PS to CID Converter

Convert PostScript to CID-keyed font format online

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Large Character Sets

Convert PostScript font data into CID-keyed format — ideal for organizing thousands of glyphs in CJK and multilingual typefaces.

Private and Secure

Font data is sensitive. PS uploads are deleted post-conversion and CID outputs within 24 hours — nothing lingers on servers.

Access Anywhere

Run the PS to CID converter from any device with a browser. Desktop, laptop, or tablet — conversion works the same way.

How to convert PS to CID

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose cid or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your cid file right afterwards

About formats

PS is the standard extension for files written in PostScript, the page description language created by Adobe Systems and first shipped in 1984 with the Apple LaserWriter. A PostScript file is a complete program that describes the precise appearance of a page — text, vector graphics, curves, fills, and even embedded raster images — using a stack-based interpreted language with full programming constructs. When sent to a PostScript-compatible printer or interpreter (such as Ghostscript), the program executes and produces rendered output. PostScript introduced cubic Bezier curves as the standard representation for smooth outlines, a mathematical model that became the foundation for virtually all subsequent vector graphics and font technology including PDF, SVG, and OpenType. The language also serves as a font format: Type 1 PostScript fonts encode glyph outlines as PostScript programs with hinting instructions for sharp rendering at low resolutions, while Type 3 fonts use the full language to define arbitrarily complex glyphs. One advantage is device independence — a PostScript file produces identical output whether rendered on a 300 dpi desktop printer, a high-resolution imagesetter, or a software rasterizer, because it describes shapes mathematically rather than as pixel grids. The human-readable text format provides another practical strength: PS files can be inspected, debugged, and modified with any text editor, and they can be generated programmatically by any software without requiring specialized libraries. PostScript files are widely handled by Ghostscript, Adobe Acrobat, preview applications, and numerous publishing and graphics tools.
Developer: Adobe Systems
Initial release: 1984
CID (Character Identifier) is a font architecture developed by Adobe Systems and specified in June 1993 to address the challenges of fonts containing very large glyph sets, particularly for CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) scripts. Traditional PostScript fonts identify glyphs by name, which becomes impractical when a font contains tens of thousands of characters — a typical Japanese font may include over 20,000 glyphs. CID-keyed fonts replace glyph names with numeric identifiers organized by a character collection and ordering (such as Adobe-Japan1 or Adobe-GB1), dramatically reducing overhead for glyph access and subsetting. The architecture defines three PostScript font types: Type 9 (CID-keyed Type 1 outlines), Type 10 (CID-keyed Type 3), and Type 11 (CID-keyed Type 42/TrueType). A primary advantage is efficient handling of massive character sets — the numeric CID approach eliminates the memory and processing cost of maintaining thousands of glyph name strings. CID fonts also support sophisticated CMap resources that map encoding values to CIDs, enabling a single font to serve multiple encoding schemes (Unicode, Shift-JIS, Big5) without duplicating glyph data. The architecture integrates well with PDF subsetting, allowing documents to embed only the glyphs actually used. CID-keyed technology laid the foundation for CJK support in both OpenType and modern PDF workflows, and remains active in print production and document processing systems worldwide.
Developer: Adobe Systems
Initial release: June 11, 1993

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert PS to CID?

CID-keyed fonts handle large character sets like CJK efficiently. Converting PS to CID organizes glyph data for multilingual publishing.

What programs work with CID fonts?

CID fonts are supported by Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and professional prepress tools designed for Asian-language typesetting.

Is CID suitable for CJK text?

CID was designed specifically for large glyph sets. It organizes thousands of characters efficiently for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Is PS to CID conversion free?

Free conversion is available at Convertio. Premium users receive faster queue priority and higher file size limits.

How secure is the font conversion?

Uploads are encrypted during transfer. PostScript files and CID outputs are automatically deleted after processing for full privacy.