This is a question just out of curiosity; I hope someone familiar with the "under-the-hood" parts of TeXLive can answer my question.
I have a LaTeX source file for a presentation using Beamer, which I compiled on my Laptop and my Office Computer. I noticed that the document generation seems to take much longer on my laptop (a little longer is expected, but my laptop is not that under-powered). What's most surprising, however, is the resulting file-size: the file generated on my laptop is less than half the size the one on the office computer!
Here be the output from pdfinfo
On the office computer
Creator: LaTeX with beamer class version 3.01
Producer: pdfeTeX-1.21a
CreationDate: Mon Jan 31 18:25:27 2011
Tagged: no
Pages: 136
Encrypted: no
Page size: 362.835 x 272.126 pts
File size: 1742603 bytes
Optimized: no
PDF version: 1.4
On the laptop:
Creator: LaTeX with Beamer class version 3.10
Producer: pdfTeX-1.40.11
CreationDate: Mon Jan 31 20:43:37 2011
ModDate: Mon Jan 31 20:43:37 2011
Tagged: no
Pages: 136
Encrypted: no
Page size: 362.835 x 272.126 pts
File size: 572179 bytes
Optimized: no
PDF version: 1.5
Three obvious differences: different beamer
version, pdfetex-1.21a
versus pdftex-1.40
, and different output PDF versions. Does anybody know what accounts for the drastic file-size savings?
Edit As requested, output from pdffonts
Office computer
name type emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ------------ --- --- --- ---------
WVPACK+NimbusSanL-Regu Type 1 yes yes no 70 0
PAHDZS+NimbusMonL-Regu Type 1 yes yes no 97 0
MWNYAU+NimbusSanL-ReguItal Type 1 yes yes no 185 0
FUFSQV+CMSY10 Type 1 yes yes no 188 0
RIQINP+CMSS10 Type 1 yes yes no 514 0
KJHURB+MSBM10 Type 1 yes yes no 517 0
RLPCEA+CMSS8 Type 1 yes yes no 520 0
GKWRKQ+CMMI10 Type 1 yes yes no 523 0
FNSGBY+CMSY8 Type 1 yes yes no 526 0
ZULBEX+EUFM10 Type 1 yes yes no 529 0
EGCPYN+CMEX10 Type 1 yes yes no 532 0
AQNXQD+MSBM7 Type 1 yes yes no 535 0
DBUPMR+CMMI8 Type 1 yes yes no 863 0
ZLJTDB+CMSY9 Type 1 yes yes no 2269 0
UVPNAP+CMSY6 Type 1 yes yes no 3138 0
XWDUKW+MSAM10 Type 1 yes yes no 5351 0
Laptop
name type emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
ZDCYDU+NimbusSanL-Regu Type 1 yes yes no 120 0
DXSMAM+NimbusMonL-Regu Type 1 yes yes no 122 0
ZSHOJP+NimbusSanL-ReguItal Type 1 yes yes no 208 0
FWRRDZ+CMSY10 Type 1 yes yes no 209 0
NIDXKV+CMSS10 Type 1 yes yes no 536 0
TZDOHW+MSBM10 Type 1 yes yes no 537 0
QLIKDK+CMSS8 Type 1 yes yes no 538 0
LJZIEY+CMMI10 Type 1 yes yes no 539 0
HZTDAS+CMSY8 Type 1 yes yes no 540 0
BJBQRD+EUFM10 Type 1 yes yes no 541 0
WMELZR+CMEX10 Type 1 yes yes no 542 0
GCAWWC+CMMI8 Type 1 yes yes no 872 0
UOMENF+CMSY9 Type 1 yes yes no 2289 0
JKSUUE+CMSY6 Type 1 yes yes no 3165 0
TMHVPV+MSAM10 Type 1 yes yes no 5398 0
pdffonts file
– user2478 Jan 31 '11 at 21:11\pdfcompresslevel
, maybe somewhere in a configuration file? – Martin Scharrer♦ Jan 31 '11 at 21:18