PostScriptToPDF (formerly GSDistiller) is a Windows utility that converts PostScript and EPS files to PDF format using only open-source software. You may download its installer here.
A similar program for macOS may be found on another page. And if you need to convert PCL to PDF, see yet another page.
The program works in two ways, using two separate executables. PostScriptToPDF.exe can be used either from the Windows command line or by dropping a file on the application. PostScriptToPDFWatch.exe runs in the background, "watching" a user-specfied folder for PS or EPS files to be written to that folder, and then converts those files to PDF format. The two programs are exactly the same; when the string "watch" is part of the name, the program acts as a folder-watcher.
The program is a compiled AutoIt script that acts as a "wrapper" around the open-source GhostScript gswin64c.exe application, by Artifex Software. You may download the AutoIt source code here. The code contains a lot of irrelevant and useless things, because it's based on my other AutoIt apps, and is probably generally incompetent, but it seems to work. Feel free to modify and reuse it. You will of course need to change the path in which the compiler finds gswin64c.exe. The source code for gswin64c.exe is available from the Ghostscript web site.
The program works by copying gswin64c.exe to your Windows temporary folder and then using it to convert your PS or EPS files to PDF.
The program was updated 17 February 2024 as a 64-bit-only application. If you install the current version, and you earlier installed the 32-bit version, the 32-bit version will be removed.
Note: If your antivirus software mistakenly tells you that PostScriptToPDF is dangerous (because your antivirus software ignorantly warns about any program created with AutoIt), it is up to you to decide whether or not to believe your antivirus software. If you don't trust this software, don't use this software! Don't waste your valuable time sending me an e-mail asking whether the program is safe!
To convert a .PS or .EPS file to PDF format, either drop the .PS file on the application (or on a shortcut to the application) or use this command:
PostScriptToPDF.exe filename.ps
You can use a full path for the filename, but if the path or filename contains spaces, use quotation marks around the path and filename.
The output PDF file will have the name and path of the input .PS file, but with a .PDF extension instead of a .PS extension.
By default, the PDF will open in your default PDF viewer. You can prevent this from happening (and suppress the prompt to overwrite an existing output file) by adding a command line switch, /batch, like this (and you can reverse the order of the parameters):
PostScriptToPDF.exe filename.ps /batch
The application also supports Ghostscript's -sPDFSETTINGS= switch, which corresponds to the PDF settings in Acrobat Distiller. If you need this feature, look at the AutoIt source code for details. Future versions will support other output options (like passwords).
To watch a folder for .PS and .EPS files, run the program (the installer offers to add it to your Startup group). The installer will ask you for the folders that the program should watch (by default C:\PSWatch) and for the output folder for writing PDFs (by default, your desktop). You can specify the watched-folder path (and optionally the output path) with:
PostScriptToPDFWatch.exe C:\PathToWatch [/outpath=D:\PathToWrite]
or you can open dialogs for specifying both the watched path and the output path by using:
PostScriptToPDFWatch.exe /setpaths
For other features, or to report bugs or problems, please use the e-mail address below.
If you find this program useful, please feel free to visit this page.
Edward Mendelson (edward [dot] mendelson [at] columbia [dot] edu).