diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-daily.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-daily.yml
index 89d30c25a0..992a4d6527 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-daily.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-daily.yml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install system packages
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
       - name: Install requirements
         run: |
           pip install --upgrade "cirq~=1.0.dev" "cirq-core[contrib]~=1.0.dev"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-monitoring.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-monitoring.yml
index 9371bce591..3a1a6ca0a5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-monitoring.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-monitoring.yml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install system packages
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
       - name: Install requirements
         run: |
           pip install --upgrade setuptools
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 772eaf154d..1eb6b7a9e9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install system packages
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
       - name: Install changed files test dependencies
         run: dev_tools/conf/pip-install-minimal-for-pytest-changed-files.sh
       - name: Changed files test
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install requirements
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y yamllint
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends yamllint
       - name: Run yamllint
         run: yamllint . CITATION.cff
   isolated-modules:
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install system packages
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
       - name: Install requirements
         run: |
           pip install --upgrade setuptools
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install system packages
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
-          sudo apt-get install $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
+          sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends $(cat apt-system-requirements.txt)
       - name: Install requirements
         run: |
           pip install --upgrade setuptools
diff --git a/apt-system-requirements.txt b/apt-system-requirements.txt
index 4ffdaca503..00f55545ea 100644
--- a/apt-system-requirements.txt
+++ b/apt-system-requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+ghostscript
 latexmk
-python3-tk
+lmodern
+poppler-utils
 texlive-latex-extra