[pdftex] efficient font use

[Laurent Siebenmann]

Hi Martin,

You wrote

 > Reception: pdftex-bounces at tug.org Tue Mar  4 12:14:58 2003  
 > Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 11:51:46 +0100
 > From: Martin Schroeder <martin at oneiros.de>
 > ...
 > This gives 12.1kb with pdgTeX and 6.15kb with adobe distiller
 > ...
 > I suspect Distiller subsets the fonts much better.

Yes, in some instances --- that you should try to sort out.

There is also the font compression issue.  Distiller now
knows how to exploit what is called "CFF Type 2 font format",
CFF being short for Compact Font Format (?). No sign of that yet
in pdftex.

TeX users are BIG font users because of TeX's meta and
tech aspects. Thus, efficient font use is a BIG issue for all 
flavors of TeX including pdfTeX.

So far, BaKoMa TeX is the only TeX I know using CFF for pdf
output, but others will surely want to follow, (if they have 
not done so already).

You would greatly contribute to progress in this area by posting
some astutely designed benchmarks designed to locate, sort out,
and quantify the several factors involved in efficient font use.

         Cheers

                 Laurent S.



(PS.  I imagine pdgTeX is an upmarket version of pdfTeX --
PDG being an acronym for Pr'esident Directeur G'en'eral;-)