PS2PDF(1)

✨ PS2PDF ✨ (section 1 of the Ghostscript manual, bestie 💅)

okay so listen. you know how Adobe Acrobat Distiller exists? yeah. these four little scripts are basically that, but free, and living inside your terminal. they take PostScript and turn it into PDF. that's the whole vibe. no cap.

• ps2pdf — Convert PostScript to PDF using ghostscript
• ps2pdf12 — Convert PostScript to PDF 1.2 (Acrobat 3-and-later compatible) using ghostscript
• ps2pdf13 — Convert PostScript to PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4-and-later compatible) using ghostscript
• ps2pdf14 — Convert PostScript to PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5-and-later compatible) using ghostscript

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

like, the shape of the thing. options go first, then your input, then where you want it to land:

ps2pdf  [options...] {input.[e]ps|-} [output.pdf|-]
ps2pdf12  [options...] {input.[e]ps|-} [output.pdf|-]
ps2pdf13  [options...] {input.[e]ps|-} [output.pdf|-]
ps2pdf14  [options...] {input.[e]ps|-} [output.pdf|-]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so. the ps2pdf scripts are work-alikes for nearly all the functionality of Adobe's Acrobat(TM) Distiller(TM) product — but not the user interface, bestie, don't get it twisted. what they do is: they convert PostScript files into Portable Document Format (PDF) files. that's it. that's the job. and they ate. 💅

now, if you don't say where the output should go, it just... decides for you. the output lands in a file of the same name but with a '.pdf' extension, sitting in the current working directory. cute, right?

and here's the filter-girlie part: either the input filename or the output filename can be '-' to request reading from stdin or writing to stdout, respectively, when used as a filter. pipe core. 🫶

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the three scripts differ as follows 👑 (yes this is under DESCRIPTION, keep up)

• ps2pdf12 will always produce PDF 1.2 output (Acrobat 3-and-later compatible).
• ps2pdf13 will always produce PDF 1.3 output (Acrobat 4-and-later compatible).
• ps2pdf14 will always produce PDF 1.4 output (Acrobat 5-and-later compatible).
• ps2pdf per se currently produces PDF 1.4 output. However, this may change in the future. If you care about the compatibility level of the output, use ps2pdf12, ps2pdf13 or ps2pdf14, or use the -dCompatibilityLevel=1.x switch in the command line.

not me warning you about the future-proofing thing. fr fr, if the compat level matters to you, pick a numbered one. future you says thank you. 🙈

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the tea on limitations ☕

There are some limitations in ps2pdf's conversion. See the HTML documentation for more information. A large number of Adobe Distiller(TM) parameters which can be used to control the conversion are also documented there, including instructions for generating PDF/X and PDF/A documents.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

The ps2pdf scripts use the same options as gs(1).

that's the whole section bestie. every single option is just... gs's options. iconic delegation honestly. 💖

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

Converting a figure.ps to figure.pdf:

ps2pdf figure.ps

A conversion with more specifics:

ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress figure.ps proof.pdf

Converting as part of a pipe:

make_report.pl -t ps | ps2pdf -dCompatibilityLevel=1.3 - - | lpr

look at that last one. - then -. stdin in, stdout out, straight into lpr. main character pipeline energy. 🌈

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• gs(1)
• ps2pdfwr(1)
• VectorDevices.htm in the Ghostscript documentation

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💀 BUGS 💀

See http://bugs.ghostscript.com/ and the Usenet news group comp.lang.postscript.

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💜 VERSION 💜

This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 10.04.0.

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Artifex Software, Inc. are the primary maintainers of Ghostscript. This manpage by George Ferguson.

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖✨ shoutout to Ghostscript 10.04.0, dated 18 Sept 2024 — go convert something and slay 🎀🦋🌸