the Hand tool button, or by holding the appropriate modifier.
• Liquid Content Pour Animation - Cascading entrance animation with zero-flicker pre-paint clamping when documents load.

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + Mouse Wheel	Zoom in/out in fine increments
Shift + Mouse Wheel	Pan canvas horizontally
F9	Toggle between current zoom and 100%
Ctrl + Shift + L	Whole Page View - fit full page in window
Ctrl + 0	Reset zoom to 100%
Right-click zoom slider	Preset menu: 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 120%, 130%, 150%, 175%, 200%

Multi-Page Overview

Access Multi-Page Overview from the status bar view toggle buttons or the View ribbon:

• Single-click any page slot or sidebar thumbnail to select and center it (high-visibility teal outline).
• Double-click any page slot or press Enter to open that page for editing in Single-Page mode while preserving your zoom level and centering the chosen page.
• Zoom scales all page previews simultaneously without switching modes.
• Arrow keys cycle page selection; Escape returns to Single-Page mode.
• Rulers and margin guides are suppressed during overview (they restore automatically on return).

Selection Pane

Home > Select > Selection Pane - A scrollable list of every element on the canvas in Z-order:

• Click to select any element (including buried or obscured objects).
• Toggle visibility with the eye icon; hidden elements are excluded from PDF exports.
• Rename elements inline (e.g., "Background Logo", "Footer Bar").
• Updates in real time via MutationObserver.

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Export, Presentation and Multi-Page Output

Export Format	Description
PDF	High-fidelity multi-page PDF with correct orientation, crop settings, and master pages
Business Card & Label Sheet Imposition	Print multiple copies of a card, tag, or label on a single A4/Letter sheet with configurable rows, columns, gutters, bleed, crop marks, and duplex alignment
Booklet Print	Imposition engine for double-page spread printing with accurate gradient reproduction
Standalone Export Queue	Dedicated tearaway monitor window tracking PDF and print rendering jobs with taskbar progress
Presentation Preview	Distraction-free live preview window (doc_preview.html) mirroring the active canvas in real time. Supports page thumbnail navigation, zoom presets, and F11 fullscreen.
Export as Image	Current page as a clean image snapshot (2000px max dimension)
Share via Email (.eml)	Page embedded as Base64 in a MIME email file; opens directly in Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird
Export as HTML	Standalone .html with newsletter layout, email-client optimization, SEO meta tags, Google Fonts, and mobile scaling
Export as XPS	Windows XML Paper Specification via the browser's native print engine
Pack and Go	Commercial print package: extracts all images, lists all fonts used, zips everything for print shop handoff

HTML Export Options (Advanced)

• Seamless Newsletter Layout
• Optimize for Email Clients (html2canvas + legacy <table> structure for Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp)
• Embed External Images as Base64 for single-file offline HTML
• Auto-Scale to Fit Screen (CSS transform for mobile responsiveness)
• Enable / Disable Text Selection and Copying
• Inject SEO and Social Meta Tags (auto-extracts top 5 keywords, 150-character description, injects og:title, og:description, standard meta tags)
• Minify HTML
• Include Google Fonts

Privacy - Pack and Go: The entire packaging process happens natively in your browser using the open-source JSZip library. Your documents and images are never uploaded to any external server.

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Developer Tools and Diagnostics

Open Publisher V5 includes built-in diagnostic and developer tooling:

• Developer HUD (Ctrl+Shift+D): Floating heads-up display showing live memory allocation graphs, RSS change rates, active DOM node counts, and frame rates.
• Standalone Tearaway HUD: Pop out the Developer HUD into an independent floating window (hud.html) across multi-monitor setups.
• Bidirectional IPC Sniffer: Real-time traffic monitor capturing and logging all communication passing between the host wrapper and webview.
• Automated Crash Logging: Automatically dumps hardware specifications, memory statistics, and process uptime to OpenPublisher-Crash-Log.txt on the Desktop if a crash occurs.
• Safe Mode Actions: Built-in actions to reboot the application in diagnostic Safe Mode directly from the HUD.
• Open AppData Folder: Quick access button to the application data directory for manual backup and log inspection.
• Microsoft Agent (Clippy): Nostalgic interactive assistant featuring 41 authentic animations and 101 productivity tips.

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Document Security and Privacy

Password Protection

Open Publisher encrypts documents using the Web Crypto API (AES-GCM), an industry-standard algorithm implemented natively in the browser.

• Encrypted files save as binary blobs, completely unreadable without the correct password.
• A Protected status badge appears in the bottom status bar when a document is secured.
• To open a protected document: open the file, enter the password in the decryption prompt.

Warning: There is no password recovery mechanism. If you lose the password, the document cannot be recovered. Always keep a backup of the unprotected source file.

Document Inspector

File > Info > Inspect Document scans across all pages and checks:

Category	What It Finds
Document Properties	Embedded author, company, subject, and keyword metadata
Off-Canvas Elements	Objects dragged partially or fully outside the page boundary
Empty Text Boxes	Text boxes containing only invisible characters (e.g., non-breaking spaces)

Each category shows a colour-coded Found/Clean status with a one-click Remove All action to purge detected data.

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The .opub File Format

Open Publisher's native format is .opub:

• Double-click to open on all supported platforms after installation.
• Backwards compatible with older versions of the application.
• Stores custom ruler origins, page notes, margin settings, master page overrides, per-page theme preferences, DPI, physical unit, page format, and spread mode.
• Supports AES-GCM encryption for protected documents.

Supported Import Formats

Format	Import Behaviour
.opub / .json	Native format - full fidelity, restores entire working session
.png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, .svg	Placed directly onto the canvas with visual feedback
.pub, .pubx	Dual-canvas Microsoft Publisher import: Editable Text & Graphics Mode or Flattened Image Mode
.xlsx, .xls	Fully interactive table object via Import Wizard
.doc, .docx	Dual-canvas Microsoft Word import: Editable Text & Graphics Mode or Flattened Image Mode
.pdf	Opened and edited directly in the browser (no server needed): Editable Text & Graphics Mode or Flattened Image Mode. Also works via drag and drop

Microsoft Publisher (.pub) and Word (.doc / .docx) Import Modes:

1. Editable Text & Graphics Mode - Uses a dual-canvas reconstruction pipeline that strips foreground text from the background artwork layer while preserving all original vector shapes, borders, table grids, and embedded photographs. Foreground text is reconstructed as editable Open Publisher text boxes with sampled ink colours (including light text over dark backgrounds), inline icons, multi-column table separation, and native CSS drop shadows.
2. Flattened Image Mode (Safe Mode) - Renders each page as a high-resolution background image, guaranteeing 100% pixel-identical layout accuracy. Ideal for archival documents, complex forms, or layouts where exact visual preservation matters more than text editing.

PDF Import (.pdf):

• Open and edit PDFs directly - Use File > Open, the Dashboard, or drag and drop any PDF onto the window. Pages are processed locally in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and it works offline.
• Same two modes - Editable Text & Graphics Mode rebuilds each page as editable text boxes over the original artwork, with fonts, sizes, colours and positions matched to the source. Flattened Image Mode keeps pages as exact images.
• Layout-aware text - Text is grouped by its real baseline and table columns stay separate. Spacing, vertical alignment and text widths follow the original, and text that would blend into its background (such as white text on a coloured button) is kept visible.
• Multi-page support - Every page is imported with its original dimensions and the document is named after the file.

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Keyboard Shortcuts Reference

Shortcut	Action
T (on canvas)	Insert new text box
Ctrl + Z	Undo
Ctrl + Y / Ctrl + Shift + Z	Redo
Ctrl + C	Copy element or selected text
Ctrl + X	Cut element or selected text
Ctrl + V	Paste with intelligent context routing
Ctrl + Shift + V	Paste without styles
Ctrl + D	Duplicate selected element or multi-element group
Ctrl + A	Select all
Ctrl + S	Save document (Atomic Pipeline)
Delete / Backspace	Delete selected element
Ctrl + Left Shift / Ctrl + Right Shift	Set paragraph direction to Left-to-Right (LTR) or Right-to-Left (RTL)
F9	Toggle zoom to/from 100%
F11	Native borderless fullscreen toggle
Shift + Mouse Wheel	Pan canvas horizontally
Ctrl + Mouse Wheel	Zoom in/out
Ctrl + Shift + D	Toggle Developer HUD
Ctrl + Shift + O / Ctrl + Shift + P	Bring application forward globally
Ctrl + Shift + L	Whole Page View
Ctrl + 0	Reset zoom to 100%
Shift + drag corner	Proportional resize
Ctrl/Cmd + drag handle	Scale from centre point
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + drag	Proportional scale from centre
Arrow keys (Multi-Page Overview)	Cycle page selection
Enter (Multi-Page Overview)	Open selected page for editing
Ctrl + Enter (AI Assistant)	Generate AI layout
Escape	Exit text editing mode / return to Single-Page from Overview

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Developers

rmellis

Tallulah95

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📖 Read the full documentation for step-by-step guides, screenshots, and in-depth feature walkthroughs

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Open Publisher - Professional desktop publishing, free for everyone.