The output file size relative to other approaches will depend on the contents of the input file (e.g., does it embed any bitmaps, or is it only text in non-rasterized fonts?), the density you use (e.g., 150 dpi is 4x greater than 75 dpi), the bit depth you use (3 bits is 4x greater than 1 bit), and whether you add noise or not. Also, the one-line command above your comment is short/easy to remember and reasonably fast -- which is useful if you're impatient like me.
All that said, note that you can always add a `-compress <compression method>` to the convert command, although this could make it noticeably slower, say, for a directory full of long documents. There's even a Fax TIFF compression method that makes the document look like it came out of one of those fax machines you see in movies from the 1980's. To get a list of supported compression methods, type `convert -list compress` at the command line.
