Microsoft Publisher Is Retiring. Meet Psalterium.

Free publishing software for Catholic musicians and parish staff—with Publisher import, hymn and chant engraving, reusable music libraries, and printable worship booklets.

If you prepare Sunday worship aids, hymn sheets, funeral or wedding programs, parish bulletins, or other church music publications in Microsoft Publisher, this change affects you.

Microsoft Publisher is being retired in October 2026, leaving many church musicians, choir directors, organists, parish secretaries, and liturgy staff looking for a practical replacement.

Meet Psalterium — A Familiar Way Forward

Psalterium was designed so that Publisher users don't have to start over.

If you are comfortable working in Microsoft Publisher, much of Psalterium will look and feel familiar. You still work visually with pages, text frames, images, music, and other elements positioned where you want them. The goal is a favorable learning curve—not forcing longtime Publisher users to learn an entirely different way of creating publications.

Even better, Psalterium adds tools Publisher never had: hymn and Gregorian chant engraving, psalm tones, reusable music libraries, worship-booklet production, and other features created specifically for church musicians and parish staff.

And you don't necessarily have to rebuild your existing publications. Psalterium can import supported Microsoft Publisher .pub files, giving you a starting point for bringing years of parish work into the new system.

Psalterium Opus, the desktop edition, is free and works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Sign up to try Psalterium.

Psalterium is currently in invite-only beta testing, with a wider launch expected soon.

If Microsoft Publisher has been an important part of your parish or church-music work, join the waitlist now.

Bring your Publisher documents with you

Moving to new software should not mean recreating years of parish work.

Psalterium can import supported Microsoft Publisher .pub files directly into its publication editor, bringing across page dimensions, editable text frames, images, and supported vector shapes. An existing worship aid becomes a starting point you can revise and reuse.

As with any move between publishing applications, imported documents should be checked for font substitutions, text wrapping, and page breaks. Keep the original files, and save reference PDFs from Publisher while you still have access. Those PDFs give you something to compare against as you prepare your first Psalterium edition.

You can begin with a familiar document and gradually introduce Psalterium’s music and layout tools as you need them.

A library that grows with your parish

Preparing a worship aid often means searching through folders for a hymn, opening another application for chant, and finding the text used at last year’s celebration.

Psalterium brings those resources into one organized library. It can hold hymn texts, hymn tunes, Gregorian chants, psalm tones, readings, scores, descants, short musical settings, images, and reusable text.

Hymn texts and tunes are stored separately and can be paired for printing. That is particularly useful when a familiar tune serves several texts, or when you want to prepare different musical versions of the same hymn. Titles, categories, source information, and credits help keep the collection useful as it grows.

For parishes who use A Catholic Book of Hymns, this offers a practical way to build publications around the repertoire your congregation and choir already knows. Music obtained from Sacred Music Library can be brought into the workflow through supported score and document formats.

Hymns prepared for the people singing them

A congregation, a choir, and an organist do not always need the same printed page.

Psalterium’s hymn tools let you adapt supported musical resources to the occasion:

• Pair hymn texts with tunes.

• Transpose editable hymn music into a suitable key.

• Prepare melody-only versions or settings with harmony.

• Choose which verses to include.

• Arrange additional verses beneath the music or in two columns.

• Adjust staff size, line breaks, headings, margins, and credits.

• Incorporate descants where available.

• Preview the result and export it for printing.

A parish can use a clear melody version in its congregational booklet while preparing a fuller musical setting for the choir. Because the music is engraved from musical data, editable resources can be resized and reformatted without relying on blurry screenshots.

Gregorian chant belongs in the same workspace

Psalterium includes a Gregorian chant editor with GABC support, engraved previews, and both neume and modern-notation views. Chant playback can help musicians hear a passage while preparing it, and MusicXML export provides another route into compatible notation software.

Psalm-tone tools bring tones and pointed texts into the same library, helping you prepare material for psalmody alongside hymns and other musical settings.

For a parish introducing chant, these tools make it easier to prepare readable materials. For an established schola, they provide a way to organize and reuse a growing repertoire.

Use the music files you already have

Parish collections rarely arrive in a single format. Psalterium supports workflows for importing PDF scores, MusicXML, MuseScore, Finale, LilyPond, and GABC, alongside Publisher documents.

Existing PDF music can be placed in a publication, while supported notation files provide opportunities for engraving and further musical adaptation. You can retain useful scores from your archive and introduce editable resources over time.

Playback tools for supported hymns and chants also assist preparation and rehearsal. Optional Cantai integration adds synthesized sung audio for supported hymn workflows.

Prepare foldable PDF booklets for printing and sharing

Psalterium exports PDFs for distribution, printing, and parish archives. For folded booklets, it can arrange pages two per sheet in printer order, add the blank pages needed to complete the booklet, and accommodate a variety of duplex printing settings. That removes much of the manual page rearrangement involved in turning a document into a folded program.

Keep your work on your own computer. Forever.

• Psalterium Opus works locally and offline, with your working library stored on your computer. You can back it up yourself, maintain separate collections, and continue preparing publications without an internet connection.

• Psalterium Introit provides a free browser introduction to the workflow.

• Psalterium Schola is being developed for shared libraries and online team collaboration; it is currently in an invitation-only closed beta.

Start with one familiar worship aid

You do not need to move your entire archive at once. Download Psalterium Opus, create a local library, and import one Publisher document you know well. Check the layout, add a hymn or chant, and export a proof PDF.

At Sacred Music Library, we want practical tools that help church musicians prepare beautiful, reverent music. Psalterium brings publishing and musical preparation together, giving parishes a useful path forward as Publisher retires.