Korva

Could you build this?

No Microsoft Publisher's .pub format is a notoriously complex, undocumented binary compound file format with multiple versions across decades. Reverse engineering .pub files to extract pixel-perfect layouts, fonts, and vector elements, and then building an offline desktop WYSIWYG editor, requires deep specialized binary file format reverse engineering and desktop graphics engine development.

What it would actually take: A developer would need to bridge or rewrite reverse-engineered C++ libraries like libmspub (from LibreOffice/Document Liberation Project) or reverse-engineer Microsoft's binary OLE compound document structures. The app would need an offline cross-platform GUI framework (e.g., Qt or Rust with Slint/Tauri) with a custom vector layout engine capable of rendering text flows, shapes, and font fallbacks accurately, paired with a print-ready PDF export engine (like Skia or HarfBuzz). This requires deep expertise in desktop document engineering and legacy binary parsing that cannot be vibe-coded.