[texhax] Compatibility problem with newtxtext package

[Doug McKenna]

On my old computer with TeXLive 2014 installed, I've written and illustrated an 8-page paper using LaTeX (pdflatex).  The conference that accepted the paper asks for submissions to be pre-typeset for its proceedings book, and requires that the paper not be longer than 8 pages.  Another requirement is that I use the newtxtext and newtxmath packages (better integration of Times-Roman with math typesetting).  So the contents have been carefully written and figures arranged to maximize the efficient use of space on every page.

Upon getting a newer computer I installed TeXLive 2017 from the CD.  I've taken the exact same TeX source file set (i.e., I copied over its enclosing directory with all the exact same input files, PDF illustrations, and .sty file) for the paper, and typeset it again.

But now the resulting PDF file is 9-pages, re-paginated completely differently.  Which makes it unacceptable for the proceedings.

Upon examination, it appears that an early paragraph in the original 8-page paper whose last line ends at the paragraph's right margin is now being line-wrapped differently, creating a widow on a new last line.  This in turn is pushing a figure after that paragraph onto the next page, with an attendant cascade of new page boundaries all the way to the document's end.  Indeed, the new last page 9 is now completely filled.  Sigh.

So after paring everything extraneous away into a 8-line MWE that is text-only (no math symbols), the culprit appears to be some kind of change in the newtxtext package, presumably with respect to font metrics, between 2014 and 2017, though I can't be completely sure.  Possibly in interaction with LaTeX's \large or \emph{} macros.

I would like my 8 pages back on my upgraded system, at least for this one document.  Suggestions on what to do?


- Doug McKenna
Mathemaesthetics, Inc.

MWE:

% !TEX TS-program = pdflatex
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm,noheadfoot]{geometry}
\usepackage{newtxtext}
\begin{document}
\large \noindent aesthetic misfit, due to a fundamental theological mistake:~\emph{Everyone's been shoehorning a one-dimensional wonder into the wrong two-dimensional rectangle!}  Bear with me now in proving this.
\end{document}