Convertio vs Ghostscript

Convertio is a browser-based file conversion service that handles more than 300 formats and more than 25,600 conversion types. It offers tools for audio, video, images, documents, archives, presentations, fonts, and ebooks, along with OCR for scanned documents and images. Conversions run in the cloud, and most conversion types offer advanced settings; video options can include quality, aspect ratio, codec, rotation, and flipping. OCR can create editable Word, PDF, Excel, and text outputs, with up to 10 pages available before signup. Files can be selected from Google Drive, Dropbox, a URL, or a computer. Convertio says input and temporary files are deleted immediately after conversion and output files after 24 hours, with earlier manual deletion available. It supports batch conversion and offers a Conversion API and Chrome extension. Platforms listed include web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and API. A free plan is available. Monthly plans range from $11.99 a month for Lite to $54 a month for Custom; annual-billing options range from 6.99 USD to $32.42 a month.

Ghostscript is a PostScript and PDF interpreter and rendering engine from Artifex, with conversion support for PDF, PostScript, PCL and XPS. It can convert among those formats, produce PDF/A output, and compress PDFs with adjustable settings. Its OCR device can turn printed or scanned material into searchable PDF text. Other image and print capabilities include raster and vector output, color management, overprint simulation, N-up imposition, screening and trapping.

Ghostscript runs as a standalone command-line application or can be integrated into an application as an SDK. The gsapi interface has Python, C# and Java bindings, with demos and sample applications. The maker lists uses including cloud document conversion, archiving, previews, e-invoicing, pre-press, printing and document management. It supports Windows, macOS, Unix and Unix-like systems, VMS and embedded systems. The AGPL license is free, with source code disclosure requirements and no support. Artifex says a commercial license is required for distribution in a closed-source product or SaaS deployment under its licensing guidance; commercial plans have no listed price. Conversion may not preserve extra metadata such as embedded files or document outlines.