water mark

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Gary Fagan
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Post by Gary Fagan » Wed May 16, 2018 1:14 pm

I am trying to add a water mark to my Finale score and wonder if anyone has figured out to do this. I found an old post (2013) but the expanation was hard to understand and I am hoping with Finale 25 there is now a way to add a water mark to a score. I am a Mac user with Finale 25.


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N Grossingink
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Post by N Grossingink » Wed May 16, 2018 1:27 pm

Take a look at this generous offer:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15665&p=54390&hilit ... ark#p54390

The author is a member of this forum, so if you have any questions post them here. I'm sure he will respond.

N.
N. Grossingink
Educational Band, Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble a specialty
Sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFF5OeJDeLFGHMRyXrubFqZWXBubErw4/view?usp=share_link


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miker
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Post by miker » Wed May 16, 2018 2:12 pm

You can't do it directly from Finale, but a quick Google search for <add watermark to PDF mac> brings up a number of options.
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Wed May 16, 2018 3:40 pm

I did this a few days ago with PDFpen 10.0.1 from Smile (I think also available from the App Store). Not free, but not expensive.

It took a while (2 or 3 minutes) to apply the watermark to all several hundred pages of the score, but it only required the one instruction and then got on with things at its own pace.
Finale 25.5 & 26.3
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Sat May 19, 2018 8:48 am

N Grossingink wrote:I'm sure he will respond.
Eh, maybe. :lol:

To the OP: on the Mac, you're blessed with any number of utilities either built-in or free to download for manipulating PDFs in all sorts of ways. Plus commercial products that are extremely powerful.

But my PDFSuite does include a watermark Service, which by default writes the word "SAMPLE" in large grey letters across every page of selected PDFs. You install it in the user Library/Services folder, then it will be available on a right-click in the Finder. Other Services include joining PDFs, splitting PDFs, converting PDFs to and from images, adding page numbers or "1 of 30" indices (useful for parts); plus Save As PDF/X-3 and Save As Booklet options from the print menu.

These are all things that I use every day in the preparation of my musical scores, so they may well be of use to others here.

https://github.com/benwiggy/PDFsuite

Trumpet solo over. :oops:

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Sat May 19, 2018 2:27 pm

BuonTempi wrote:… …You install it in the user Library/Services folder, then it will be available on a right-click in the Finder… …
I must be doing something wrong, but they won't show up as services, whether I put them one by one or as a group into my user library services folder. There do already seem to be some services such as ‘Open File in TextWrangler,’ but these are not in the user library services folder.
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MikeHalloran
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Post by MikeHalloran » Sat May 19, 2018 8:37 pm

David Ward wrote:I did this a few days ago with PDFpen 10.0.1 from Smile ...
Is PDFpen 32 or 64 bit?

I use their DiskLabel software to print directly to CDs on my old HP c309a. Excellent app but we've not seen an update since 2014 and it's still 32 bit.

Until I saw your post, I didn't know that Smile is still around. It is the same company but DiskLabel only shows up on a few legacy pages.

Back to the OP, I use Acrobat Pro X. Great app that will do things no other PDF app can but it's pretty expensive. Although I use it daily, I would never recommend it if watermarking was your only need.

You can add watermarks in Preview, part of the Mac OS.
https://macmost.com/adding-captions-and ... eview.html
Mike Halloran

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Sat May 19, 2018 9:03 pm

MikeHalloran wrote: Is PDFpen 32 or 64 bit?

Yes, both the latest version 10 and at least as far back as version 6 are 64 bit, according to my System Information.
Last edited by David Ward on Sat May 19, 2018 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Sat May 19, 2018 9:05 pm

David Ward wrote:
BuonTempi wrote:… …You install it in the user Library/Services folder, then it will be available on a right-click in the Finder… …
I must be doing something wrong, but they won't show up as services, whether I put them one by one or as a group into my user library services folder. There do already seem to be some services such as ‘Open File in TextWrangler,’ but these are not in the user library services folder.
David, if you download the whole thing, you'll need to unzip the .workflow files and then put them in the Services folder.

Perhaps I need to create an installer...!

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Sat May 19, 2018 9:33 pm

BuonTempi wrote:… …Perhaps I need to create an installer...!
I've found where I was going wrong. I was putting them in ‘Services,’ but it seems I needed to put them in ‘PDF Services.’ Having done that, they have appeared via the Finder with Option or via right click.

I'll experiment tomorrow (I'm somewhat drained after listening to Shostakovich's ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ from ROH on BBC Radio 3 - actually should be translated as ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Parish’ as that captures more of the sense of a small world from which Katerina wants to escape, which is implied in the full Russian title).
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MikeHalloran
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Post by MikeHalloran » Sat May 19, 2018 10:54 pm

David Ward wrote:
MikeHalloran wrote: Is PDFpen 32 or 64 bit?

Yes, both the latest version 10 and at least as far back as version 6 are 64 bit, according to my System Information.
Thanks, David.

I'll see if I can convince Smile that updating DiskLabel would be a good thing. With my handicap, it is much faster to print to the CD when making a reference disk for clients than handwriting onto the disk. Plus they can read it (what a concept) as my dominant arm was the one that is now crippled.

I can't imagine there's much of a market anymore but DiskLabel is so fast and works so well...
Mike Halloran

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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Sun May 20, 2018 8:00 am

David Ward wrote: I've found where I was going wrong. I was putting them in ‘Services,’ but it seems I needed to put them in ‘PDF Services.’ Having done that, they have appeared via the Finder with Option or via right click.
That's very odd. "PDF Services" should appear in the print menu's PDF button. Services should be available in the Finder on a right click!

Some items are indeed PDF Services (Save As PDF/X; Save As Booklet). All the files with extension .workflow should go in Services. And the Quartz Filters go in ~/Library/Filters!

Anyway, glad it's working for you.

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Sun May 20, 2018 8:17 pm

BuonTempi wrote:Anyway, glad it's working for you.
It's now working correctly from Services.

I think my Finder was playing up yesterday, but it's now OK and not likely to repeat that particular misbehaviour.

Anyway, how do I edit the watermark, so it's a) paler (possibly 25%) and b) varied text? Also how would one apply the watermark to most but not all pages in a file? Perhaps some of these questions may already be covered in the ‘read me.’

I can see that this suite of tools might be very useful. I already find pdfPen helpful, but I suspect that your tools may turn out more versatile. Thank you very much for making them available.
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Mon May 21, 2018 1:57 pm

David Ward wrote:Anyway, how do I edit the watermark, so it's a) paler (possibly 25%) and b) varied text? Also how would one apply the watermark to most but not all pages in a file? Perhaps some of these questions may already be covered in the ‘read me.’
Double click on the workflow, and it will open in Automator. The script is inside an Automator "action", which you can resize to show more of the text. Scroll down to the following section:

Code: Select all

# OPTIONS: Set the distance from bottom left of page;
# Set the angle and opacity of text
# Font must be the PostScript name (i.e. no spaces) (See Get Info in FontBook)
	xOffset, yOffset, angle, opacity = 110.0, 200.0, 45.0, 0.5
	font = selectFont('Helvetica-Bold', 150.0)
	text = "SAMPLE"
You can't specify a page range or have multiple texts (as yet). That level of complexity would need to be run as a command line in the Terminal, or have an input dialog, in order to pass all the relevant info to the tool.
You could use the Service to split a PDF into pages, then watermark some of them, then re-combine them back together....!

If you have a particular task in mind, then drop me a line and I might be able to make a customized tool.

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David Ward
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Post by David Ward » Mon May 21, 2018 3:44 pm

BuonTempi wrote:… …Double click on the workflow, and it will open in Automator.… … … …

If you have a particular task in mind, then drop me a line and I might be able to make a customized tool.
That was much easier than I expected, once I'd overcome my reticence with using such ‘inner workings.’ I modified text, font size & opacity in seconds, and then experimented further with the font size to suit a slightly longer text. I don't want a watermark over cover pics and the like, and possibly (it depends) not over info pages, but that should be very easy to accommodate if done before the PDFs from different applications are combined into one file.
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