Oddity with incomplete PDF printing

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David Ward
Posts: 814
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:48 pm
Finale Version: F 25.5 & 26.3
Operating System: Mac

Post by David Ward » Tue Nov 19, 2019 3:15 pm

Does anyone have any ideas for why a 250 page PDF from Finale I e-mailed to the Scottish Music Centre for printing didn't print the last 10 pages when asked to print complete, but is OK if specific steps are taken to print these 10 final pages? It's never happened before to either SMC or me (and they have printed some 600+ page PDFs of mine).

I made the PDF via the Graphics Tool, which is what I've done before. I don't know whether this problem has its origins in Finale or is a PDF problem (BuonTempi - any ideas?).

Nothing obvious changes about the score at the point where the print came to a stop. If I bring up the standard print dialogue here for the PDF (still exactly as I e-mailed it), all pages show as ready for printing.
Finale 25.5 & 26.3
Mac 10.13.6 & 10.14.6


Hector Pascal
Posts: 432
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:43 pm
Finale Version: Finale 26
Operating System: Mac

Post by Hector Pascal » Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:15 pm

Hi David, Just to clarify, do you get the same problem at your location, or is it only at the SMC end that the file misbehaves?
(edit:try a test print from page 235-250).
Also, perhaps try to re-create the file, then see if the problem persists.
Also, what is the size (in MB) of the 250 page PDF? About how many MB were your 600 page PDFs?

Cheers,
Hector.

Bill Stevens
Posts: 662
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:37 pm
Finale Version: Using 26, testing 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by Bill Stevens » Tue Nov 19, 2019 11:50 pm

Hi David,

My guess is that he ran out of paper.

::: Bill
Version 26.3 / 27.4 / Mac OS 10.15.5 Catalina
Finale user since the beginning of time.

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David Ward
Posts: 814
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:48 pm
Finale Version: F 25.5 & 26.3
Operating System: Mac

Post by David Ward » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:23 am

Hector Pascal wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:15 pm
Hi David, Just to clarify, do you get the same problem at your location, or is it only at the SMC end that the file misbehaves?
(edit:try a test print from page 235-250).
Also, perhaps try to re-create the file, then see if the problem persists.
Also, what is the size (in MB) of the 250 page PDF? About how many MB were your 600 page PDFs?
It certainly prints here across the point where the SMC print came to a stop.

The MB size is greatly enlarged by the artwork for the cover design, 6.9 MB in total, but at least one previous score was around 20 MB & printed without problem. Interestingly, a different person at SMC has printed it again ‘using a different machine’ and it came to the same unexpected stop. She, however, unlike her colleague, manually got it going again for the last ten pages. I'm guessing that the ‘different machine’ refers to the computer rather than the printer, as I think the printer they have on lease (I think) is worth (or at least costs) over £10,000. Maybe there is some print dialogue setting that has been missed.

Anyway, now they are aware of the oddity they can watch for it and not print, bind and post incomplete scores to their members (which has never happened before). I expect someone will get to the bottom of it.

I also had the PDF itself checked by a real expert who analysed it and reported back that ‘this PDF is in fine fettle.’

At least it doesn't appear to be a Finale problem.
Finale 25.5 & 26.3
Mac 10.13.6 & 10.14.6

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