Getting ready to print 11/17

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Lebovitztap1
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Post by Lebovitztap1 » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:23 pm

Hello, My full Orchestra piece medley has 32 staves. I need to print the score. (Orchestra parts are fine)

I went into page layout - page size and clicked 11/17 tabloid. The notes seemed awful small to read because there are 32 staves. Should I enlarge the note heads to 36 font? Or is this done by the print shop and the enlargement they do through the PDF.

I understand hiding empty staves and I know this will also help. How many staves do I hide if only a few instruments are playing.

Some pages everyone is playing to end a piece. Again notes, stems seem small.

I am probably overthinking this whole thing. But this all I have left to do. Get it ready for print. ANY advise would be greatly appreciated.


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motet
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Finale Version: 2014.5,2011,2005,27
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Post by motet » Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:25 pm

If doing any enlarging, I would enlarge everything using Page format / Score / System scaling. You'll have to "redefine pages" in the Page Layout tool after you change that.

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wessmusic
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Finale Version: Finale 27.4
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Post by wessmusic » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:01 pm

Working with 32 staves per page on A3 or similar page size is real challenge, indeed and this circumstance requires to be very frugal using the vertical space.
IMO, 4 mm staff high would solve your problem, well, as a last resort. The "picture" will look slightly minimalistic, however the score will remain readable.
In addition, I would suggest to keep page size to 100% and with "Resize tool" to apply 47% on the system.
The biggest note head font size (Maestro) should not exceed 26 pt. if the staff lines are set to 0.10417 spaces (2.5 EVPUs) and if you use high resolution (1200 dpi) laser printer. If your device is 600 dpi – you can go to Maestro 27 pt. but not more because the 1/8 and 1/16 flags will look very inconsistent compared to the note heads. To keep the good balance the beams must be set to 14 EVPUs and the space between them, the secondary beam, have to be separated to 20 EVPUs.
The last you could try is to reduce the page margins – both: top and bottom. Apply 1.8 cm on top and at most 2.5 cm at the bottom (0.7-1 inch) unless the publisher wouldn't accept this compromise, as well as the above mentioned settings.
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