Graphics problems with Finale 26.3

[BuonTempi]

I was interested to see what improvements they've made in Finale 26.3.

Here's literally my first 5 minutes:

1. The old 'misplaced selection' bug is still there/returned. Here's my selection:

Screenshot 9.png

and here's the EPS file:

Screenshot 12.png

When I import the EPS file back into Finale, I magically get a bit of another EPS file I've got in the document, slapped into the same graphic, at no extra cost.

Screenshot 11.png

And all at the familiar crappy image quality.

Imported PDF files are still passed to the printing system as bit-maps.

I've got email correspondence with MM's Carla Hennes going back to December 2007, in which I discuss problems with EPS graphics. Twelve and half years. None of them have been fixed. Despite revisions to the Graphics functionality in 2010, 2011, 2012 and F25.

The whole thing is just an exercise in futility, for developers and users.

[BuonTempi]

Furthermore:

If you export pages with the Graphics Tool as PDF, any graphic images on those pages will be in the wrong page position.
And if they're EPS, you'll get the low-quality display image, rather than the vector data.

Saving as PDF from the Mac print menu puts the images in the right place, but still doesn't use the vector data. Only Saving as PostScript (or printing to paper directly) gives the correct results.

Broken for a decade™.

[David Ward]

… … …Broken for a decade™.

I've just tried exporting the first page of a part which has a graphic at the top as a PDF via the Graphics Tool in F 25. Everything was as it should be. I haven't tried in F26.2 & haven't yet downloaded 26.3. If you have this problem in earlier versions of Finale, as your comment would seem to suggest, then maybe(!) I won't encounter it in 26.3; but if for you it is new to 26.3, then I should probably delay getting it until the problem is dealt with by MM.

[BuonTempi]

I'm getting the same problems in F25. a PDF on page 1 is entirely absent when the page is exported as a PDF. Printing does at least show the image in the right place.

A brand new Untitled.musx file, with my PDF logo added to the front page behaves similarly, on two different computers. No PDF logo appears in the PDF.

Illustrator shows that the PDF is 'included', but somewhere far north of the page itself.

Screenshot 12.png

I really only use Finale now for my legacy documents. When I can't rely on it to output even those correctly, then there's no point whatsoever.

[miker]

BT, what are you using instead of Finale, now?

[BuonTempi]

BT, what are you using instead of Finale, now?

As you asked, I'm using Dorico. It may not let you do Ferneyhough, but you don't need to spend hours moving things manually just to stop standard notation colliding.

[David Ward]

If I was starting from scratch with computer music typesetting I expect I might well choose Dorico, but I doubt very much that it would be worth my while to change to it at present unless Finale collapses completely.

Yes, Finale can be infuriating and frustrating; but doesn't that apply to computers in general?

For me the least frustrating and most fluent way to notate music is in manuscript, but nowadays composers are expected to typeset their scores using computer software, just as as novelists are expected to submit word-processor typescripts rather than handwritten manuscripts. Production editing by professional engravers may follow, so as long as there are enough of those who continue to use Finale (alongside the other software) it should remain viable.

[BuonTempi]

Finale doesn't have a monopoly on production engraving. Sibelius has been used by many leading houses for years. You can argue about the quality/standard, but that's mostly a commercial choice. It's been well advertised that an edition of Bach transcriptions was prepared for Baerenreiter using MuseScore, which is well suited the budgetary and didactic needs of education.

To compete with 'free', commercial software has to bring something worth buying to the party, like Dorico's automatic part condensing or dedicated figured bass handling. MM seems to be placing Finale only as a tool to accompany SmartMusic.

Finale is currently the only notation app that provides no Vertical Collision Avoidance -- (to say nothing of actual collision of notes between voices).
Sibelius introduced 'Magnetic Layout' in 2009. Forum voices have been suggesting and hoping that Finale might offer similar ever since.

The recent improvement to Slurs and Articulations was welcome, even if potentially problematic for old files; but MM needs to knock out several features like that every six months if it has even a hope of staying relevant.

We've had nearly a decade of 'under-the-hood' maintenance work, which this update continues. The huge array of Plug-ins that Finale requires should not be celebrated: they are a reminder of all the things that Finale ought to do automatically, but doesn't.

I've used Finale since the 90s: I've written exhortations to 4 different CEOs of MM. I've beta-tested, suggested new features and urged for bug fixes. I've evangelised far and wide for the software, and even authored a book on using it. I'm just saddened by all the things that Finale could have been.