Dotted line not showing in PDF
Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker
- miker
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I do a piece, using some dotted line smart shapes to show melody transfer to a different voice. No problem.
I generate a PDF, and everything is fine, but when I email the PDF, the recipient does not see the lines.
This has happened with numerous pieces, but with the same recipient. Other people see the lines just fine, so I'm pretty sure the issue is at his end. What can I tell him to check? (He is 84, and has no computer skills other than on/off and reading email. He might be able to get help, but I need to suggest exactly what his help should look for.) He is on Windows, but I'm not sure which version.
I generate a PDF, and everything is fine, but when I email the PDF, the recipient does not see the lines.
This has happened with numerous pieces, but with the same recipient. Other people see the lines just fine, so I'm pretty sure the issue is at his end. What can I tell him to check? (He is 84, and has no computer skills other than on/off and reading email. He might be able to get help, but I need to suggest exactly what his help should look for.) He is on Windows, but I'm not sure which version.
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
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- N Grossingink
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I assume by "dotted lines", you mean the dots are font characters. If you're using Maestro, it could be your friend doesn't have the font on his machine. But you're on a Mac, and the Mac PDF creator embeds the fonts, doesn't it? Might be worth double checking this.
I'd try changing the dot to a commonly found font such as Times or Hell-vetica. Maybe that will solve the problem.
N.
I'd try changing the dot to a commonly found font such as Times or Hell-vetica. Maybe that will solve the problem.
N.
N. Grossingink
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- motet
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I don't think lines are done with characters from a font. I would suspect the Mac PDF Creator. Can you somehow try it with something else? If you want, email the .musx file to me and I will make a PDF with CutePDF Pro and we'll see if that works. Or, post a Dropbox link here.
- N Grossingink
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I should have specified a "Custom Smart Shape" consisting of dots, actually repeated periods.motet wrote:I don't think lines are done with characters from a font.
N.
N. Grossingink
Educational Band, Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble a specialty
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- miker
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Sorry for confusion. I mean the dashed line smart shape. I am creating the PDF with the Mac print dialogue. So I'm wondering if something isn't being embedded properly, or if the problem is at his end.
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- zuill
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If every one else sees it okay, then there might be an issue with just him. Have you tried another pdf program?
Zuill
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- N Grossingink
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If you're using the hardwired dashed line on the palette, why not try making a custom line to the same settings to see if maybe that shocks the line into working?
N.
N.
N. Grossingink
Educational Band, Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble a specialty
Sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFF5OeJDeLFGHMRyXrubFqZWXBubErw4/view?usp=share_link
Mac Mini 2014 2.6 Ghz, 8Gb RAM
OSX 10.15.7
Finale 2012c, 25.5, 26.3, 27.3
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Sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFF5OeJDeLFGHMRyXrubFqZWXBubErw4/view?usp=share_link
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- motet
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If "everybody else" has a Mac and he has Windows, that could explain it. Mac PDF Creator could have a bug that doesn't manifest on the Mac. But this is easily to find out by using another PDF creator program.
- MikeHalloran
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A .pdf is not a picture of a file. It uses fonts. Changing the .pdf creator on the Mac will accomplish nothing. Adobe Acrobat Pro is pretty expensive—it can do things that Preview can't but it's unlikely that the file will look any different.
It is an issue with the recipient. The short term workaround is to open the file in Preview and export as a .jpg or .png—those are pictures of the file.
The real solution is to fix the fonts on the Windows machine.
If the recipient does not have the latest version of the Finale fonts, the old ones should be purged and the new ones installed.
It is an issue with the recipient. The short term workaround is to open the file in Preview and export as a .jpg or .png—those are pictures of the file.
The real solution is to fix the fonts on the Windows machine.
If the recipient does not have the latest version of the Finale fonts, the old ones should be purged and the new ones installed.
Mike Halloran
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- zuill
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When fonts are embedded, then one doesn't need the fonts on their machine. I send pdf files to clients who don't have the Maestro font and the music prints just fine. I think a good experiment would be to have someone with Windows create the pdf for Mike and see if that works for the client.
Zuill
Zuill
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Preview REWRITES the PDF stream when it saves documents. As said, this has been known to fix parsing problems with PDFs from Finale in the past. It may or may not be the fix for this problem, but it IS worth trying.MikeHalloran wrote:A .pdf is not a picture of a file. It uses fonts. Changing the .pdf creator on the Mac will accomplish nothing.
- miker
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BT,
I'm certainly going to give that a try. I know for a fact that the man at the other end will be unable to understand any solution that he would have to implement.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm certainly going to give that a try. I know for a fact that the man at the other end will be unable to understand any solution that he would have to implement.
Thanks for the suggestion.
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- motet
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PDF doesn't exclusively use fonts, and I'd be very surprised if Mike's dashed lines are done with such. Regardless, the recipient should not need Finale fonts at all--they are included in the PDF file.MikeHalloran wrote:A .pdf is not a picture of a file. It uses fonts. Changing the .pdf creator on the Mac will accomplish nothing. Adobe Acrobat Pro is pretty expensive—it can do things that Preview can't but it's unlikely that the file will look any different.
It is an issue with the recipient. The short term workaround is to open the file in Preview and export as a .jpg or .png—those are pictures of the file.
The real solution is to fix the fonts on the Windows machine.
If the recipient does not have the latest version of the Finale fonts, the old ones should be purged and the new ones installed.
I also would suppose that perhaps the used PDF Reader isn't the greatest. Eg. the PDF is opening in a default browser plugin.
For Windows a nice lightweight PDF-Reader is SumatraPDF which is small and doesn't even need to be installed.
I'm not allowed to post url:
sumatrapdfreader . org
For Windows a nice lightweight PDF-Reader is SumatraPDF which is small and doesn't even need to be installed.
I'm not allowed to post url:
sumatrapdfreader . org
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- MikeHalloran
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Sure it's worth trying. Why not? MM doesn't always follow the Apple Developers Toolkit and this causes quite a few problems, many having to do with fonts.BuonTempi wrote:Preview REWRITES the PDF stream when it saves documents. As said, this has been known to fix parsing problems with PDFs from Finale in the past. It may or may not be the fix for this problem, but it IS worth trying.MikeHalloran wrote:A .pdf is not a picture of a file. It uses fonts. Changing the .pdf creator on the Mac will accomplish nothing.
My point was —and still is— that the problem is with the person receiving the file in Windows, not the person sending it from a Mac.
Mike Halloran
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- motet
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I'm not sure why you conclude that. That may indeed be the case, but it's also plausible that the Mac PDF creator assumes something it shouldn't (like the presences of Finale fonts, as you say).
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Yes. Each different PDF Viewer has to interpret the PDF code, and different engines do this differently. If the Windows PDF viewer can't handle the PDF out of Finale, but Preview can, then it's possible that re-saving it from Preview will render the PDF stream in a manner more palatable to the Windows PDF engine.MikeHalloran wrote:My point was —and still is— that the problem is with the person receiving the file in Windows, not the person sending it from a Mac.
See this thread in the old forum, where saving in Preview fixed a similar issue.
http://forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=6&m=247460
- zuill
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I would be willing to:
1. Test viewing the pdf on my system to see if I get the errant result.
2. Test making a pdf on my system to see if the outcome is the same.
I always though CutePDF and other 3rd party software could be used on a Mac. Am I mistaken? I have no problem embedding all data in my files, whether going to Windows or Mac.
Zuill
1. Test viewing the pdf on my system to see if I get the errant result.
2. Test making a pdf on my system to see if the outcome is the same.
I always though CutePDF and other 3rd party software could be used on a Mac. Am I mistaken? I have no problem embedding all data in my files, whether going to Windows or Mac.
Zuill
Windows 10, Finale 2011-v26.3.1
"When all is said and done, more is said than done."
"When all is said and done, more is said than done."
- miker
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FOLLOW UP:
I tried BT's suggestion, and opened the doc in Preview, and then exported as a PDF. It worked! Thank you! Burt can see the dotted lines.
Now, if I can just remember till next time...
Thanks to all who made suggestions.
I tried BT's suggestion, and opened the doc in Preview, and then exported as a PDF. It worked! Thank you! Burt can see the dotted lines.
Now, if I can just remember till next time...
Thanks to all who made suggestions.
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-
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It's MacOS code. CoreGraphics is "essentially" PDF - descended from Display PostScript on NeXT systems. So the conversion should be fairly minimal. If there's a parsing problem in Finale's output, which Preview can fix, then that suggests there's something wrong with Finale's graphical implementation of the dotted line in the first place.motet wrote:Is that Mac print dialog function something that Finale does, or more general Mac code?
PDFKit is not without its bugs, but clearly that's not where the blame lies here. It's worth flagging the error with MM.