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Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:05 pm
by sPretzel
Is anyone else experiencing staff lines being printed as rich black instead of pure black (K=100% only) when Printing to PDF (not exporting to PDF via the Graphics tool)?
It looks like what is described here:
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... rely-black
The last post says it is a known bug at makemusic and they are working on it. This was five years ago!
This is for F27.1.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 6:22 pm
by Peter Thomsen
sPretzel,
You are talking about Windows Finale - right? (your forum Profile says Windows)
There is a problem in Mac Finale.
If you - in Mac Finale - use the Graphics Tool to export as PDF, you will get a true Black-and-White PDF.
But if you - in Mac Finale - instead “print” to a PDF file, you will not get true Black, but rather a mixture of colours.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 6:32 pm
by sPretzel
I was referring to Windows. But either really.
I have this problem in F27.1 in Windows. Other elements like the clef for instance appear in pure black. But staff lines are in rich black. I am unable to see if that can be defined via settings in Finale.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:04 pm
by wessmusic
Peter Thomsen wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 6:22 pm
But if you - in Mac Finale - instead “print” to a PDF file, you will not get true Black, but rather a mixture of colours.
Hi Peter,
I'd like to share my experience for overcoming the aforementioned issue:
When you go to the Print window, under Paper Size there are several
Finale Print Options.
Click there and select
Color Matching.
The window suddenly changes its size and you get two options —
Color Sync and
In Printer.
Select
Color Sync and click on Profile pop-up.
Automatic stays by default.
However, you'll have to select
Other Profiles...:
This will bring you to
Select ColorSync Profile window. From there go to
Black and White.
Ok... Ok... many times.
Now you can
Save as PDF (or Open in Preview).
You can check the result in your graphical application, that everything is pure Black and White.
Here is a sample from Illustrator:
As you see, I selected intentionally CMYK, because this profile is absolutely merciless to any kind of print issues.
Cheers,
Wess
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:15 pm
by BuonTempi
On Mac, it depends upon the characteristics of the selected printer when you make the PDF. A Monochrome printer will output 100%K, obviously.
Colour printers will vary in the colorspace that they define.
But yes, there have been issues with this in Finale since 2012, at least.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 6:21 am
by sPretzel
I have this problem in F27.1 in Windows. Other elements like the clef for instance appear in pure black. But staff lines are in rich black. I am unable to see if that can be defined via settings in Finale.
By defining via settings in Finale, I meant if it is possible to set colour characteristics of page elements like staff lines, symbols, and other elements directly within Finale so that they print (not display) to PDF accordingly.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:48 am
by David Ward
I just followed Wess's sequence using my home inkjet printer dialogue, but ‘other profiles’ seemed to offer me everything except black and white.
I get the same with CUPS-PDF (virtual printer) selected as the printer, and even when selecting a couple of currently inaccessible printers (this is with my MacBook), no black and white offered for any of them.
I may be as well to continue to export PDFs via the Graphics Tool rather than via the Finale print dialogue.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 1:45 pm
by wessmusic
David Ward wrote: ↑Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:48 am
I just followed Wess's sequence using my home inkjet printer dialogue, but ‘other profiles’ seemed to offer me everything except black and white.
Hi David,
using B&W profile is a bit tricky, but not difficult at all.
Here is a short guid how to get this profile, namely
Black and White.
Go to System Preferences — Printers.
Click on
Add printer and then from the top select
IP.
In the field
Address: write: 192.168.0.0 (this settings always work)
From
Protocol: select: Line printer Daemon — LPD
Under
Name: you can specify your own name, but I input Virtual PS Printer
In
Use: field select Generic PostScript Printer
By clicking
Add button the next window appears.
Press
Continue and you see this message:
OK brings you back to
Printers & Scanners:
So, from this moment and on, when you use "print command" (Command + P) in Finale, instead of your Jet Printer you'll have to select the newly installed
Virtual PS Printer.
(Print — Printer: — Virtual PS Printer)
as shown here:
Now all aforementioned settings (in my previous post) are active inc. Black & White profile.
best,
Wess
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:47 pm
by sPretzel
Can colour settings for page elements be defined within Finale, not through the operating system or the printer? I am referring to colour settings for print, not for display.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 4:42 pm
by BuonTempi
You can set Finale to print those items that it normally colours just for display: e.g. Layers, expressions in Green, etc. There's also Note Pitches that can be assigned to specific colours. However, AFAIK, you can't arbitrarily define the colour of a selected object, nor globally set colour definitions outside of the OS printing environment.
And even if you could, defining an object as 'Black' doesn't define the colourspace, e.g. Black in RGB; Black in CMYK (which could be split across all 4 inks); or Black as 100% mono.
I only mention it for comparison, but 'other applications' do manage to export solid Black notation in 'Colour' PDFs.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 6:02 pm
by sPretzel
And by the way, if you Export to PDF in Windows (from Graphics tool), do the elements on the page appear in pure black (only K=100%) or a combination of C, M, Y, and K? Try with the Finale Default Document. Thanks.
Re: Rich black instead of pure black when printing to PDF?
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 2:50 pm
by sPretzel
For those using Windows with Finale 27.0 or 27.1, can you please report back on the following tasks:
Open a new Finale Default Document.
-Export to PDF (from Graphics tool).
In the PDF file, is anything on the page in a different colour than pure black K=100? Do you see any item with C/M/Y not equal to 0?
What is the PDF producer?
-Print to PDF (from File Print).
In the PDF file, is anything on the page in a different colour than pure black K=100? Do you see any item with C/M/Y not equal to 0?
What is the PDF producer?
Thanks.