PS to PS Converter

How to Re-export PS to PS Online

1. Upload Your PS File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select your PostScript (.ps) file. Only .ps is accepted on this page; for .eps use the EPS converter instead. Batch uploads are supported.
2. Pick a Compression Type: Default is Screen (Best) — Ghostscript's smallest-output profile (72 dpi image downsampling, JPEG image compression). Choose Ebook for medium-resolution 150 dpi, Default for general-purpose output, Printer for 300 dpi office-printer quality, or Prepress for 300 dpi color-preserved output suited to commercial print RIPs.
3. Adjust Other Options (if shown): Most page-layout controls (paper size, margins, image placement) only appear when converting images into PDF and stay hidden for PS→PS, so the Compression Type preset is usually the only knob you need.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download the re-processed PS. Files are processed in your browser session — no sign-up, no watermark, files are auto-deleted from our servers shortly after.

Why Re-export PS to PS?

PostScript is a page description language Adobe introduced in 1984 and extended with Level 2 in 1991 and PostScript 3 in 1997. It is still the lingua franca of high-end print RIPs, even though Adobe deprecated PostScript Type 1 font authoring in its Creative Cloud apps in January 2023 (PostScript output and PDF Print Engine RIPs continue to render Type 1 just fine). Most modern workflows have moved to PDF, but a .ps round-trip is still genuinely useful when a file misbehaves on a specific interpreter.

• Normalize files from mixed sources — A PostScript stream produced by lpr -P on Linux, Adobe Illustrator's "Save As EPS/PS" exporter, and a 2008-era LaTeX dvips toolchain can all look syntactically different even when they describe the same page. Running the file through Ghostscript's pdfwrite plus a fresh ps2write pass produces a clean, consistent PostScript Level 2/3 dictionary that most modern RIPs prefer.
• Shrink bloated PostScript — Older PS exporters embed entire font families and uncompressed image streams. Re-exporting with the Screen or Ebook preset downsamples embedded raster images and applies JPEG/Flate compression, often cutting file size by 50-90% with no visible quality loss for on-screen review.
• Recover from "PostScript error: undefined" failures — When a printer refuses a PS file with undefined, rangecheck, or typecheck errors, re-export through Ghostscript normalizes operator names and discards proprietary procsets that the target RIP doesn't recognize.
• Strip embedded thumbnails and metadata — Some PS generators include EPSI preview thumbnails or non-standard %% comments that confuse downstream tooling. A clean re-export rewrites only the standard DSC (Document Structuring Conventions) comments.
• Prepress vs. screen output from one source — Keep a master high-quality PS and use the Screen preset to make a small proofing copy for email, or the Prepress preset to hand off to a commercial printer. Same input, two purpose-built outputs.
• Bridge legacy print workflows — Newspaper, packaging, and pharma label shops still run RIPs that expect PostScript input. Re-exporting through a modern interpreter helps move files from end-of-life authoring software to a current PostScript-3-capable RIP without retyping.

PostScript vs. EPS vs. PDF — Format Comparison

Compression Type Preset Quick Guide

These five presets map to Ghostscript's -dPDFSETTINGS family, applied to a PostScript round-trip via the pdfwrite and ps2write devices. Names match what you see in the page's Advanced Options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why would I "convert" PS to PS instead of just leaving it alone?

The conversion engine interprets the input PostScript with Ghostscript and writes a fresh PS file from the rendered page state. That round-trip flattens uncommon operators, fixes malformed DSC comments, downsamples bloated images, and produces a PS stream that downstream interpreters and RIPs accept more reliably. It is not the same byte stream coming back — it is a cleaned, normalized version.

Which PostScript level does the output use?

The output is PostScript Level 2/3-compatible because that is what Ghostscript's ps2write device emits. Level 2 (1991) added color images, JPEG decompression, and composite fonts; PostScript 3 (1997) added smooth shading, DeviceN color, and better filters. Almost every printer made since 2000 understands at least Level 2, so the output is broadly compatible. If your target device only speaks Level 1, you usually need a vendor-specific workflow rather than a generic converter.

Will this fix a corrupted PS file that won't print?

Often, yes — if the file is structurally intact but contains operators or fonts the target RIP refuses, re-exporting through Ghostscript replaces them with standard equivalents. If the file is truncated (no %%EOF or showpage), the missing data is gone for good; a converter cannot reconstruct content that was never written. Open the file in a text editor; if the last line is %%EOF or showpage, re-export is worth trying.

Should I just convert to PDF instead?

For sharing, viewing, or archiving — yes, use PS to PDF. PDF is the modern successor to PostScript, is browser-viewable, supports random-access reading, and is the input format for most current print workflows (PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-4). Keep the file as PS only if a specific printer driver or RIP explicitly requires PostScript input.

How much smaller will my PS file get?

Heavily image-laden PS files exported by older applications often shrink 50-90% under the Screen preset, mostly from downsampling embedded raster images to 72 dpi and applying JPEG compression. A text-and-vector-only PS file may only shrink 5-20%, since there are no raster images to recompress. If size barely changes, the bottleneck is embedded fonts or vector path complexity, not raster data.

Does Adobe still support PostScript in 2026?

PostScript output and Adobe PDF Print Engine RIPs still process PostScript and still render Type 1 fonts. What Adobe ended in January 2023 was authoring with Type 1 fonts in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and other Creative Cloud apps — you can no longer use Type 1 fonts as input when designing new content. Existing PostScript files already containing Type 1 glyphs are unaffected by that change.

What software still creates .ps files today?

LaTeX/dvips, GNU Octave's print drivers, Matplotlib's PostScript backend, Ghostscript, Inkscape (export), and many Linux applications via CUPS' cups-pdf/cups-pk-pdf filter chain still produce .ps directly. Adobe Illustrator 2024+ no longer offers .ps as a primary "Save As" target, though it still exports EPS. Most modern desktop apps have switched to PDF as the default print-to-file format.

Can I open the re-exported PS file on Windows, macOS, or Linux?

On macOS, Preview opens PS files directly. On Linux, Evince, Okular, and GIMP all read PostScript. On Windows there is no built-in viewer — install Ghostscript plus GSview, or use a PS-aware viewer like SumatraPDF. If you just need to look at it, converting to PS to PNG or PS to JPG is usually faster than installing a PostScript stack.

Will the re-exported file print on my old PostScript printer?

If the printer supports PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3 (most laser printers sold after 1995), yes. Level-1-only printers (rare today) may choke on some operators in the Level 2/3 output. For finicky devices, try the Default or Printer preset rather than Screen — fewer aggressive transformations means fewer chances of an interpreter rejecting an operator.