ODP to PostScript Converter

ODP to PostScript — Do You Actually Want PS, or PDF?

This tool lays out your OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) slide deck and prints it to PostScript (.ps), Adobe's 1984 page-description language — a fixed-page stream of drawing commands meant for PostScript printers, RIPs, and Unix print pipelines. Each slide becomes one PostScript page, and animations, transitions, and embedded video simply disappear because a static print format has no concept of them. For most people who land here, the right target is PostScript's descendant, PDF. The table below shows which one you need; if it is PDF, use ODP to PDF instead.

PostScript vs PDF — Which Should ODP Convert To?

When to Pick PostScript (.ps)

• A legacy print server, RIP (raster image processor), or PostScript-only laser printer that ingests .ps directly to print your slides as pages.
• A Unix or Linux printing workflow — piping the file through Ghostscript or sending it to a queue with lpr / lp.
• A prepress or wide-format print bureau whose imposition workflow still expects PostScript input for poster-style slides.
• A Ghostscript or dvips-style pipeline that processes PostScript as an intermediate stage.

When to Pick PDF Instead

• You want to email or share the deck — PDF opens everywhere without extra software, and the layout is identical.
• You need on-screen reading with working search, hyperlinks, or a navigation outline.
• You are printing speaker notes or audience handouts on an ordinary office printer — PDF prints cleanly without a PostScript interpreter.
• You are not sure which you need — that almost always means PDF. ODP to PDF produces a near-identical page layout because the two formats share an imaging model.

How to Convert ODP to PostScript

1. Upload Your ODP File: Drag and drop your .odp into the upload area, or click "+ Add Files" to browse. You can queue several decks to convert with the same settings.
2. Choose a Compression Type: Under Advanced Options, the Compression Type preset — Screen (Best), Ebook, Default, Prepress, or Printer — controls how images inside the slides are downsampled and how the output is tuned. Leave it on Screen (Best) unless a print shop or RIP asks for Prepress or Printer-grade output.
3. Keep the Defaults Otherwise: The defaults render every slide faithfully to one fixed page each; you only need to touch the preset above for a specific print target.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your .ps file. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is converting ODP to PostScript or to PDF the better choice?

PDF is the better choice unless something downstream specifically requires PostScript. PDF is PostScript's descendant — Adobe shipped it in 1993 on the same page-imaging model, then added embedded fonts, metadata, search, and reliable on-screen viewing, which is why it became the standard for sharing slides and printing handouts. Convert ODP to .ps only for a legacy PostScript printer, a prepress RIP, or a Unix/Ghostscript print pipeline that reads PostScript directly. For everything else, ODP to PDF is the right fit.

What happens to slide animations, transitions, and embedded media?

They are dropped. PostScript describes finished, static pages — it has no timeline, no click-triggered builds, and no video playback. Each slide is flattened to a single printed page showing its final on-screen state, so a slide built up through several animation steps appears as the fully revealed slide. Embedded audio and video are removed entirely. The same is true of PDF: if you need the motion to survive, keep the original .odp and present it from Impress or PowerPoint.

Will one slide become one PostScript page?

Yes. The deck is laid out as a fixed-page document with each slide rendered to its own page in source order, so a 20-slide deck produces a 20-page .ps file. Slides keep their original aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9) rather than being forced onto a portrait sheet, so a widescreen deck stays widescreen on the page. If you later want a printer-friendly multiple-slides-per-page handout, that layout is a PDF/printer feature — generate the PDF first.

Will my ODP fonts and layout be reproduced exactly?

Slides are laid out and rendered to fixed pages, so text, images, charts, and shapes carry over as printed. Exact fidelity depends on fonts: where a typeface is available to the converter it can be embedded or outlined in the PostScript so the page prints the same elsewhere, and where it is not it is substituted with the closest match, which can shift line breaks and spacing on text-heavy slides. ODP itself does not embed fonts by default, so for a heavily designed deck, proof the output before sending it to a printer.

What software opens a PostScript file on Windows or macOS?

Ghostscript is the universal free interpreter and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux; GSview adds a graphical front end on top of it. macOS Preview opens .ps files directly via its built-in PostScript filter. Most Windows installations do not ship with a PostScript viewer, so Ghostscript is the standard install there. Adobe Illustrator and image editors such as GIMP can also rasterize PostScript. This viewer friction is another reason PDF is the better pick when you simply need to read or share the slides.

How do I send the .ps file to a printer on Linux or Unix?

PostScript files are built for exactly this. Most Unix-like systems can pipe a .ps file to a print queue with lpr or lp, and Ghostscript — the open-source PostScript and PDF interpreter — can act as the raster image processor that turns the PostScript into dots for a non-PostScript printer. A common pattern is to feed the file through Ghostscript with its output piped to the print queue. If your target is a modern desktop printer rather than a RIP, you will usually have an easier time printing a PDF.

Is converting ODP to PostScript private, and how long do you keep my file?

Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection and converted on our servers — there is no sign-up and no watermark, and your deck is never shared or made public. Uploaded and converted files are deleted automatically a few hours after conversion. In our testing, an image-heavy ODP deck produces a .ps file noticeably larger than the source, because PostScript records explicit page-drawing commands and embedded image data instead of the compact zipped XML inside an .odp; if size matters, the Screen (Best) or Ebook preset downsamples the embedded images. If you only need flat slide images instead of a print stream, see ODP to JPG.