[luatex] LuaTeX file almost 2.5x bigger

[Pablo Rodríguez]

On 07/25/2010 10:34 PM, Hans Hagen wrote:
> On 25-7-2010 10:24, Pablo Rodríguez wrote:
>
>> AFAIK LuaTeX doesn't embed expanded fonts many times, is there any
>> possibity that in the future the font expansion technology in LuaTeX
>> will be improved so that LuaTeX would generate smaller files?
>
> Actually the backend code has been rewritten and this is the way it's
> done now. I think that the larger file size is a non-issue for documents
> that end up in professional print (esp when images are also part of teh
> document). For documents meant for reading from displays font expansion
> makes no sense anyway (actually, in print it also is somewhat debatable
> as abusing it makes things worse).

Thanks for your reply, Hans.

Bigger file size might be an issue because not all documents contain 
bitmap images (when they contain images at all).

Sometimes one may need to distribute a document over the internet that 
is actually intended for printing.

I agree with you that in documents meant for reading from displays 
microtypography doesn't make any sense. I would even go further, PDF 
might not be the best option for those documents.

Microtypography could be useful (when not abused) in documents that 
don't end up in a professional print. Because of that bigger file size 
may be an issue.

> Btw, as font expansion works on a line basis, having many more steps
> does not make a big difference in file size (contrary to having more
> font instances) so there you gain. Also, you might consider applying
> font expansion in selected cases.

Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't get your point here (sorry if I 
misunderstood your comment).

If I don't get it wrong, you mean that font expansion shouldn't make 
that big difference in file size. The difference in file size activating 
character protrusion and font expansion is 2.4MB when activated instead 
of 1.1MB when not activated.

Do you mean that this difference is not big?

Thanks for your help,


Pablo