Include the file size of the generated pdf

Question

How can I include the (approximate) file size of the generated pdf within a pdflatex document? I envision having to compile it three times: once to create the pdf, a second time to write the size to an .aux file and the third pass will include it in the document. A minimal working example would be pedagogic and useful!

Answer 1

\documentclass{article}
\IfFileExists{\jobname.pdf}
  {\edef\Size{\pdffilesize{\jobname.pdf}}}
  {\def\Size{0}}

\begin{document}
\Size

xyz
\end{document}

You test the existence of the PDF file produced in the previous run before pdftex starts to write on a new one. The primitive \pdffilesize outputs the file size and with \edef you freeze this at the moment of executing \pdffilesize.

It won't be accurate to the byte, because of compression. I get

10401
9427
10258
10599
10466

in successive runs over the document. Dividing by 1024 and rounding could be better:

\IfFileExists{\jobname.pdf}
  {\edef\Size{\number\numexpr\pdffilesize{\jobname.pdf}/1024\relax\,KiB}}
  {\def\Size{0\,KiB}}

Answer 2

Here is an implementation in ConTeXt MkIV. I use io.fileseize(...) (part of ConTeXt's l-io.lua library) to find the size of the pdf file and add it to a two pass data list. By default, ConTeXt automatically recompiles the file if the two pass data list has changed, until a maximum of 8 runs after which it stops even if the two pass data is changing.

The filesize never stabilizes! Here is the implementation.

\def\OutputSize{0}
\def\PrevOutputSize{0}

\definetwopasslist{OutputSize}

% Read size from aux file
\gettwopassdata{OutputSize}
\iftwopassdatafound
    \xdef\PrevOutputSize{\twopassdata}
\fi

% Find the new size
\doiffile{\jobname.pdf}
    {\ctxlua{context.setvalue("OutputSize", io.size("\jobname.pdf"))}}
\savetwopassdata {OutputSize} {\PrevOutputSize} {\OutputSize}

% Useful for grepping the result
\writestatus{CHECK}{Outsize: \PrevOutputSize, Newsize: \OutputSize}

% Show figure size on footer
\setupfootertexts[\jobname: \OutputSize]

\starttext
\input knuth
\stoptext

Starting in a scratch directory, compiling the file and grepping for CHECK in the output gives:

$ context test.tex | grep CHECK 
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 0
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 9380
CHECK           > Outsize: 9380, Newsize: 10033
CHECK           > Outsize: 10033, Newsize: 9751
CHECK           > Outsize: 9751, Newsize: 9858
CHECK           > Outsize: 9858, Newsize: 9921
CHECK           > Outsize: 9921, Newsize: 9706
CHECK           > Outsize: 9706, Newsize: 9952

As can be seen, even after 8 runs, the file size has not stabilized. I ran it again (without deleting any temporary file) and get

$ context test.tex | grep CHECK
CHECK           > Outsize: 9952, Newsize: 9892
CHECK           > Outsize: 9892, Newsize: 9856
CHECK           > Outsize: 9856, Newsize: 10083
CHECK           > Outsize: 10083, Newsize: 9899
CHECK           > Outsize: 9899, Newsize: 9732
CHECK           > Outsize: 9732, Newsize: 9965
CHECK           > Outsize: 9965, Newsize: 9927
CHECK           > Outsize: 9927, Newsize: 9793

So, even after 16 runs, the file size has not stabilized. I thought that the oscillation in file size is because the pdf output is compressed.

I added

\pdfcompresslevel=0

on top of the file, and started from scratch again. This time I get

$ context test.tex | grep CHECK
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 0
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 15044
CHECK           > Outsize: 15044, Newsize: 15638
CHECK           > Outsize: 15638, Newsize: 15920
CHECK           > Outsize: 15920, Newsize: 15827
CHECK           > Outsize: 15827, Newsize: 15798
CHECK           > Outsize: 15798, Newsize: 15810
CHECK           > Outsize: 15810, Newsize: 15692

$ context test.tex | grep CHECK
CHECK           > Outsize: 15692, Newsize: 15865
CHECK           > Outsize: 15865, Newsize: 15730
CHECK           > Outsize: 15730, Newsize: 15827
CHECK           > Outsize: 15827, Newsize: 15798
CHECK           > Outsize: 15798, Newsize: 15810
CHECK           > Outsize: 15810, Newsize: 15692
CHECK           > Outsize: 15692, Newsize: 15865
CHECK           > Outsize: 15865, Newsize: 15730

Again, an oscillating file size and I don't know why that is happening.

So, in the end I decided to round the file size in kilo bytes, by diving the file size by 1024.

% Find the new size
\doiffile{\jobname.pdf}
    {\ctxlua{context.setvalue("OutputSize", string.format("\%d", io.size("\jobname.pdf")/1024))}}

This time, as expected, the compilation stops after three runs.

$ context test.tex | grep CHECK  
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 0
CHECK           > Outsize: 0, Newsize: 9
CHECK           > Outsize: 9, Newsize: 9

Answer 3

The file size does not stabilise because of how pdf compresses (the digits). As soon as you enter a new file size (with different digits), it compresses differently when converted to pdf.

For example, this code:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
1234
\end{document}

and this code:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
4321
\end{document}

will produce files of equal size but this code:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
1235
\end{document}

will produce a pdf file of a different size. So when you insert this new size into the document, just because the digits are different from the last time, it will produce a pdf file of a different size. However, you might find that after a number of iterations, the pdf file size appears to cycle through the same numbers.