GF Converter

Extract text from GF files


Drop or upload your .GF file
✈

How to extract text from your GF file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your GF file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert GF to another file type

To convert your GF file to another format, you need TeX Live or other Font software.

  • GF to N
  • GF to LBF
  • GF to G
  • GF to MN
  • GF to CN
  • GF to TTF
  • GF to OTF
  • GF to WOFF
  • GF to WOFF2
  • GF to EOT
  • GF to SVG
  • GF to BDF

Convert a file to GF

To convert other file formats to the "Intermediate Bitmap Font" file type, you need software like TeX Live or a similar tool.

  • UFO to GF
  • WOFF to GF
  • PFB to GF
  • GXF to GF
  • AFM to GF
  • F3F to GF
  • SFD to GF
  • WOFF2 to GF
  • PSF to GF
  • TTF to GF
  • TXF to GF
  • OTF to GF

About GF files

The .gf extension is a technical chameleon, representing three distinct file types that cause significant confusion. Most historically, it is a Generic Font file generated by the METAFONT system (created by Donald Knuth). These are intermediate bitmap files containing character glyphs - often at 260 dpi or higher - intended to be converted into Packed Font (.pk) files for use in TeX and LaTeX document compilation. They are device-dependent, meaning a .gf file created for one printer resolution may not scale correctly on another, and they are not widely supported by modern font viewers.

However, in practical modern use, you likely encountered a .gf file in a very different context: banking. Software from institutions like Banco do Brasil often saves scanned cheque images (JFIF/JPEG) with a .gf extension to obfuscate the format or manage internal security workflows. Similarly, legacy versions of Adobe ImageReady used .gf for temporary PNG graphic containers. In these cases, the "proprietary format" is an illusion; the file is often just a standard image with the wrong label. Finally, developers may recognize it as a Grammatical Framework source file, used for defining grammars in natural language processing.

For METAFONT users, the best conversion target is PK (using the gftopk utility) or PDF for archiving the visual output. For banking or legacy image users, the most pragmatic solution is often simply renaming the file extension to JPG or PNG to regain access. For source code, convert to TXT or open directly in a code editor.

Convert.Guru analyzes your GF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted SFVIDCAP, SLC, GRID, N, LBF, G, MN and CN files.



The GF Converter Story

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 GF converter.