I just got bitten by a bug that's happened to me numerous times, but finally prompted me to register for the forums today. It crops up when I've got a file with an embedded image -- in my case, something that happens when using Finale to make tests for my students.
Using the Graphics tool, if I go to Graphics > Export Pages and export a PDF, the embedded image is omitted from the PDF. However if I create the PDF from the Print dialogue box (Print > Save as PDF), the image is included.
So that's a workaround, but my impression is that the intended best practice is for us to use the Graphics tool to export PDFs. (I remember seeing people say as much on the forums, and the PDFs exported with the Graphics tool do tend to be smaller, which is a plus.)
Is this a known issue? Anyone else encountered it? I'm on a Mac running Monterey, but I've seen the same issue with previous versions of the OS. My Finale version is 27.4.1.146, so I'm up to date on that front.
Embedded images omitted when exporting to PDF
Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker
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motet
- Posts: 8294
- Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:33 pm
- Finale Version: 2014.5,2011,2005,27
- Operating System: Windows
CutePDF or other Ghostscript print-to-PDF program will create PDFs as small as the Graphics tool does and shouldn't have that problem. Or maybe the built-in Mac print to PDF is good, too.
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Phil S
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:15 pm
- Finale Version: Finale 27.4.1.146
- Operating System: Mac
I can confirm that the built-in OS print to PDF works fine (though it yields larger file sizes). The only problem is that when you do it that way, Finale sometimes has a tendency to insist that everything is a "Score" if you do it that way, and will add it to the filename whether you want it or not. See these threads:
viewtopic.php?t=16188
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... art-Suffix
However, reviewing the second thread has suddenly made a lightbulb go on: checking "Allow transparency" in the PDF export fixes the problem! It's not at all obvious to me why graphics are considered a "transparency" in this context, but that's apparently what's required here; I'm guessing it has something to do with white getting treated as an alpha channel with PNG images?
Bottom line, problem solved (I think). Hooray! Now if we can only get rid of the bug where Finale crashes if I unplug an external monitor while it's running...
