If you compile with pdflatex to pdf, you might also consider loading the
microtype package in your preamble:
\usepackage{microtype}
Not only this improves the typographical aesthetics of your document, I have
also found it reducing the number of pages slightly (by about a quarter page
per ten pages in a two-column style, that is by about 2-3%, which might be
enough in your case.)
More "evil" hacks include:
- explicitly putting negative vskips (e.g., \vskip{-2ex}) to reduce the spacing
between certain figure floats and the following text or between the figure and
its caption.
- explicitly enlarging the one or other page by a single line
(\enlargethispage{\baselineskip})
Daniel
