Finale Forum

I tried a search for this topic but found no posts, a little surprisingly since the issue I'm having seriously affects the quality of a published score.

In a score I'm presently working on there's a demand of footnotes containing music examples. From separate Finale documents I've created the examples, exported them from there as pdf images, and 'reimported' them into the document of the score (Place Graphic). While the pdf images created with Finale's own Export Pages look just fine when I open them in Adobe Reader, when I import them back into Finale again, they look like low-resolution images and nothing like just fine. This doesn't make sense to me. And it doesn't please my publisher - he asked me if I could solve this, or he might find a workaround for it himself. Should that really be necessary, or have I missed something obvious?

Are the pdf's attached or linked to the document? There might be a difference. I tend to use high resolution picture files when needed, not pdfs. the answer might be to create a pdf of the Finale document, then open in Indesign or other graphic oriented program and attach the samples there.

Zuill

Some thoughts:

1) Are you only viewing on the computer screen, or have you tried printing the Finale document?
Perhaps the screen only shows a low resolution bitmap preview, while the final outcome is a (high resolution) vector graphic.

2) You could convert the PDF file to an EPS file, and import that EPS into the Finale document.
The result may not be any better, but it could not hurt to try it.

I just tested importing a pdf graphic into a document and it is quite nice. I guess in older versions of Finale I had bad experiences with pdfs, but in v25 it is quite fine.

I notice you use both Win and Mac. Is the issue on both? Also, I notice you are using 25.3. I use 25.5. Maybe there's improvements in the newest update.

Zuill

If all else fails, try making a 1200dpi TIFF file. I used to resort to these 10-12 years ago when Finale's graphics were troublesome. They look very good on press output that's 2400dpi.

N.

Finale allows much higher resolution if needed. I just tested 10,000 dpi. Looks great.

Zuill

The whole point of using PDFs as imported graphics is that they (should be) vector graphics, and resolution-independent. However, on the Mac at least, imported PDF graphics in Finale will print or export to PDF as slightly blurry, as if they've been pixelated somehow.

I still use EPS for things like company logo and ossia or cadenza-type things. It should be easy to use Acrobat, Illustrator (or other vector artwork editor like Affinity Design) to convert PDFs to EPSes without loss. There are also tools for batch conversion.

Thanks for all the all the fast response and great tips!

Maybe it's as simple as what Peter suggests, that what Finale shows on the screen is not what you get when you print it. I tried a printout on my not very advanced printer and I couldn't detect ant difference in resolution from the music of Finale itself and the imported graphics.

Also I couldn't detect any difference between the platforms - the printouts look equally good to me on Windows and Mac.

Sorry for not updating my signature earlier (it's now done). I'm using F 25.5 on both platforms (Win 7, Mac OS 10.11).

EDIT

It was some time since I sent a proof of the score to my publisher, so I simply forgot that the work process was like this:

I made music examples in Finale, exported them as pdf's, imported them into another Finale document - so far everything has turned out to be ok. But then, with Adobe Acrobat on Windows, and with Mac's own pdf tool, I printed pdf's from the whole document, including the imported pdf's, and it's now that the poor resolution of the imported graphics shows. It makes me a bit confused - where does it go wrong - in Finale, or in Adobe Acrobat?

Also with the pdfs there's a difference between the screen display and the printout - but here the lower resolution of even the printout is clearly visible.

Anders Hedelin wrote:… Sorry for not updating my signature earlier (it's now done). I'm using F 25.5 on both platforms (Win 7, Mac OS 10.11).

Please, also update your forum profile.
Your profile (out in the right side of your post) still says 25.3 as your version number.

I tried making a pdf of Chord symbols and fretboards, and it came out blank, so not everything works with pdf.

Zuill

I tried a few more of your tips.

What worked best for me was to convert the PDF to EPS in Acrobat. In view 300% or more there's a minor displacement of some of the stems/heads, not visible in my printout anyway so hopefully this is what to use. (In the EPS, made directly with Finale's Graphics Tool, the resolution seemed fine, but there were some very large displacements of stems/heads. Impossible to use.)

The TIFF image from Finale, even in 1200 dpi looked quite blurry.

Thanks again all.

Zuill, I think that your solution using a graphic program was what my publisher had in mind as his workaround. When it's time to deliver the next version of the score I will have a go at that myself. It sounds like a pretty safe method to me.