[pdftex] pdftex versus dvips

[Reinhard Kotucha]

Hi,
>>>>> "Christoph" == Christoph Schiller <cs at motionmountain.net> writes:

  > - the pdf (at present 40 MB...) is considerably smaller when
  > produced with dvips and Acrobat distiller;

if distiller really produces smaller files, maybe it doesn't provide
the same quality as pdftex.

Some time ago I examined such a "small" file produced by distiller.
When I disassembled the included fonts, I found out that they removed
all subroutines which contained only hints.

  > - I use raw postscript in the latex file (to make flip movies);

It shouldn't be a big problem to put the PS code to external files,
add BoundingBox comments and create pdf files from them.

  > - I use pstricks and similar packages which also use raw dvips (I
  > think) such as random picture coordinates.

Maybe you can use pdftricks instead.  I suppose that it is slow, but I
assume that you don't have to compile the whole book every time.

To convert bitmaps to eps or pdf, try sam2p.  It's very fast and
produces very small output files.

  > Now we are nearing the end of 2005. Are these arguments still
  > correct?

There are some others.  \usepackage{microtype}.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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