LinuxCommandLibrary

pdftops

converts PDF to PostScript format

TLDR

Convert PDF to PostScript

$ pdftops [input.pdf] [output.ps]
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Convert specific pages
$ pdftops -f [1] -l [10] [input.pdf] [output.ps]
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Level 2 PostScript output
$ pdftops -level2 [input.pdf] [output.ps]
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Optimize for printing
$ pdftops -optimizecolorspace [input.pdf] [output.ps]
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SYNOPSIS

pdftops [options] PDF-file [PS-file]

DESCRIPTION

pdftops converts PDF to PostScript format. Part of Poppler utilities, it produces higher quality output than pdf2ps from Ghostscript for most documents.

PARAMETERS

-f num

First page.
-l num
Last page.
-level1, -level2, -level3
PostScript level.
-eps
Generate EPS.
-optimizecolorspace
Optimize colors.
-paper size
Paper size.
-r dpi
Resolution for images.

Basic conversion

pdftops document.pdf document.ps

Create EPS from first page

pdftops -eps -f 1 -l 1 figure.pdf figure.eps

Print to PostScript printer

pdftops document.pdf - | lpr -P ps_printer

$
# POSTSCRIPT LEVELS
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Level 1 - Maximum compatibility
Level 2 - Color, compression
Level 3 - Smooth shading, masks
$
# CAVEATS

Output can be large. EPS mode only for single pages. Part of poppler-utils package.

# HISTORY

pdftops is part of **Poppler**, the PDF rendering library forked from **Xpdf** by **Derek Noonburg**.

# SEE ALSO

pdf2ps(1), pdftotext(1), ps2pdf(1), poppler-utils(1)
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Curated for the Linux community