[Tex/LaTex] PDF file size with LuaLaTeX vs XeLaTeX

luatexxetex

I have a set of one-page documents written in LaTex.

The same file compiled in LuaLaTeX is about 23 times larger than when it is complied using XeLaTex (about 641 KB vs 28 kb). I tried with a couple of difference fonts, and the LuaLaTeX compiled PDF was always significantly larger than the one made with XeLaTeX.

The anyone know the cause if this difference in output file size?

Best Answer

This is because LuaTeX embeds Type1 fonts whereas XeTeX uses Type1C fonts. Type1C fonts are compact fonts (CFF). See my answer on Why does pdflatex produce bigger output files than latex+dvipdfm? for more details.

$ pdffonts onepage-lualatex.pdf
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
KBBDIF+CMR10                         Type 1            yes yes no       4  0

$ pdffonts onepage-xelatex.pdf
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
WEDQOW+CMR10                         Type 1C           yes yes no       4  0

and

$ ls -lh onepage-lualatex.pdf onepage-xelatex.pdf
-rw-r--r-- 1 patrick staff  17K  4. Mai 22:10 onepage-lualatex.pdf
-rw-rw-rw- 1 patrick staff 4,9K  4. Mai 22:08 onepage-xelatex.pdf

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] File size difference between XeLaTeX and pdfLaTeX

For you minimal example it is the font format which makes the difference. This can be seen by comparing the PDFs in an editor which supports binary (like vim).

Also pdffonts is helpful:

xelatex: (1874 bytes compressed, 2444 bytes uncompressed)
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
ZOJBFE+CMR10                         Type 1C           yes yes no       6  0


pdflatex: (10785 bytes compressed, 11677 bytes uncompressed)
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
SLFVOY+CMR10                         Type 1            yes yes no       2  0

The pdffonts manual states that "Type 1C" is the Compact Font Format (CFF) which is as the name says more compact.

With larger projects, I was still able to reduce the size by a factor of 2 with no noticeable changes in the output.

It depends on what font you are using and what you mean with "larger". I recently figured out that changing to T1 increase a 9-page manual (ydoc package) from 217K to 323K. Changing to the libertine font makes 482K out of it. See How to create small PDF files for the Internet for tips on how to reduce the file size.

[Tex/LaTex] Embedding Type 1C fonts using LuaLaTeX

I do not know how to make lualatex output Type 1C fonts. However, you may be able to use ps2pdf to convert a PDF containing Type 1 fonts to another PDF containing Type1C fonts. You should carefully choose parameters to ps2pdf. For example:

newell:~/latex/help $ du -h plain.pdf
60K plain.pdf
newell:~/latex/help $ pdffonts plain.pdf 
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
BZAAVM+NimbusSanL-Bold               Type 1            yes yes no      17  0
YCENSD+LMMathItalic12-Regular        Type 1            yes yes no      18  0
KDKAQG+CMSS12                        Type 1            yes yes no      19  0
IDSSCN+NimbusSanL-Regu               Type 1            yes yes no      20  0
ZIJBJP+NimbusSanL-ReguItal           Type 1            yes yes no      21  0
SEAJVD+NimbusSanL-BoldItal           Type 1            yes yes no      22  0
SQTJQN+LMMathSymbols10-Regular       Type 1            yes yes no      23  0
newell:~/latex/help $ ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dAutoRotatePages=/None -dEmbedAllFonts=true -dMaxSubsetPct=100 -dSubsetFonts=true -dAutoFilterColorImages=false -dAutoFilterGrayImages=false -dDownsampleColorImages=false -dDownsampleGrayImages=false -dDownsampleMonoImages=false plain.pdf new.pdf
newell:~/latex/help $ du -h new.pdf
36K new.pdf
newell:~/latex/help $ pdffonts new.pdf 
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
OJEPRS+NimbusSanL-BoldItal           Type 1C           yes yes no      23  0
OJIXHX+LMMathSymbols10-Regular       Type 1C           yes yes no      25  0
CYORGJ+NimbusSanL-Bold               Type 1C           yes yes no      13  0
MZVUTG+LMMathItalic12-Regular        Type 1C           yes yes yes     15  0
PWIYDZ+CMSS12                        Type 1C           yes yes no      17  0
QBTHSF+NimbusSanL-Regu               Type 1C           yes yes no      19  0
XMYGAL+NimbusSanL-ReguItal           Type 1C           yes yes no      21  0

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] File size difference between XeLaTeX and pdfLaTeX

[Tex/LaTex] Embedding Type 1C fonts using LuaLaTeX

Related Question