Free online TIFF to PS converter

What the TIFF format is

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a raster graphics format used for scans, printing, photography, publishing, and archival images. It supports high bit depths, grayscale, RGB, CMYK, alpha channels, metadata, and lossless compression such as LZW or ZIP; JPEG compression is also permitted inside TIFF files.

Scanners, cameras, desktop publishing applications, image editors, and document-management systems commonly create TIFF files. You may encounter .tif or .tiff files when receiving scanned documents, press-ready artwork, technical drawings, or multi-page fax and archive images. A TIFF can contain multiple image directories, so one file may hold several pages or frames.

What the PS format is

PS is the file extension for PostScript, a page-description language interpreted by printers, raster image processors, and software such as Ghostscript. A PostScript file describes page geometry, text, paths, and embedded raster images using instructions rather than storing only a display bitmap.

PS is useful for older print pipelines, prepress systems, and applications that send jobs directly to PostScript-compatible printers or RIPs. It can define exact page size, placement, scaling, color handling, and multiple pages. PostScript is not the same as EPS: EPS is a constrained PostScript format intended mainly for placing a single graphic inside another document.

How to actually convert TIFF to PS

For a desktop conversion, ImageMagick is the most direct general-purpose option. Install it from a trusted package source, open a terminal in the folder containing the TIFF, and run:

magick input.tif output.ps

For a multi-page TIFF, ImageMagick normally writes the input images as successive PostScript pages. Check the page count and ordering after conversion, because some applications create unusual TIFF directory structures.

Set the intended print resolution before the input filename when the TIFF lacks suitable resolution metadata:

magick -density 300 input.tif output.ps

300 is the input resolution in dots per inch and affects the physical size assigned to the raster image; it does not add detail or increase the pixel count. To place a TIFF on a specified page, use ImageMagick page geometry appropriate to the target workflow, for example:

magick -density 300 input.tif -page A4 output.ps

ImageMagick may reject PS writing when its security policy disables PostScript delegates. Change that policy only on a controlled machine and only if the input is trusted; otherwise use the system's tiff2ps utility from libtiff:

tiff2ps -O output.ps input.tif

On Windows or macOS without command-line tools, you can convert the file for free on the 101convert.com website without installing software. Upload the TIFF, select PS as the output format, start the conversion, and download the generated file.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

The result remains raster artwork embedded in PostScript. Converting a 300-dpi TIFF does not create scalable paths, searchable text, or editable objects; OCR and vector tracing require separate processing.

Keep the original TIFF when archival quality matters. PS output can change file size because the image may be recompressed or encoded differently, and CMYK, alpha transparency, indexed colors, and unusual TIFF compression schemes may not survive identically. Transparent TIFF areas commonly become opaque when placed on a PostScript page.

Confirm the required PostScript level and color mode with the printer or RIP. A PS Level 3 interpreter generally handles newer image and color features better, while older equipment may require Level 2-compatible output. Open the result in Ghostscript, a prepress application, or the target printer workflow to check page size, orientation, cropping, colors, and all pages before production printing.