Free online PS to RTF converter

PostScript files are often produced for printing but are awkward to edit in a word processor. Converting one to RTF can make its text available for revision or sharing, although page layout may change.

What the PS format is

PS is a page-description format based on the PostScript language, originally developed by Adobe. Desktop publishing and graphics programs, as well as printer drivers, create PS files to describe pages for printing; the files can contain text, vector graphics, fonts, and raster images.

What the RTF format is

RTF (Rich Text Format) stores text and basic formatting in a form supported by many word processors. It is useful when recipients need to open and edit a document across different word-processing applications without relying on one application's native format.

How to convert PS to RTF

Online on 101convert.com

1. Upload the PS file to the converter on 101convert.com.
2. Choose RTF as the output format and start the conversion.
3. Download the converted file when it is ready. Multiple files can be converted in one batch; the page shows the per-file size limit.

Offline with desktop software

Free workflow with Ghostscript, Poppler, and LibreOffice: This method extracts text rather than rebuilding the original page design. Install the tools, then use Ghostscript to make an intermediate PDF and Poppler's pdftotext to extract text:

1. Run gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=intermediate.pdf input.ps. On Windows, the Ghostscript command is commonly named gswin64c.
2. Run pdftotext -layout intermediate.pdf extracted.txt to save the text while retaining approximate spacing.
3. Open extracted.txt in LibreOffice Writer and choose File → Save As. Select Rich Text Format (.rtf) as the file type and save.

Ghostscript and Poppler are available for major desktop operating systems; LibreOffice runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Commercial workflow with Adobe Acrobat: Use Acrobat Distiller to create a PDF from the PS file, then open the PDF in Acrobat and choose Export a PDF. Select RTF if it is available in the export formats for your Acrobat version, then save the result.

Quality and limitations

PS describes printed pages, while RTF is intended for editable word-processing content. Converters may approximate fonts, columns, and spacing, and graphics may not transfer as editable objects. The free text-extraction workflow does not preserve page design; image-only pages require OCR before their words can be extracted.