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I am working on a book with about 1000 jpg pictures. It would compile to just over 6 GB ... if it did compile. But it does not, rather the hated color wheel starts turning forever and can only be gotten rid of by forcequit. And then the .tex file will not start again, but immediately show the wheel. I can cut the file into pieces and compile each piece separately. That works more or less for the text, but then I cannot make an index except separately for each piece. Merging the .ind files alphabetically is a nightmare. The merging under vi and others do not work properly because of \subitems and so on.

I use XeLaTeX under TeXShop 4.27 on a MacBook Air running MacOS 10.13.2 with 80 GB available, and \includegraphics for the jpg's.

Three questions:

  1. Is there a way of compiling a latex file whose pdf exceeds 6 GB?
  2. If not, is there a way of replacing the actual jpg's by an empty placeholder that takes the same amount of space on the page as the jpg would? Sort of "option nopix".
  3. If not, is there a way of elegantly merging .ind files alphabetically? That may well not exist. Joaquin
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    draft mode is what you need to test. – Sigur Jul 24 '19 at 22:45
  • Are you going to print this book? If not, maybe lower resolution images could produce smaller file size. – Sigur Jul 24 '19 at 22:53
  • Related: Speeding up LaTeX compilation – Werner Jul 24 '19 at 23:03
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    Instead of merging the sorted ind files you could merge the unsorted idx files before running makeindex/xindy. – Tobi Jul 25 '19 at 04:39
  • 6 GB is a lot. I wonder how long a pdf reader will need to open this. You could try to compile with lualatex instead of xelatex. But start as suggested at first with draft mode to be sure, that the file itself compiles without error. – Ulrike Fischer Jul 25 '19 at 07:28
  • Oi Sigur, your hint about using the draft option worked just fine. Many thanks. I have to admit that I have used LaTeX since the start, around 1985, but had plain forgotten about that option. And yes, this is going to be the first of four planned volumes of a printed book, which is likely to total 30 GB or more. Lower resolution is not going to work for me. – Joaquin Jul 26 '19 at 13:21
  • Vielen Dank, Tobi. Merging the idx files would presumably also work, but Sigur's suggestion of the draft option has resolved my problem. Best, Joaquin – Joaquin Jul 26 '19 at 13:24
  • Vielen Dank, Ulrike. My LaTeX installation cannot create a 6 GB pdf file, and most likely my software could not open it. But I can do 3 GB files, and then the professional printer can put the two halves together. The only issue I had trouble with was the index file, but that is now also resolved with Sigur's hint to use the draft option. – Joaquin Jul 26 '19 at 13:27

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