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Drop one of the two PDF sizes #128

@hugovk

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@hugovk

Helps python/docsbuild-scripts#169.

A full docs build cycle takes about 40 hours to build all versions × languages:
https://github.com/hugovk/last-updated/actions/runs/10689864099/job/29632960987#step:7:44

Here's one cycle:

Start Language/version Build
2024-08-31 18:07 zh-tw/3.14 1h 49m
2024-08-31 19:58 zh-cn/3.14 1h 38m
2024-08-31 21:38 uk/3.14 4m
2024-08-31 21:43 tr/3.14 1h 50m
2024-08-31 23:35 pt-br/3.14 44m
2024-09-01 00:20 pl/3.14 34m
2024-09-01 00:56 ko/3.14 51m
2024-09-01 01:49 ja/3.14 1h 24m
2024-09-01 03:15 it/3.14 32m
2024-09-01 03:49 id/3.14 44m
2024-09-01 05:03 es/3.14 1h 57m
2024-09-01 07:01 en/3.14 31m
2024-09-01 07:34 zh-tw/3.13 1h 42m
2024-09-01 09:16 zh-cn/3.13 1h 33m
2024-09-01 10:51 uk/3.13 3m
2024-09-01 10:56 tr/3.13 1h 47m
2024-09-01 12:45 pt-br/3.13 43m
2024-09-01 13:28 pl/3.13 33m
2024-09-01 14:03 ko/3.13 51m
2024-09-01 14:55 ja/3.13 1h 20m
2024-09-01 16:17 it/3.13 34m
2024-09-01 16:52 id/3.13 43m
2024-09-01 18:06 es/3.13 1h 58m
2024-09-01 20:05 en/3.13 32m
2024-09-01 20:39 zh-tw/3.12 1h 45m
2024-09-01 22:26 zh-cn/3.12 1h 32m
2024-09-02 00:01 uk/3.12 3m
2024-09-02 00:06 tr/3.12 1h 51m
2024-09-02 01:59 pt-br/3.12 40m
2024-09-02 02:41 pl/3.12 33m
2024-09-02 03:17 ko/3.12 43m
2024-09-02 04:02 ja/3.12 1h 5m
2024-09-02 05:10 it/3.12 32m
2024-09-02 05:44 id/3.12 45m
2024-09-02 06:31 fr/3.12 30m
2024-09-02 07:04 es/3.12 1h 53m
2024-09-02 08:59 en/3.12 31m

The Ukrainian ones are HTML-only and take 3-4 minutes. The others build a full set and take somewhere between 30 minutes - 2 hours.

Most of this time is spent building PDFs. Looking at the numbers at python/docsbuild-scripts#169, from building locally, about 83% is building both the A4 and US Letter PDFs.

The A4 and Letter PDFs each take about the same time to build.

I don't think we need to build two different PDF sizes.

I expect many who download a PDF will use it on a device screen, and a slight aspect difference won't make much difference. And for people who also print them, it shouldn't matter too much either: PDF viewers can auto-resize to fit the local paper. These files haven't been carefully laid out, they're autogenerated so we don't need pixel-perfect output.

I propose we drop one of the two PDF formats, which should save us a huge amount of build time, let us get other docs builds out faster.

I don't mind which one, but I'll suggest dropping Letter, used in the US and Canada, and keeping A4, an international standard used globally.

A rough calculation shows this would decrease a full build cycle from around 40 hours to 24 hours.

Thoughts?

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