Overview
Introduction
This tool converts a PNG into a real Level-2 Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file, hand-writing genuine PostScript source rather than faking or renaming bytes.
It uses the colorimage operator with inline ASCIIHex raster data, a standard, well-documented technique for embedding a raster image directly in EPS.
What Is PNG to EPS Converter?
A client-side EPS encoder that flattens alpha onto white, converts every pixel's RGB channels into two hex characters each, and assembles a complete EPS document with proper %%BoundingBox comments and a colorimage/readhexstring PostScript procedure.
The output is real, interpretable PostScript, not an approximation — any Level-2-compliant PostScript interpreter can render it.
How PNG to EPS Converter Works
After validating the image and flattening transparency onto a white background (reusing this site's PNG to JPG converter's alpha-flatten logic, since colorimage has the same no-alpha constraint as JPEG), pixels are read in row-major order.
Each pixel's red, green, and blue bytes become 6 hex characters; the full hex stream is wrapped at 72 characters per line and placed after a colorimage invocation that reads it via currentfile and readhexstring.
When To Use PNG to EPS Converter
Use it when a print workflow, legacy design tool, or PostScript-based pipeline specifically requires EPS input.
It's also useful for producing a plain-text, human-inspectable raster file format for debugging image-processing pipelines.
Often used alongside EPS to PNG Converter, PNG to SVG Converter and PNG to PDF Converter.
Features
Advantages
- Produces genuine, spec-compliant Level-2 EPS, openable in real PostScript interpreters and design software.
- Runs entirely client-side; nothing is uploaded to a server.
- The hex-encoded data is plain text, making the file easy to inspect or diff.
Limitations
- PostScript's colorimage operator carries no alpha channel, so any transparency in the source PNG is flattened onto white and permanently lost.
- ASCIIHex encoding roughly doubles the raw pixel byte count before compression, so EPS files here are typically much larger than the source PNG.
- This encoder only produces simple raster EPS; it doesn't add vector paths, text, or other PostScript drawing operations.
Examples
Best Practices & Notes
Best Practices
- Flatten or pre-composite important background colors yourself before converting if white isn't the right substitute for transparency in your use case.
- Expect noticeably larger file sizes than the source PNG; this is inherent to uncompressed ASCIIHex raster EPS.
Developer Notes
The encoder builds the EPS document as a plain string: it reuses flattenPngForJpeg for alpha compositing rather than re-deriving the blend math, converts each RGB byte to two lowercase hex characters, and wraps the resulting hex stream every 72 characters to match how real PostScript interpreters expect inline data to be line-wrapped.
PNG to EPS Converter Use Cases
- Producing EPS input for a print or prepress workflow that requires it
- Feeding a legacy design tool that only accepts PostScript-based formats
- Generating a plain-text raster format for inspecting exact pixel values
Common Mistakes
- Expecting transparency to survive the conversion — colorimage has no alpha channel, so it's flattened onto white.
- Assuming EPS output will be smaller than PNG; hex-encoded raster EPS is typically far larger.
Tips
- If your target software supports it, prefer PDF over EPS for new workflows — EPS is a legacy format many tools are deprecating.
- Pair this with the EPS to PNG converter to verify round-trip fidelity on the encoded file.