The results of ab initio calculations of zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters are presented for the linear polyacenes from benzene to pentacene. We show how the electron spin–spin (SS) parameters can be efficiently obtained from restricted high-spin open-shell wave functions (ROHF), and present calculations of these, comparing with the results of a recent multi-configurational self-consistent field approach. The SS parameters are obtained from electron SS coupling strengths evaluated as expectation values over the wave functions and from state-to-state spin–orbit (SO) interactions. The results for the two lowest triplet states of naphthalene demonstrate that excellent values can be obtained even using moderate basis sets in the wave function, indicating that this technique can be used to obtain reliable ZFS parameters of aromatic compounds. Electron correlation is, however, not negligible; by accounting for full π-electron correlation the ZFS parameters are in considerably better agreement with experiment than the ROHF results. The ROHF method still reproduced the qualitative trend in the polyacene series in which the ZFS parameters are reduced with increasing size of the π-conjugation. We confirm that the SS coupling contributions completely determine the D and E parameters for the lowest triplet state of the linear polyacenes and that the SO coupling contributions are small. Geometry optimization of the lowest triplet state was found to be fairly significant for the calculated D and E values; these were reduced by about 30% and 40%, respectively, when the geometry was changed from the ground-state singlet to the triplet-excited state optimized geometry, with the latter values being in better agreement with experiment. The present calculations predict that the second triplet state of naphthalene is very unusual, as it has a negative zero-field splitting, implying an altered ordering of the spin sublevels compared to what is common in aromatic systems.