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Need help?PostScript to Image: the Target List and the Missing First Step
This page offers sixteen image targets for a PostScript document — APNG, AVIF, BMP, EPS, GIF, HEIC, HEIF, ICO, JFIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG, PPM, TIF, TIFF and WebP — and, unlike the PDF version of the same tool, none of them is preselected: the Image File Extension control starts empty, and submitting without choosing does not quietly give you JPG. There is a second thing to settle before you upload. A .ps file is a PostScript program, and the renderer behind every one of those targets is a PDF renderer: it looks for %PDF- and a cross-reference trailer, a PostScript stream begins %!PS-Adobe-…, so a genuine .ps upload ends in an error instead of an image. Turn the PostScript into a PDF first and the whole target list opens up through PDF to Image, which is the same renderer with the same options.
How to Convert PostScript to an Image
- Turn the
.psInto a PDF: Runps2pdf input.ps output.pdfon your own computer — it wraps Ghostscript's pdfwrite device, which is free on Windows, macOS and Linux — or use any application's "Print to PDF" route. - Upload the PDF and Choose the Image File Extension: Open PDF to Image, add the file, and pick your output format explicitly. On that page JPG is preselected, but the target you want is one click away in the same list.
- Set Conversion Quality and the Quality Preset: Conversion Quality is the render DPI — 72, 96, 150, 200, 300 (preselected), 400, 600 or 1200 — and it decides the pixel dimensions. Quality Preset (Very High by default) feeds the encoder, Image Transparency sets the colour behind the page, and Image resolution rescales the finished raster.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the image, or take the ZIP when the document runs to several pages. No sign-up and no watermark; files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours.
Which Target to Pick
Every format in the list renders the same page; what differs is compression, who can open it, and a few quirks worth knowing before you commit.
| Target | What you get | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
| JPG / JPEG / JFIF | The same JPEG bytes under three names; lossy, no alpha | The image just has to open everywhere |
| PNG | Deflate-coded; the Highest preset is the true-colour lossless one, lower presets quantize the palette | Text, diagrams, or anything needing an alpha channel |
| WebP | Lossy or lossless by a toggle; ~26% under PNG lossless, 25–34% under JPEG lossy | Web delivery |
| TIF / TIFF | One format, two spellings; Compression Type opens on lossy JPEG — switch to LZW or Deflate | Print and archival hand-off |
| HEIC / HEIF | Byte-identical HEVC stills; 8-bit sRGB, no alpha | Apple-only workflows |
| AVIF | AV1-coded still; the strongest compression in the list, and the newest format on it | Modern web pages, where small beats universal |
| GIF | The one target that assembles the pages into a single animation rather than one file per page | A quick flip-through of a short document |
| APNG | A single still per page — this route does not animate a page sequence into it | Rarely the right pick here; use PNG |
| BMP | Uncompressed Windows bitmap, very large | A tool that accepts nothing else |
| PPM | Plain Netpbm bitmap, uncompressed | Feeding an image-processing script |
| ICO | Icon container; the resolution preset sets the height and the width follows the page aspect | Building a favicon from a logo page |
| EPS | A raster image wrapped in PostScript, not a vector trace of the page | A layout program that demands EPS |
The PDF Step, and Why It Isn't Automatic
PostScript is a Turing-complete programming language: the file is a program that paints a page when a PostScript interpreter executes it. PDF kept the same imaging model but dropped the programming, so a PDF is a static object graph that a parser can walk without running anything. Our page pipeline is that parser, which is why it reads one format and not the other — and why Ghostscript, the interpreter that would be doing the work anyway, has to be the one to bridge the gap.
Two things follow. A real PostScript upload fails outright, with no partial image to salvage, so retrying with a different target or DPI will not change the outcome. And if a file named .ps does convert here, it was PDF data wearing the wrong extension — renderers identify a file by its header bytes, never by its name. Opening the file in a PDF viewer is a quick way to check: if it opens, you already have your PDF.
Conversion Quality: DPI to Pixel Dimensions
| Page size | 96 DPI | 150 DPI | 300 DPI (preselected) | 600 DPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A4 (210 × 297 mm) | 794 × 1123 | 1240 × 1754 | 2480 × 3508 | 4961 × 7016 |
| US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) | 816 × 1056 | 1275 × 1650 | 2550 × 3300 | 5100 × 6600 |
| A3 (297 × 420 mm) | 1123 × 1587 | 1754 × 2480 | 3508 × 4961 | 7016 × 9921 |
| Good for | thumbnails and previews | on-screen reading | print-grade default | fine line art, archival |
A page description has no resolution of its own, so this single number decides how much detail is captured. Render for the largest use you can foresee and scale down afterwards with Image resolution — that keeps glyph edges cleaner than rendering coarse from the start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which format does this page convert to if I do not pick one?
Do not rely on it picking for you. The Image File Extension list on a PostScript source has no preselected entry — the default that fills in JPG belongs to the PDF group, not this one — so an untouched form falls back to the first entry in the list rather than to the format most people want. Choose the target explicitly every time.
Why does my PostScript file end in an error instead of an image?
Because the file is handed to a PDF renderer, which cannot parse a PostScript program. The parser looks for the %PDF- header and a valid trailer, finds %!PS-Adobe- instead, and throws. Convert the file with ps2pdf first — or print it to PDF — and then use PDF to Image, which is the identical pipeline with a source it can read.
Is a .ps the same thing as an .eps?
No, and they behave differently here. An EPS is a single-page, self-contained PostScript fragment meant to be embedded in another document, and it carries a bounding box; a full .ps is a document that can run to many pages and often comes out of a print driver. If your file is really an EPS, use EPS to JPG, which takes an image-class source and does not need the PDF detour.
What happens to a multi-page document?
Every page becomes its own image file, numbered in order and bundled as a ZIP when there is more than one. The single exception is GIF, which assembles the pages into one animation instead. If you want the pages kept together as a document rather than as images, the PDF from step 1 already does that.
Which target keeps the text sharpest?
PNG at the Highest preset, or WebP with the Lossless toggle set to Yes. Both are entropy coders that reproduce hard black-on-white edges exactly, which is what a page of type is made of. JPEG-family targets — JPG, JPEG, JFIF, and a TIFF left on its default JPEG compression — put ringing around small glyphs, and that is the artefact people notice first when they zoom in.
Can I get a vector image out of this, since PostScript is vector?
Not from this route. Every target on the list is a raster format, and even the EPS option produces a raster image wrapped in PostScript rather than a vector trace of the page. If the goal is to keep curves and text scalable, keep the PDF — it holds the same vector objects the PostScript described, without re-running the program.
Will the output image have a transparent background?
Only for PNG. The page is composited onto the Image Transparency colour — White unless you choose one of the other 24 — and the "Unchanged" option that preserves alpha is exposed for PNG output only. Formats that do support alpha, such as WebP and AVIF, still come out flattened on this route.
How are my files handled, and how long are they kept?
Everything you upload travels over an encrypted connection and is rendered on our servers, so this is not an offline tool. Uploads and results are deleted automatically after a few hours, are never shared or made public, and no sign-up is required at any point. Output carries no watermark.