pdfsizeopt VS CUPS

> ...tools like pdftk have been able to losslessly compress them...

I have had good luck with pdfsizeopt.

https://github.com/pts/pdfsizeopt

The big restriction is that the classic Postscript typefaces are not available (no Times, Helvetica, or Zapf Dingbats), and the PDF file must bundle any fonts it uses.

The pdfsizeopt package will make any PDF smaller, and I think it deletes letters/characters from the included font that are not used.

https://github.com/pts/pdfsizeopt

This is missing the "pdfsizeopt" suite, that bundles statically compiled utilities to reduce size.

Static compilation means that it will run on most Linux platforms without extra required software.

I believe one aspect of it will remove characters from included fonts that are not used.

It really is quite impressive.

https://github.com/pts/pdfsizeopt

There is a general PDF shrinker, known as "pdfsizeopt" that is bundled with static builds of gs and a number of other utilities.

It cuts some of our PDFs to 10x smaller, mostly by removing unused fonts (but doubtless also some other magic).

The developer asks for donations for production use from those who can afford it.

https://github.com/pts/pdfsizeopt

Send donations to the author of pdfsizeopt:

https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=pts&url=https://githu...

Christian Mehrstram, creator of Whitehack, uses emacs to write LaTex documents, then converts those into PDFs using a script called pdfsizeopt.

If your printer for example supports IPP and Postscript or PDF then that would be possible. Higher end (commercial) HP printers usually offer this functionality. Take a look at CUPS [1] if you want to know more about IPP.

[1] https://www.cups.org/

Your best bet is to set up a print server. The support page even has a CUPS driver. CUPS is well known for supporting a lot of printers. I run it on an old Mac-mini running Ubuntu. You can run it on something as small as a Raspberry Pi.

Apple should be more open about their removals. It isn't clear how this affects their CUPS implementation or PostScript printers https://www.cups.org

CUPS is under the Apache License 2.0 , so they can just use it, if they wanted: https://github.com/apple/cups/blob/master/LICENSE

They won't of course.

CUPS printing server

Another alternative is for you to set up a print server in VLAN20. Then set up the print server to print to the printer in VLAN99. CUPS is pretty easy to set up.

But after both Apple and Linux switched their CUPS-based printing systems to Python 3 or some other breaking change that I don't mind to understand, the only way to print a document seemed to be using a PC running Microsoft Windows. So I had to save a PDF in the cloud or email it to myself, then startup Windows on a laptop physically connected to the printer, start the printing process, check if the paper has been printed successfully, and shut down Windows. What a waste of time and energy!

Another option is to set up a print server. There are free print server programs that you can run on a computer. CUPS is pretty popular. I used to run it on a Raspberry Pi for an ancient LaserJet 1012. That printer just keeps going.