206 Kb pdf with images:

pdf2ps -> creates a correct .ps but takes forever to print (23 Mb) => bitmap
acroread -> creates a 367 Kb .ps

batch:
	
for f in *pdf
do
acroread4 -size a4 -toPostScript < $f > `basename $f .pdf`.ps
echo $f
done


$ time pdf2ps foobar.pdf foo.ps

real    1m13.39s
user    1m11.39s
sys     0m1.16s
$ time acroread4 -toPostScript < foobar.pdf > bar.ps

real    0m4.28s
user    0m2.46s
sys     0m1.58s


-rw-r--r--    1 spd      admin     498926 Jan 17 19:35 bar.ps
-rw-r--r--    1 spd      admin    23630293 Jan 17 19:34 foo.ps

foo.ps:         PostScript program text
bar.ps:         PostScript program text


foo.ps -> ok, slow on screen view
bar.ps -> much faster.


IRIX 6.5


$ time /bin/pdf2ps Er5242.pdf
   **** Warning: Fonts with Subtype = /TrueType should be embedded.
                 But TimesNewRoman,Bold is not embedded.

[...]
   **** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
   **** The file was produced by: 
   **** >>>> Acrobat PDFWriter 4.0 para Windows <<<<
   **** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
   **** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
   **** specification.

real    0m2.42s
user    0m1.99s
sys     0m0.18s

$ ls -l Er5242.ps
-rw-r--r--    1 xxx      xxx       185332 Nov 17 14:55 Er5242.ps

$ time acroread4 -toPostScript -size a4 -fast < Er5242.pdf > Er5242.ps

real    0m1.05s
user    0m0.74s
sys     0m0.21s

$ ls  -l Er5242.ps
-rw-r--r--    1 xxx      xxx       906586 Nov 17 14:56 Er5242.ps


Using pdf file without font problems:

acroread:

real    0m2.77s
user    0m1.79s
sys     0m0.72s
4031805 bytes

pdf2ps:

real    0m3.84s
user    0m3.40s
sys     0m0.14s
5011858 bytes