How do I get a vector format back?

PostScript (.ps) is Adobe's page description language, the direct ancestor of PDF and the foundation of professional print production for forty years. While PDF has eclipsed .ps for distribution, raw PostScript still surfaces in print RIPs (raster image processors), academic LaTeX workflows where dvips remains a standard backend, legacy prepress pipelines at offset printers, and engineering teams running CAD systems that output .ps for plotter pen-up commands. Converting to JPG flattens the resolution-independent vector instructions into a raster image suitable for screens and modern sharing.

jpg.now uses Ghostscript - the reference PostScript interpreter - to rasterise the document at a configurable DPI (default 200, suitable for screen viewing; bump to 300 for print-quality output). Each page in the .ps stream becomes a separate JPG. Fonts embedded in the file render correctly; missing fonts fall back to a similar substitute, which is occasionally visible at body-text size. EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files use the same engine - upload them to the same path.

Typical users include academic publishers converting old LaTeX papers from .ps archives, print houses generating soft proofs from RIP outputs, and CAD operators sharing plotter previews with clients. For the inverse workflow, our /jpg-to-pdf tool wraps JPGs into a portable PDF. To compress the rasterised output for email or web, route through /compress-jpg. For text recovery from the resulting JPG, our /image-to-text path runs OCR over the image.

Reasons to convert PS to JPG usually come down to compatibility, file-size, or specific feature requirements. Common situations:

• An app or platform only accepts JPG uploads.
• You need a feature unique to JPG (e.g. transparency, vector scaling, animation, multi-page pages, etc.) that PS doesn't provide.
• You're optimising file size — modern formats often produce smaller files than the older format you started with.
• You need a single archival format across a project so files behave consistently in the same viewer.

1. Open the PS → JPG tool on jpg.now.
2. Drag your PS file onto the drop zone, or click Select files. You can drop a whole folder of files at once.
3. The output is fixed to JPG. If the format supports extra options (page size, transparency background, quality, EXIF stripping), tweak them in the right-hand panel.
4. Click Convert. The job runs on our server and finishes in a few seconds for typical photos.
5. Download the result. Files stay in storage for 24 hours and are then permanently deleted.

The entire flow is free for the first 10 jobs per day with no signup required. A free account doubles that quota; a premium plan removes the limit entirely.

• Render at 200 DPI for screen viewing, 300 DPI for archival, 600 DPI only if you intend to reprint at original size.
• Embed all fonts in the source .ps file (-dEmbedAllFonts=true if generating with Ghostscript) for faithful reproduction.
• For colour-managed prepress, convert via PDF/X-1a first to preserve CMYK and spot inks, then rasterise.
• EPS files render the same way - just upload, no extension change needed.
• Very old PostScript Level 1 files render fine; Level 3 features like smooth shading occasionally need higher DPI to avoid banding.