Cyrillic Publisher files: Russian, Ukrainian and other languages
If your Publisher files are written in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian or another language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, you probably want to know one thing first: will the letters survive?
They do. The Cyrillic text in your document comes out as Cyrillic text. It is not turned into an image, and it does not become a row of strange Latin symbols. In the PDF you can search it and copy it. In Word you can edit it.
When a Cyrillic file goes wrong, the cause is almost always the font.
Empty boxes instead of letters
Many Publisher templates use decorative faces for headings: a script for a wedding invitation, a heavy display face for a poster, an old-style face for a certificate. Plenty of those faces were designed for the Latin alphabet and have no Cyrillic letters at all.
Publisher handled this quietly. When a heading asked for a face without Cyrillic, Publisher drew the letters with something else, and you probably never noticed. A converter that uses the named face exactly as it is has nothing to draw. You get a heading made of empty boxes, while the body text below it looks fine.
There is a related problem. Some older faces have the Russian alphabet but miss letters used in other languages, such as ґ and ї in Ukrainian. Those few letters are the ones to check in the preview.
We wrote more about substitution in general in when you don't have the font and when you do have the font.
What each output format does
In the PDF, when the face your document names has no Cyrillic letters, the converter uses a stand-in face that has them, chosen from common faces with full Cyrillic coverage. You see your words, not boxes. The heading may look plainer than the original design, but it reads correctly.
Word and IDML files keep the original font names from your .pub file. Nothing is renamed. If you have the original font installed and it covers Cyrillic, Word or InDesign uses it. If the face has no Cyrillic letters, your program decides how to show them. The fix in that case is simple: select the heading and choose a face that covers Cyrillic. Your text is still there, so nothing needs retyping.
ODG files for LibreOffice Draw also keep the original font names, so the same advice applies there.
A few things worth checking
Body text in common faces is rarely a problem. Look at headings, logos and decorative text first, because that is where faces without Cyrillic usually sit.
Check letters that are special to your language. A heading in Ukrainian, Serbian or Kazakh can use letters that a face made with Russian in mind does not have.
If a heading matters a lot, for example on a certificate, decide whether the stand-in is close enough. If it is not, convert to Word or IDML, install a face with full Cyrillic coverage, and set it on the heading yourself.
How to try it
- Drop your .pub file on the home page.
- Look through the free preview. It shows the PDF output, up to 100 pages and 25 MB per file, with a watermark and no account needed.
- Check headings and decorative text for boxes or letters in the wrong style.
- If it looks right, buy access and download the format you need. Access is a one-time $49 for as many conversion jobs as you like, up to 20 files and 2 GB per job.
If you have a large archive, the Windows app converts on your own PC without the website's job caps.
Preview a Cyrillic file free and look at the headings first.