Convert GIF to PS — Free Online Converter

PostScript (PS) is Adobe's page description language, originally developed in 1984 for controlling laser printers and imagesetters. Converting GIF to PostScript wraps your image in a PS program that describes the image data as a series of printer commands. The resulting .ps file can be sent directly to PostScript-compatible printers, processed by RIP (Raster Image Processor) systems, or converted to EPS for inclusion in professional print layouts using tools like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress.

While PostScript has been largely superseded by PDF for document exchange, it remains active in professional prepress, commercial printing, and legacy typesetting workflows. Print shops running older RIP hardware, university math and science departments using LaTeX/TeX, and industrial label printing systems often work with PostScript files as their native interchange format.

Professional print production sometimes requires PostScript input. Commercial print shops with older prepress workflows, particularly those using Harlequin or CPSI RIP systems, may accept or require PostScript files. If you have a GIF graphic (a logo, diagram, or illustration) that needs to be placed in a PostScript-based print workflow, converting it to PS provides the compatible format.

LaTeX and TeX document preparation systems traditionally use EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) for included graphics. If you are preparing an academic paper, mathematical document, or technical report in LaTeX and need to include a GIF diagram, converting to PostScript (then using it as EPS) is the standard approach for DVI-based workflows. Modern pdfLaTeX can include JPEG and PNG directly, but classic LaTeX with dvips still requires PostScript graphics.

The conversion uses Ghostscript to encode the GIF image data as a PostScript Level 2 program. The image pixels are encoded using ASCII85 (or hex encoding for maximum compatibility) and wrapped in a PostScript image operator that reconstructs the raster data on the output device. The PS file includes DSC (Document Structuring Conventions) comments for %%BoundingBox, %%Pages, and other standard header fields. Color data is converted from GIF's indexed palette to RGB for the PS color model. The resulting file is a text-based program that can be inspected and modified with any text editor.