---
name: "ps2ascii"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ghostscript"
version: "10.08.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ps2ascii"
---

# ps2ascii(1)

Ghostscript translator from PostScript or PDF to text

## NAME

ps2ascii - Ghostscript translator from PostScript or PDF to text

## SYNOPSIS

**ps2ascii** \[ *input.ps* \[ *output.txt* \] \]\
 **ps2ascii** *input.pdf* \[ *output.txt* \]

## DESCRIPTION

**ps2ascii** uses [**gs**(1)](/gs/1.md) to extract text from **PostScript**(tm) or Adobe **Portable Document Format** (PDF) files. If no files are specified on the command line, **gs** reads from standard input.  If no output file is specified, the ASCII text is written to standard output.

The old **ps2ascii.ps** program was deprecated and removed some years ago, the scripts now use the **txtwrite** device to extract text from the input. This does a generally better job than the old PostScript program and can extract Unicode not just ASCII. However it no longer supports the **COMPLEX** feature.

## SEE ALSO

Further documentation on the txtwrite device can be found at https://ghostscript.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Devices.html#text-output

## VERSION

This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 10.04.0.

## AUTHOR

Artifex Software, Inc. are the primary maintainers of Ghostscript. David M. Jones \<dmjones@theory.lcs.mit.edu\> made substantial improvements to **ps2ascii**.