Finale Forum

Is there a way to import a PDF file of music into Finale and have it open as a Finale file? I have Finale 25X on High Sierra.

If the PDF is font based, there are programs and websites that will turn it into musicXML which can then be imported into Finale.

Do a Google search for PDF to MIDI conversion.

If the PDF is image based, you would need an optical scanning program like SmartScore to scan the file and convert it to musicXML. If you have an older version of Finale, SmartScore light was included with those versions.

You'll need to convert PDF to TIFF for SmartScore Lite. Results vary according to quality of the original.

I tried it with my old Finale 2009 SmartScore lite (it doesn't seem to be in Finale 25X) but it came out musical gibberish! I just wanted to separate the lines of a Bach Two Part Invention and put them both in treble clef, putting the left hand line up an octave. I think the easiest way at this point would be simply to copy the two lines in a new file. I looked into PDF to MIDI but I don't want to buy a new program just to play duets with a student. Thanks for the suggestions.

There are midi files of the inventions at imslp.org that might get you most of the way to what you want much quicker than entering the notes yourself.

Thanks. I'll try that next.

Fantastic! It worked great. I'll have to clean it up a bit but I think that will be faster than recopying the whole thing.

I found this software, called Scanscore: https://scan-score.com/en/

Has anyone used it, and would it be good for this purpose?

pianowillbebach wrote:I found this software, called Scanscore: https://scan-score.com/en/

Has anyone used it, and would it be good for this purpose?

Appears to be a competitor to Musictek's Music-to-XML ($100).
https://www.musitek.com/m2xml.html
This is the exact product that was supposed to be bundled with Finale 25 to replace SmartScore Lite. It was pulled at the last minute over potential copyright liability issues. No demo but you can send a .pdf to Musitek at no charge and they'll scan it free for you.

SmartScore X2 Pro is a major upgrade from SS Lite. There's a demo available. Price is $200 for Finale owners. Unlike Music-to-XML, you can edit before export, well worth the extra $99 for those of us who use it.
https://www.musitek.com/store/SSX2Pro.html

I'd hold off from a new purchase of SS X2P till the 64 bit version is ready later this year. It's been promised and Musitek already has a 64 bit product for iOS — see Music-to-XML above.

Since Windows runs 32-bit software, I don't see much advantage to waiting for a 64-bit version.

I was unable to run SmartScore in Mojave. I had to go back to High Sierra. So I’m avidly waiting for that 64-bit version!

motet wrote:Since Windows runs 32-bit software, I don't see much advantage to waiting for a 64-bit version.

What if there are Mac users reading this — such as the OP as the signature indicates?

What if Musitek actually improves the product after seven years of neglect?

The mind boggles at the possibilities.

miker wrote:I was unable to run SmartScore in Mojave. I had to go back to High Sierra. So I’m avidly waiting for that 64-bit version!

Really? It's working for me. I didn't have to reauthorize or do anything special.

Perhaps reinstalling might work?

Mike H, thanks for the suggestion, but no. My cursor wasn't changing to reflect the chosen tool. This is evidently a known issue, but not universal. Tech support said "no fix planned, wait for new version." Sigh...

MikeHalloran wrote:

motet wrote:Since Windows runs 32-bit software, I don't see much advantage to waiting for a 64-bit version.

What if there are Mac users reading this — such as the OP as the signature indicates?

When you said "Musitek already has a 64 bit product for iOS" I misunderstood and thought you meant SSXP was already 64-bit for the Mac, which I guess it would have to be to run on the latest Mac OS.

I sprung for SmartScore X2 Pro a couple of months ago and the very first thing I tried it on crashed. The person I contacted there was very responsive, though, and ran my document for me.

A couple of things would make it more usable. First, if it get's confused, it will, for example, give something a time signature of 7/8 displayed as 4/4, that sort of thing. This is very unlikely to be the case in a real document--there's unlikely to be a time signature change without showing a time signature!--so it would be better to throw in a rest, which could more easily be corrected than redoing the (invisible) bad time signature. It also doesn't seem to know what to do with multimeasure rests.

motet wrote:
I sprung for SmartScore X2 Pro a couple of months ago and the very first thing I tried it on crashed. The person I contacted there was very responsive, though, and ran my document for me.

I'm using Windows 8.1. The program crashes for me without fail if I try to directly import a PDF file. I have to convert the PDF to TIFF first.

For what I do, I usually just want to get the notes into Finale so I can make my own arrangement. I typically just delete everything else. For that, it does save time over directly typing into Finale. If I were playing the lines into Finale it would probably be faster, still.

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Interesting. When I import a PDF, SSP converts it to TIF. When I’ve tried scanning as a TIF, I have problems. Maybe it’s a Mac/Windows thing.

My practice with X2 ia to convert a pdf to a 400 dpi tiff first. Make sure you straighten your scan or tiff conversion. It works very well for me on Win 10.
I don't understand why there has been no investment in or upgrading X2 for so very long??????????

You’re certainly right about straightening the scan. (I wish that function was built into Preview, but that’s a whole nother story!) I also use the image editor to look for broken bar lines, particularly at the left edge. A little correcting here can go a long way.

I know that currently, they are working on the 64-bit version. I get the impression that there aren’t too many people in the Notion iOS crew, so that may explain the delay. And from what they have said, I’m looking forward to some improvements, as well.

I’m looking forward to some improvements, as well.

I hope so too! It seems they abandoned the software.