How to Extract Text from PostScript: Free & Paid Options

How to Extract Text from PostScript: Free & Paid OptionsPostScript (.ps) is a page description language commonly used for printing and desktop publishing. Although PostScript is primarily meant to describe the layout and graphics of pages rather than act as a plain-text container, many PostScript files include selectable text or embed fonts and glyphs that can be extracted. This guide covers practical methods — both free and paid — for extracting text from PostScript files, explains when extraction will or won’t work, and offers tips for handling common problems such as encoded fonts, vector-only text, or scanned pages stored as images.

When text extraction is possible — and when it isn’t

Possible: The PostScript file contains text as text operators (show, showpage, etc.) using standard or embedded fonts. In this case the characters and their encoding are present in the file and can be extracted reliably.
Not possible: The file contains only vector outlines of glyphs (text converted to curves), or the page is a raster image (scanned page embedded in the PS). Extracting selectable textual content from these requires OCR (optical character recognition) on images or more advanced glyph-matching techniques for vector outlines.
Partially possible: Fonts are embedded with custom encodings or subset fonts; text extraction may produce garbled characters unless the tool understands the encoding or can map glyphs back to Unicode.

Free options

Below are reliable free tools and workflows for extracting text from PostScript files.

1) ps2ascii (part of Ghostscript)

What it is: A Ghostscript utility that converts PostScript to plain ASCII text.
When to use: Fast, command-line friendly; works well when text exists as text operators.
How to use (example):
```
ps2ascii input.ps output.txt 
```
Limitations: May produce poor results with embedded or subset fonts using custom encodings; not suitable for scanned images or text-as-outlines.

2) Ghostscript + pstotext scripts

What it is: Use Ghostscript to render PostScript to PDF, then extract text from PDF with PDF text extraction tools.

Workflow:

Convert PS to PDF:


gs -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o output.pdf input.ps

Extract text (example using pdftotext from poppler-utils):
```
pdftotext output.pdf output.txt 
```

Advantages: PDF text extraction tools often handle encodings better; allows using OCR-capable PDF tools later.
Limitations: Same encoding problems can carry over; conversion step may alter layout.

3) pdftotext (via ps -> pdf -> text pipeline)

Use when you prefer pdftotext’s extraction quality. See Ghostscript pipeline above.

4) Convert to images + OCR (Tesseract)

When to use: When PS contains only raster images or vector outlines instead of text.

Workflow:

Render pages to high-resolution images:


gs -sDEVICE=png16m -r600 -o page-%03d.png input.ps

Run Tesseract OCR:


tesseract page-001.png page-001 -l eng

Pros: Recovers text from scans or outlines.
Cons: Requires OCR cleanup; loses exact original fonts and layout.

5) Use a PostScript viewer with copy-paste

Tools: GSview, Ghostview, or Evince (after converting to PDF).
When to use: Quick manual extraction for short documents; may preserve more accurate character mapping depending on the viewer.
Limitations: Manual, not suitable for batch.

Paid options

Paid tools often combine conversion, layout preservation, and better handling of embedded fonts and encodings.

1) Adobe Acrobat Pro

Workflow: Convert PS to PDF (Acrobat can open PS or use Adobe Distiller), then use Acrobat’s “Export PDF” or “Save as Text”.
Strengths: Excellent handling of fonts and encodings; integrated OCR; GUI tools for correction.
Use case: High-volume professional workflows where accuracy and layout fidelity matter.

2) Commercial PS/PDF converters (e.g., VeryPDF, Nitro, Able2Extract)

What they offer: Batch conversion, better heuristics for encoding, CLI options, and often integrated OCR.
When to use: Enterprise environments needing automation, support, and a user-friendly GUI.

3) Dedicated OCR suites (ABBYY FineReader)

Best for: High-accuracy OCR from images or rendered pages; good for scanned PS files or PS files with text as graphics.
Strengths: Superior language models, layout retention, and post-OCR correction tools.

Handling embedded/subset fonts and encoding issues

Inspect the PS file: Open with a text editor. If you see operators like “show” with readable strings, extraction should be straightforward. If you see references to “CIDFont” or hexadecimal sequences, the file likely uses embedded or subset fonts.
Try Ghostscript → PDF → pdftotext workflow; some tools map encodings better after conversion.
If characters come out as garbage:
- Check if glyph names are present (e.g., /Adieresis); tools that map glyph names to Unicode may recover correct characters.
- Use OCR as a fallback when mapping is unreliable.
For developers: implement a glyph-mapping tool that reads font encodings and builds a mapping to Unicode using font tables or external cmap files.

Recommended workflows by scenario

Small PS with normal text: ps2ascii or open with Ghostscript viewer and copy-paste.
Complex encodings or embedded fonts: Convert to PDF with Ghostscript, then use pdftotext or Adobe Acrobat.
Scanned pages or text-as-outlines: Render to images and run Tesseract or use ABBYY FineReader.
Batch processing: Use Ghostscript + pdftotext in scripts, or choose a paid converter with CLI/batch features.

Practical tips & troubleshooting

Always work on copies; conversion can alter files.
Increase rendering DPI (300–600) when doing OCR to improve recognition accuracy.
When using OCR, specify the language model (e.g., -l eng for Tesseract).
Check for metadata or comments in PS that may hint at original encoding or font names.
If extraction yields repeated errors for specific characters, try mapping those glyphs manually by inspecting font sections in the PS file.

Example commands summary

ps2ascii input.ps output.txt # Ghostscript PS -> PDF gs -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o output.pdf input.ps # pdftotext pdftotext output.pdf output.txt # Render to PNG (for OCR) gs -sDEVICE=png16m -r600 -o page-%03d.png input.ps # Tesseract OCR tesseract page-001.png page-001 -l eng

Conclusion

Extracting text from PostScript files is straightforward when text is stored as selectable text, and more involved when files use embedded/subset fonts, vector outlines, or images. Free tools like Ghostscript, ps2ascii, pdftotext, and Tesseract cover most needs; paid tools such as Adobe Acrobat Pro and ABBYY FineReader provide better handling, automation, and higher OCR accuracy for professional use. Choose the workflow that matches your file’s structure and the level of accuracy you need.