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PRN PS
File conversion

Convert PRN to PS

Verified by Adam B.· reviewed by FE Editorial ·updated Jun 16, 2026
QUICK ANSWER
Is it possible to convert PRN to PS?
Yes - PRN converts to PS.

Open the .prn in a text editor and check the first characters. If it starts with %!PS, rename the extension to .ps - the data is unchanged. If it starts with ESC E or @PJL pointing to PCL, conversion to PostScript is not feasible.

Also to PS: DVI · ABC · PDF

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Tested on macOS, Windows & Linux
Last verified Oct 2026

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Why convert PRN to PS?

PostScript is an open, widely supported format readable by Ghostscript, macOS Preview, and many print queues. Renaming a PostScript .prn to .ps makes it recognizable to those tools without changing any underlying data.

How to convert PRN to PS

Ghostscript FREE

For PostScript .prn files, run gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOutputFile=output.ps file.prn to produce a standards-conforming .ps file. Also available on macOS and Linux.

About these formats

.PRN Printer Output File (Print-to-File)

A .prn file holds the exact data stream a printer would receive, written in the printer's own page-description language (usually PostScript or PCL). It is not a readable document; you send…

Open .PRN details →
.PS PostScript (page-description program)

A PS file is a PostScript document - a text program that a printer or viewer renders into pages of text and vector graphics. To view one, install Ghostscript and open it in GSview or…

Open .PS details →

Quality & what to watch

  • Only PostScript .prn files can become .ps; PCL or raw raster jobs cannot be re-encoded as PostScript without a full raster re-render.
  • If the file starts with %!PS, renaming from .prn to .ps requires no software - the data is already PostScript and only the extension changes.
  • A PJL wrapper may enclose either PostScript or PCL; check the LANGUAGE= line in the next few bytes to determine which.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just rename the .prn to .ps without any software?
Yes, if the file starts with %!PS. The data is already PostScript; only the extension changes.
What if my .prn is PCL?
Conversion to PostScript is not practical. Convert to PDF or PNG with GhostPCL (part of the ghostpdl package) instead.
Why would I want a .ps file instead of a PDF?
PostScript is useful when forwarding the job to a PostScript print queue, processing it with PostScript tools, or passing it to Ghostscript for further manipulation.