PublishingDesk

1. Getting started

Create a document

File → New… (or the New toolbar button) opens the template gallery:

• Paper — A-series (A3/A4/A5…) and US (Letter/Legal…).
• Social Media — Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and more.
• Print — business card, postcard, poster, and similar.
• Custom — type an exact width × height.

Each card shows an aspect-accurate preview and its dimensions; use the Landscape toggle to flip orientation before creating. Documents open as tabs — you can have several open at once. A tab with unsaved changes shows a *, and closing a tab or the app prompts you to save.

A 60-second tour

1. Click Add Text (or Add اردو for complex-script) to drop a text frame, then double-click it to type.
2. Click Add Image to place a picture; Add Shape for a rectangle/ellipse.
3. Drag objects to move them; drag the corner handles to resize; drag the small handle above an object to rotate.
4. Use the Properties panel (right) to set exact position, size, rotation and opacity.
5. File → Save (Ctrl+S) to a .pubdesk file.

2. The workspace

• Menu bar — File, Edit, Page, Arrange, View, Tools, Help.
• Toolbar (icons) — New / Open / Save / Export / Print · Undo / Redo · Add Image / Text / اردو (Urdu) / Shape · z-order · Delete.
• Format bar (appears when a text frame is selected) — font, size, bold/italic, alignment, colour. Its contents differ for English vs Urdu frames.
• Canvas — your page, with optional rulers, grid, margins/guides.
• Layers panel (top-right) — every object on the current page; toggle visibility and lock, drag to restack.
• Properties panel (right) — grouped, collapsible cards for the selected object.
• Pages strip (bottom) — page thumbnails, page tools, master-page chips, navigation, and zoom.

3. Pages

All page tools live in the Pages strip at the bottom (and mirror in the Page menu).

• Add page (＋), Duplicate page, Delete page.
• Move page earlier / later (up/down arrows) to reorder.
• Previous / Next (‹ / ›) buttons and clickable page thumbnails to navigate. The selected page is highlighted with a blue border.

Page size, orientation, margins

• Page → Page Size… — change the current page’s dimensions.
• Page → Portrait / Landscape — flip orientation.
• Page → Margins & Guides… — set margins (left/top/right/bottom), columns (count + gutter) and a baseline-grid spacing. These are non-printing guides; show/hide them with View → Margins & Guides. (New pages start with no margins, so set them here first if the toggle shows nothing.)

Page numbers

• Page → Insert Page Number — drops an auto-updating page-number field on the current page.
• Page → Insert Page Number on All Pages — numbers every page at once (skips any that already have one); a single Undo removes them all.

4. Master pages

A master page is a reusable template that sits behind your pages and holds repeating “furniture” — headers, footers, page numbers, logos, borders. Design it once and apply it to the pages you choose; change the master and every page using it updates. (Same concept as InDesign’s parent pages or PowerPoint’s slide master.) One master applies per page — applying a different one replaces the previous.

In the MASTERS section of the pages strip:

• A / B / C chips — one per master; click a chip to edit that master.
• ＋ — create a new master.
• Apply ▾ — choose Apply to This Page → (master), or Remove from This Page.

While editing a master, no page is highlighted; click any page to return to it. Each page thumbnail shows a small badge with the letter of the master applied to it. The same actions are in Page → Master Pages.

5. Layers & objects

Every object — text, image, shape, imported path — is a layer on the current page. Add them from the toolbar: Add Image, Add Text (English), Add اردو (Urdu/complex-script), Add Shape.

Selecting & manipulating

• Click to select; click empty page to deselect; Ctrl+click to multi-select.
• Drag the body to move; drag a corner/edge handle to resize; drag the handle above an object to rotate (hold Shift to snap to 15°).
• Smart snapping/guides appear while dragging; turn on Snap to Grid in the View menu for grid snapping.

Properties panel

Grouped into collapsible cards: LAYER (name + opacity), TRANSFORM (X/Y, W/H, rotation), and a type-specific card — text frame fill & effects, English text size/spacing/effects, shape appearance, or image stretch/crop.

Layers panel & Arrange

• Toggle visibility and lock (a locked layer can’t be moved, resized, rotated or edited); drag a layer up/down to restack it (changes z-order, undoable).
• Arrange → Align Left / Center / Right / Top / Middle / Bottom (needs 2+ objects) and Distribute Horizontally / Vertically (needs 3+ objects).

6. English (Latin) text

Add with Add Text and double-click to type. English frames use a rich-text editor, so you can mix fonts, sizes, weights and colours within one frame. The format bar controls font, size, bold/italic, alignment (left/center/right/justify) and colour.

How formatting is applied:

• Text selected → changes only the selection.
• Caret only, editing → sets the pending format — what you type next uses it; existing text is untouched (like Word).
• Frame selected, not editing → changes the whole frame.

7. Urdu / complex-script text

This is PublishingDesk’s specialty. Add with Add اردو; double-click to type. Letters join correctly (Nastaliq shaping) for Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Arabic. The format bar offers Language, Font, Size, alignment and Colour; the Properties → TEXT card adds line spacing, effects and a content box.

Typing Urdu

An in-app Urdu keyboard translates your keystrokes, chosen automatically from the frame’s language. Change it in Tools → Options → Urdu (Standard / Phonetic Roman→Urdu / System Windows keyboard). Mixed direction works — English words and numbers inside an Urdu frame sit left-to-right in the right-to-left line.

Fonts, justification, kashida (kasheeda)

Switch among the bundled Nastaliq/Arabic fonts from the Font dropdown, or add your own (see Installing fonts). Set a paragraph to Justified and PublishingDesk fills each line by elongating the script’s connecting strokes (tatweel) instead of opening gaps between words.

8. Text effects

Select a text frame and use the Effects editor in its properties card: apply a preset, or set individual Fill, Outline and Shadow (plus glow, inner-shadow and bevel). Effects render on both English and Urdu frames and are saved with the document.

9. Importing content

Import text into a frame

File → Import Text → Into Selected Frame pours a .txt/.md/.docx file into the selected complex-script (Urdu) frame, preserving RTL.

Autoflow across pages

File → Import Text → Autoflow Across Pages treats the selected frame’s page as a template, duplicates it as many times as needed, and threads the text through all the copies (carrying the page’s border/graphics).

Import SVG

File → Import SVG brings an SVG’s vector shapes/paths in as editable Path layers. Embedded images, gradients and live text aren’t imported (vector shapes only).

10. Find & Replace

Ctrl+F (or Edit → Find & Replace…) searches all text frames — Urdu and English. Use Find Next, Replace and Replace All.

• Urdu keyboard checkbox: on → type Urdu (translated via the in-app keyboard); off → type plain Latin to find embedded English. It defaults to the selected frame’s script and you can flip it any time.
• Ignore case (Latin) affects embedded Latin only (Urdu has no case).

11. Exporting & printing

File → Export:

• As PNG — raster image (2× scale), colours and transparency preserved.
• As PDF — vector; Urdu shaping preserved as crisp glyph outlines.
• As SVG (Pro) — vector paths plus embedded images.
• As PDF for Print (Pro) — adds a bleed area and crop marks for professional printing.
• Preflight (Pro) — checks the document and reports issues before you export.

File → Print prints the current page, or use Print… (all pages) with a page range. Per-layer opacity is honoured in every export and in print.

12. Free vs Pro

PublishingDesk is free to use — the whole designer is open, with no account and no time limit. A one-time Pro upgrade unlocks professional output.

The free watermark is a small “Made with PublishingDesk” badge in the corner of exported/printed pages; Pro removes it everywhere. Upgrade any time via Help → Upgrade to Pro…, or pick a Pro export and you’ll be offered the upgrade. Pro is a one-time purchase (not a subscription) and re-unlocks automatically on your other Windows devices signed in to the same store account.

13. Saving, recovery & files

• Save / Save As (Ctrl+S) writes a .pubdesk file capturing pages, every layer, effects, opacity, masters and page setup (images are embedded, so the file is self-contained).
• File → Open Recent lists recently used documents.
• Autosave & crash recovery — your work is autosaved periodically; if the app closes unexpectedly, it offers to recover unsaved changes on next launch.
• Window size/position is remembered between sessions.

14. Installing fonts

PublishingDesk ships with a curated set of free Nastaliq/Arabic-script fonts (Noto Nastaliq Urdu — the default — plus Gulzar, Amiri, Scheherazade New, Noto Naskh Arabic, Lateef, Markazi Text, Estedad, Vazirmatn), and uses your Windows system fonts for everything else. You can add any font you like — including popular Nastaliq fonts that aren’t bundled.

How to add your own fonts (3 steps)

1. In the app, go to Help → Open Fonts Folder… — this opens your personal fonts folder (always use this menu item rather than typing a path, so it works even when installed from the Microsoft Store).
2. Copy your .ttf / .otf font files into that folder (subfolders are fine).
3. Restart PublishingDesk. Your fonts now appear in the Font dropdowns.

15. Keyboard shortcuts

16. Troubleshooting

• The guide toggle (Margins & Guides) shows nothing. The page has no margins/columns/baseline yet — set them in Page → Margins & Guides… first.
• A dropped-in font doesn’t appear. Make sure it’s a .ttf/.otf in the folder opened by Help → Open Fonts Folder…, then restart the app.
• Urdu types as Latin in a search box. Tick the Urdu keyboard checkbox in Find & Replace (or check the keyboard in Tools → Options → Urdu).
• Recovered the wrong/old version? Recovery offers your last autosave; if you’d already saved a newer copy, open that file from File → Open / Open Recent.