Soft photo ionization mass Spectrometry (PI-MS) can be applied either as universal or as highly selective detector in hyphenated gas chromatographic techniques.The ionization methods discussed are the laser-based Resonance Enhanced Multi Photon Ionization (REMPI) and the laser or lamp based Single Photon Ionization (SPI).REMPI-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (REMPI-TOFMS) is shown to be an ideal detector for the selective detection of aromatic species in complex samples.