When trying to convert the attached PostScript file with GS HEAD (i also tried it with GS 7.03, 8.14, 8.34 - same results), i get a 1.8Mb PDF file. When i convert it with Adobe Distiller the PDF file is 620Kb in size. The original document doesn't have any images inside - only text. After a quick look at the document structure i noticed that Distiller groups text blocks together and GS doesn't.
Created attachment 1195 [details] PostScript file (zipped with winzip)
Created attachment 1196 [details] PDF file created with Adobe Distiller
CVS HEAD and 8.50 both produce a 2MB file for me.
1. Adobe Distiller 6 with "standard" settings creates a 1179K file. Probably you apply a different settings. Doing so, please specify corresponding settings to Ghostscript. Attach settings/command lines to the bug report. 2. Ghostscript use a different font set than Adobe. With Adobe fonts the character width appears same as in the source document, but with GS charater widths deltas go to the text. Here are qoutes : Adobe : [(Sales History)17.2( Location)]TJ GS: [(S)1.54437(a)1.45652(l)0.184955(e)1.45652(s)0.90628( )0.725949(H) 1.09123(i)0.180331(s)0.910904(t)0.725949(o)1.45652(r)0.268185(y)0.910904( ) 0.725949(-)0.268185( )0.725949(L)1.45652(o)1.45652(c)0.910904(a)1.45652(t) 0.725949(i)0.180331(o)1.45652(n)456.002]TJ It is an old known problem, which to be addressed to the font wendor. We'll discuss it in support meeting once again, but please don't expact a rocket progress with it. 3. GS writes clipping rectangles with general path construction commands, rather than Adobe does with 're' : Adobe : 556.801 327.28 24.12 8.28 re GS : 301.211 6866.8 m 450.008 6866.8 l 450.008 6784 l 301.211 6784 l h We'll improve it sometimes, rather it won't give a sensible effect due to the compression applied to contents streams. It's a low priority improvement. For now I'm returning the bag to general Support.
Reassigning to current "owner". Size still the same with rev 8468.
Enhancement still missing in Ghostscript 9.03
commit 489253b834075391d7826bc81ef52ede34f8289f improves the output file size by 30%, by spotting the rectangular clips and emitting 're'. The text positioning difference is nothing to do with differences in the fonts. The text is originally shown in the PostScript file using the xshow operator, where each character has its position individually adjusted. The Ghostscript output pretty much matches that. Distiller spots that some of the adjustments are the same, and uses the 'Tc' and 'Tw' operators to adjust the movement for those characters instead. This results in fewer individual adjustments being required and so smaller output. xshow and yshow are not normally heavily used operators and I think its not really worth adding this optimisation. At least for the present. The GS output file is now 1.4 Mb (previously 2.0) as against Acrobat's 1.1.