Extract text from Layer style files (ASL)
To convert ASL Layer styles to another format, you need Adobe Photoshop or other Settings software.
To convert other file formats to the "Application Settings Presets" file type, you need software like Adobe Photoshop or a similar tool.
An .ASL file primarily functions as an Adobe Photoshop Layer Style file. It contains saved visual presets - such as drop shadows, gradients, and embossing - that graphic designers apply to layers to speed up their workflow. Beyond graphic design, the .ASL extension is also used natively by macOS for Apple System Log databases, by LiveSplit for speedrun auto-splitting scripts, and by NetApp AutoSupport for compressed diagnostic log packages.
Because the .ASL extension serves multiple, completely isolated software ecosystems, managing it can be frustrating for users. A Photoshop .ASL file is a proprietary binary format that requires a heavy, paid subscription to Adobe Photoshop just to open and apply the styles. These files cannot be natively previewed in web browsers or standard image viewers. Similarly, Apple System Log .ASL files are binary databases that cannot be read with a standard text editor; trying to do so results in garbled text. They require specific macOS terminal commands or the native Console application to parse.
Converting an .ASL file depends entirely on its underlying data structure. You cannot convert a Photoshop style into a standard image like a JPG or PNG because the file contains mathematical rendering instructions, not actual pixel data. However, if your .ASL is a NetApp AutoSupport log, it is actually a standard ZIP archive under the hood and can easily be extracted. LiveSplit scripts, which rely on Source2 logic, can be safely converted to standard TXT files for easy reading and editing.
Most standard online converters fail to process .ASL files because they lack the ability to distinguish between a graphics preset, a macOS system database, and a compressed log archive. These proprietary formats are closed-source and highly difficult to reverse-engineer. Even if direct conversion of a proprietary preset is impossible, our tool will inspect the file, extract readable metadata, and pull out embedded assets if a supported underlying structure is detected.
Convert.Guru analyzes your ASL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted JPG, PSD, PNG, ASF, ALS, ASI, DSL, PAT, ZIP, BRUSHSET, ASP, JPEG and DOCX files.
If you want to convert ASL file to AGL, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, ENV or PROPERTIES, you can use Adobe Photoshop or similar software from the "Graphic Presets & System Logs" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to ASL, try Adobe Photoshop or another comparable tool in the "Graphic Presets & System Logs" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ASL converter.