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Which techniques to exist to reduce the number of pages of compiled LaTeX document? I am thinking specifically of any kind of hacks that make LaTex arrange the content in a manner that helps reduce the page number.

I am interpreting "technique" in the broadest sense of the word as long as the page layout remains unchanged (I am thinking of scientific journal submissions in particular).

Some techniques that I consider helpful in many circumstances:

  1. If there are any tables or images, move these through the document or play with the positing parameters until the result suits your purpose.
  2. Add \allowdisplaybreaks to your document, or place it in a group around a big equation that needs to be broken.
shuhalo
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2 Answers2

6

I will try to put here some techniques that I know of.

  1. Reduce space before and after equations. Tweak, \abovedisplayshortskip, \belowdisplayshortskip, \abovedisplayskip, \belowdisplayskip.
  2. Reduce space around floats. Adjust, \textfloatsep, \floatsep, \intextsep.
  3. Reduce overall spacing in the document. Use the setspace package.
  4. Adjust base font size of your document if the situation permits. Go with the pt option of \documentclass available for most of the document classes.
  5. Reduce space in lists. Also, don't forget the \tightlists, \firmlists, \firmlists* commands in memoir class.
  6. Reduce inter-row (and even inter-column) spaces in tables.
  7. Play with the graphics sizes. A quick hack will be the width option in \includegraphics.

But overall aesthetics is rather important, isn't it?

Masroor
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5

The savetrees package. Try the following with and without the package:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  subtle
  %moderate
]{savetrees}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

\blinddocument

\end{document}

(there are many options to fine tune which components shall be affected, have a look at the package documentation)

please read the comment of barbara beeton about possible drawbacks: Techniques to reduce the number of pages in a compiled PDF before using this package

samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
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    but thiis quite drastically changes the page layout, which was not an acceptable approach. – barbara beeton Aug 22 '17 at 01:05
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    @barbarabeeton The package options subtle and moderate promised to leave the layout alone, at least according to the documentation. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 22 '17 at 01:21
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    I just tried it on a 39 page document. It won't compile with the moderate option (savetrees undoubtedly does some nasty stuff in that mode), but even with the subtle option it shaved off two pages. That's more than I thought. – JPi Aug 22 '17 at 01:46
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    very interesting. i have tried [subtle] with a 500+ page book; here are the results. it does change the position of the material on the page (a show-stopper for us since we set output for automatic positioning on a plate-maker rip.) total pages went from 525 to 513, a reduction of not quite 2.5%. a nontrivial amount of in-line math was broken in such a way as to leave overfull boxes. vertical spacing wasn't much changed; almost all changes were with interword spacing, resulting in fewer lines in some paragraphs. original page 101 and tight page 100 ended with the same line. – barbara beeton Aug 22 '17 at 13:37
  • @barbarabeeton Thanks for your investigation! I added a link to your comment to caution users about the possible drawbacks. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 22 '17 at 13:48