PS data generated on Ubuntu 16.04 is larger than on Ubuntu 14.04

[JerryFu]

OS: Ubuntu 16.04LTS
Ghostscript Version: 9.18
Generated file size: 1280KB

OS: Ubuntu 14.04LTS
Ghostscript Version: 9.10
Generated file size: 556KB

We found a problem about Ghostscript:
When converting from PDF file to PS data using the Ghostscript command, the PS data generated by Ghostscript 9.18 on Ubuntu 16.04LTS is twice as large as the PS data generated by Ghostscript 9.10 on Ubuntu 14.04LTS. Due to the increase in size, the printing speed of PCL6 driver will be severe slow down on Ubuntu 16.04LTS.

The following is the Ghostscript command which we use for converting from PDF file to PS data:
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOUTPUTFILE={out_ps_file_path} -dLanguageLevel=3 -r600 -dCompressFonts=false -dNoT3CCITT -dNOINTERPOLATE -f sample.pdf

We'd like you to answer the following questions.

1. Is it Ghostscript's specification or bug?
2. If it is a bug, do you have any plan to fix it?
3. Is there any workaround?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report.

Till, do you know if that's a known issue. How does bionic compare? Is that an issue on specific files only?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

We were not aware of this, most probably because in most cases it does not influence the result, a correct printout.

Most probably this is actually a Ghostscript bug so I recommend to report it to Ghostscript upstream, https://bugs.ghostscript.com/. Please include your Ghostscript command line and the sample PDF file. Put a link to your upstream bug report here.

[Alex Cherepanov (alexcher-gs)]

This is not a bug. The variation in the output size depends on the -dCompressPages flag.

Versions 9.01 .. 9.14 have it on by default for smaller output files.
Versions 9.15 .. 9.54.0 have it off by default for higher compatibility with buggy PS interpreters.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the comment Alex, closing the report