best method for exporting as .pdf's?

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motet
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Post by motet » Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:41 pm

CutePDF is a virtual printer. You use the Print command and it makes a PDF. The free Adobe Acrobat DC, which used to be called Adobe Reader, is a PDF reader only. The professional Adobe Acrobat, which costs money, likely comes with a virtual print command. I'm assuming if you had that you wouldn't have started this thread.

Come to think of it, Windows comes with Microsoft Print to PDF. Why don't you try that?

There's nothing you can do that will make File/Export/PDF any better. It's built into Finale.


AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Tue Jul 19, 2022 1:08 am

This is good info. I have full Adobe Acrobat for other work that I do, but at some point will want to ditch it for something OS or free. Good to know that the primary execution is within Finale, and not dependent on the PDF maker.

bj nick
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Post by bj nick » Sat Jul 30, 2022 6:46 pm

Okay, (hopefully) this issue is fully resolved. Took all your advice and now using a PDF printer, which turns out to be MS built-in PDF printer, which was right there the whole time-- and now it seems the parts are exactly as I create them in Finale. Huge relief; now it's just: get it right on Finale, and I can trust that the PDFs will not be altered (of course I'll still check them over.) Also, I realize my whole workflow on this was off. Now I go to Manage Parts, go through each part and proof it, then Print to PDF, done. I'm currently doing a deep dive on the whole topic of linked parts, making sure I understand all the ins and outs. Thanks for all the great suggestions!
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TonyEastwood
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Post by TonyEastwood » Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:40 pm

Further information

CutePDF does indeed creates flawless pdf's. Unfortunately in my experience some music PDF's produced by the current version of CutePDF no longer upload to a wordpress site. I'm just guessing that CutePDF use some new 'as yet unsupported' features of PDF. You can upload music PDF's out of Finale/CutePDF to a weebly site. After much grief I now have to maintain both types of sites. (mine are : https://guitarcompositions.weebly.com and https://guitarcompositions.wordpress.com).

The Microsoft built-in PDF printer is randomly flawed. You may be lucky and not see any flaws but on one of my pieces it printed a whole vertical column of notes a tiny grace notes right down the page (they were full size notes!). However. PDF's created via Finale/Microsoft PDF will upload to wordpress sites.

Microsoft built-in PDF does not provide a choice of DPI- CutePDF provides several choices. I now always use 3600 DPI as I've found low resolution scores may print very fuzzily.

Both types of PDF will upload to the IMLSP (Petrucci) site.

Hope this helps
compostions at https://guitarcompositions.wordpress.com/

bj nick
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Post by bj nick » Sat Jul 30, 2022 8:11 pm

Well, that's good to know. I also have Cute, but the first ones I tried with MS built- in seemed fine. If you think Cute is a better option, it's just as easy for me to try that. And the higher resolution is a good idea. Not sure about my limitations with a website, I'm going to have a pro prepare one for me, so I'll make sure he/she is clear about maximizing it for my particular needs.
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motet
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Post by motet » Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:53 pm

PDF is vector graphics, so I'm not sure DPI matters except as a printer instruction.

Awhile back I compared file sizes with various methods and CutePDF (Ghostscript) was significantly smaller. Not that that matters so much anymore.

Hector Pascal
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Post by Hector Pascal » Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:49 am

I sometimes use accents (>) in my scores and I position them exactly on screen in Finale. Unfortunately, when I use Graphics Tool>Export Pages>PDF, the result is that some accents have moved out of place in the PDF. So I have to go back into finale and replace those instances with an identical accent that has stacking turned off and manual positioning on. Always seems to add extra hours to my proof reading process at deadline time! At such times I also find myself wondering if jumping ship to Dorico or Sibelius would make life easier or whether it would just be exchanging one set of problems for another. With Finale, at least I tend to be able to find a workaround to most issues that I encounter.
Cheers,
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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:37 am

Hector Pascal wrote:
Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:49 am
… I sometimes use accents (>) in my scores and I position them exactly on screen in Finale …
Are you saying that you are positioning each and every accent manually?

Why not set the accent articulation’s default positioning as needed?
If you use a programmed articulation metatool, Finale will automatically put the accent articulation at its default positioning.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

Hector Pascal
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Post by Hector Pascal » Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:44 pm

Hi Peter :) What I meant to say was that Finale automatically stacks and positions all accents for me, however some (not all) of them display wrongly on the PDF (Graphic Tool>Export Pages>Type:PDF) even though they remain positioned correctly and automatically in Finale. So I have to go back in to Finale and replace just those particular accents with new articulations that are manually positioned and not auto-stacked.
Hector.

bj nick
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Post by bj nick » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:07 am

Yeah I get it, hector. That was the worst. After all the careful usual proofing, then I have to mess around with the PDFs......?? I'd have to make some things wrong on finale to get them right on the pdf. It seems way better now using the PDF printer with the Microsoft PDF.
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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:31 pm

Hector Pascal wrote:
Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:44 pm
Hi Peter :) What I meant to say was that Finale automatically stacks and positions all accents for me, however some (not all) of them display wrongly on the PDF (Graphic Tool>Export Pages>Type:PDF) even though they remain positioned correctly and automatically in Finale. So I have to go back in to Finale and replace just those particular accents with new articulations that are manually positioned and not auto-stacked.
Hector.
Hector Pascal,

You may have found a bug in Finale.
I suggest that you contact the folks in MakeMusic’s Tech Support - and also send them the Finale document (along with info about your Finale version and operating system) so that they can see the problem.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

bj nick
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Post by bj nick » Tue Sep 06, 2022 5:09 pm

Just fyi: I had said earlier that using the MS PDF printer had solved my problems....but then I got a couple indications that it would occasionally do the same thing I had before: inconsistencies between my Finale score/parts and the resulting PDFs.....I switched to Cute PDF as some suggested, and the results seem to be excellent.
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agodsey1
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Post by agodsey1 » Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:41 am

My export to pdf is displaying half of my Finale v27 document. File>export>pdf does not work properly. Can you assist, please? Thanks in advance.

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motet
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Post by motet » Sat Jun 03, 2023 3:09 am

Read this thread!

bj nick
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Post by bj nick » Sat Jun 03, 2023 5:21 pm

agodsey1 wrote:
Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:41 am
My export to pdf is displaying half of my Finale v27 document. File>export>pdf does not work properly. Can you assist, please? Thanks in advance.
I agree with Motet: if you read this thread, you should find the answer(s) to your issue(s.) It was a big headache for me but pretty much cleared up now; save you a lot of time and stress.
Finale v. 26, Windows 10, NP3, Garritan Instruments for Finale

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