Publisher alternative in 2026

Oh wonderful idea, thank you for posting this!

Dear Sophia

I have used MS Publisher for more than 20 years. I produce booklets and Christmas cards for churches and charities. We cannot afford expensive programs.

What else will format an A5 booklet or paste a frame of information onto a picture or manipulate arrangements of text and pictures/photos like Publisher.

Whatever is the reason for retiring it?

I have 100s of pieces that will be lost.

Cancel this bad decision immediately!

from Pipin

I did a test trial of affinity ( shouldn't have gotten it at that time as I didn't have the time to really test it out) Anyway after the trial period they sent a questionnaire, I explained the situation & mentioned if they could work up a conversion it would be great. Maybe if others do the same they might take it more seriously.

Exactly! And after we have supported Microsoft all these years, why can’t they give the program to an entity that we can pay subscription fees to? Affinity Publisher looks good, but I don’t believe will open our MS publisher files.

It's clear MS does not care. I tried asking in in support ticket. No answer.

It looks like Canva is my answer. I have tried everything else with no luck.

Luckily I am fairly knowledgeable with it. It converted my newsletter and other docs well.

So....