Printing of 25 or 50 % Display

• Jun 11, 2014 - 17:43

How do you print a Musescore file , a large operatic/orchestral file onto 8 1/2 by 11 paper. (Which is all my printer does), Historians are saying Civil War documents on paper are saved and more accessible than some modern electronic saving devices that are already old fashioned--the best way to preserve something is to get it on paper. A large orchestral score on 8 1/2 by 11 would of course not be usable, but the score would be preserved in miniature print. I have tried going to 25 % Display on MS file, and pressed the "fit to page" button on my printer, but the only thing that ever happens is the printer still tries to print out the 100% Display mode of a MS file. One would think the printer would just print the smaller Display I have set on MS. I of course can save stuff electronically on a memory stick, but that is not my question. Printing is the problem. Can anyone help with this? Thank You delhud2


Comments

Print?
Your job is ready to print?
My compliments. ;-)

One suggestion:
Save your score as a PDF;
Choose Print from the PDF;
In the page settings you can choose how many pages on a sheet.
The usual picture to explain.

Attachment Size
Del A.png 117.05 KB

In reply to by Shoichi

If you have a common inkjet printer ink is preferable to print in a copy center, or otherwise with a laser printer.
The ink for domestic use discolor over time, the toner is more resistant.
You may request a print in booklet format. An A4 sheet of paper folded twice can be bound.

In reply to by Shoichi

My entire score will not be finished until 1-1 1/2 years from now. But I would like to print the various smaller files I am breaking the Opera up into as I finish them. Also, on the printing, since you don't have all the forces playing/singing ALL the time, (Everyone would go crazy and leave) there will be vast areas of nothing but empty staves on the print out. On MS you cannot go back and delete instruments for a section, as it will delete them all the way back to the beginning of the file/score. i really love MS, but maybe I would have been better off to pay a lot for Finale or something? I don't know if Finale has a way around that problem. (anyway, I would hate to leave MS. I think it is great that it exists.) delhud2

In reply to by delhud2

Regarding the empty staves, MuseScore - like Finale and most other notation programs - provides a "Hide Empty Staves" feature (see Style / Edit General Style) to suppress the display of staves that have no content for a given system. However, it is a bit buggy right now - items attached to the top staff only like rehearsal marks, tempo marks, and voltas will cause problems if the first staff is ever hidden. So you are best off populating it with something throughout the score - even just adding explicit rests - for now. These bugs should be fixed when 2.0 comes out, which should be *long* before you finish.

Meanwhile, I take it you are saying that for the next year, you will mainly be printing normal paper, but may print large when the piece is completely. in that case, I'd definitely set the paper size normal, the scaling corresponding small, and work with it this way until you are ready to print large. At that point you can change the paper size to large and scaling to normal (or maybe just not *as* small). Changes to paper size and scaling are harmless, so you can change this as often as you like. There are currently some issues here and there with scaling of text, but these are *also* fixed in 2.0, so you should have nothing to worry about.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Good to hear about MS 2.0! I may be printing some of the completed files the Opera is broken up into sooner than when the entire score is finished. I plan on probably submitting excerpts of the work to Opera producers and/or Arts donors, so the info you are kindly giving me is of timely importance. Not sure how many of them will accept a strictly electronic file in an e-mail inquiry, etc., so may have to print the excerpts. It is a big load off my mind also to know that I do not need to worry about all the empty stuff; populating it with the rests sounds fine to avoid the bugs you mentioned! (Now, I just need to try to find the time to experiment with the scaling and sizes and my own little printer.) One more concern: Please tell me there if there is some way to copy and paste libretto text entered in as "Lyrics" when several singers or a chorus are singing the same words simultaneously. It seems lyrics will not copy and paste to other voices.-- if not, I will have to type in the lyrics under each voice. Del H.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, I did mean copy the lyrics ONLY. I would like to do that after all the notes for the SATB choruses, etc. have been entered. I am glad that 2.0 will have the copy lyrics only as a feature. I will wait for that chore until it comes out, then go back through the score and do it.

In reply to by delhud2

Do note this can only work if the parts have basically the exact same rhythm, or close enough to it that it's "obvious" to computer how to match up the lyrics with the syllables. Frankly, I wouldn't rely on this being true for an entire opera.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I printed a page or two from a file in MS hiding empty staves. Will the page numbers remain the same, or does MS try to condense stuff onto one page. (Like pg 1 and 2 would merge into a new pg 1? ) I found that my printer uses up ink fast on these! expensive. I have been using the Fit to page button on my printer and find I could put all my M2 files onto 8 1/2 by 11" standard paper,
which is what I wanted to do. It's quite readable. However, on 1.3 files, the Fit to Page button does not work. Would there be an electronic Fit to Page on MS 1.3? I don't see one. Or is that only in a PDF file? One file printed perfectly well without being a PDF for me, in MS 2.0.3.
Also, Don't know what is going on all of a sudden with page numbers--My printer gets the MS Hide empty Staves command OK, but it is NOT printing the page or pages I programmed in MS 1.3 or 2+. It seems to pick random pages! Never have seen this before. Thanks for any help on this.

In reply to by delhud2

The whole point of hiding empty staves is normally to fit more systems on a page than otherwise would, so yes, the music will be condensed to the extent hiding empty staves allows more systems to fit.

Not sure what "fit to page" button you mean - there isn't anything like that in MuseScore that I know of. I think that might be something in another program, like maybe Adobe Reader?

As usual, for help regaridng specifics, we need to see the actual score you are having problems with. Page numberinbg normally happens automatically - not sure what you mean by "programming" pages.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hello, The fit to page button is on my printer. That's how I am getting the full-size score in MS to shrink for standard typing size paper and print. By "programming pages" I meant when you click on a MS file, then click Print, then Select page or pages Range to print what pages you want if you don't want it to print "All"., Also ,MS does not seem to be telling the printer to print the pages I have typed in.It just seems to pick random pages from the entire file?! Please see attachment of file on this.For example, I choose pg. 21 and it prints pg.40 instead! iT seems to be stuck on pg 40, though oddly it will begin printing from the last file page when you choose Print ALL.But I don't want it to print all yet till the layout is fixed. (Also, odd that my "fit to page" on the printer does not work on a 1.3 File, as I said before.) \NQTE:
I just tried the attached file as a PDF file, and it does not make any difference. Still stuck on pg. 40

I mainly want hide empty staves to save on ink. Canon Printer Co. is greedy and have raised their prices on ink cartridges way up recently.

Can scores on MS.com be printed? Mine are fine on MS.com (NOTE: figure out how to do this PDF file, but ;it does not have hide empty staves option

Also, pages 37-38 are elongated with one measure across entire page,and scrambled text, but I suppose that comes under the Layout thread? How can I fix that? Thank You.

In reply to by delhud2

The details of how printing works is OS-specific, and I use Linux whereas you are on Windows I believe, so I don't see the same print dialogs as you. But anyhow, I suspect the issue is that the print dialogs don't understand your page renumbering. Because your score *starts* with page 20, the 21st page *is* page 40. Page 21 is the second *of this score*, so you really just want to tell the print system to start with page 2.

"Hide empty staves" has to be done within MuseScore, not on the web site. So if you wish to use that option, you have to do it from within MuseScore. You could then upload it to the web site again if you like. You can't print directly from the web site as far as I know, but you can download the PDF and print that. Anyhow, if for some reaosn you don't want MuseScore to try to fit more systems on a page once you've enabled that option, you could add page breaks. But that would be highly unusual and would make your work seem less professional-looking. Scores are normally either full scores with all instruments showing, or condensed to take less space (fewer pages). Having a bunch of wasted space on each page would seem strange. But again, if you want to for whatever reason - to save ink but waste paper? - page breaks are the way to go.

The issue on page 37 seems to be some inappropriate manual adjustments to the lyrics in the T(enor?) staff. Several syllables have been dragged way out of position, and MuseScore is trying to allocate the necessary space for them which causes the measure to be wider than necessary. Select that measure and hit Ctrl+R to remove the manual adjustments and things fit again. Same with the next measure.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

OK. No, au contraire, I WAS worried about all the empty space with rests, and how strange it would look to a conductor! It is great to have more than one system to a page when appropriate, except that I am used to seeing the black thick 2 parallel tilted bars between systems, but I don't care about that.. The only thing disconcerting to me is that there don't seem to be page numbers to keep track of things with the hide empty staves option.

OK also, Thanks for the "tips" on the layout problem, etc.

In reply to by delhud2

Not sure what you mean about page numbers - hiding empty staves doesn't cause them to not show up.

Again, if you have a specific problem involving page numbers with hide empty staves, best to start a new thread, attach the specific score, and give precise steps to reproduce the problem.

BTW, the next major version of MuseScore will have a way to add the system dividers automatically. For now, you can add them manually from the Symbols palette (press "Z" to display) if you like. Search for "system" and you'll see them.

Are you saying that within MuseScore, you have set the paper size larger than 8.5x11", but you want it to print smaller? If so, then indeed, save as PDF then use the "fit to page" option when printing the PDF is probably the best way to go. But the alternative is to set your page size in MsueScore to 8.5x11", and then set the overall scaling in Layout / Page Settings / Space correspondingly smaller so it fits.

In reply to by delhud2

Not sure what you mean by "wreck". A score can have only one paper size at a time and only one scaling setting at a time. They need to be in sync. You can either have your score with normal scaling on large paper or with small scaling on normal paper. The result will be indistinguishable on screen (assuming you also zoom the display to compensate for the difference. But one will print nicely on large paper, and the other will print nicely on normal paper. You're of course welcome to maintain two copies of the score if it pleases you. Personally, if I had no intention of ever printing on large paper, I'd set the paper size normal and scaling small and be done with it.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thank You for the reply.

By "wreck" I meant I was not sure if the score would go back up to a larger size such as A4, etc. (I have custom settings) if I shrank it down to small size for 8 1/2 X11 paper. So I understand correctly, a score size can be changed, but only one size at a time. However, a large score would be in very fine print on 8 1/2 by 11. (Not sure it would be readable.) But the Display would look normal on the screen, so I could read it and work with it? AgaIn, Thanks for the helpful info.

Just bear in mind that paper from the Civil War era was better quality than that used today.

The wood pulp based paper used in most modern printers will be lucky to last a decade, never mind a century due to high acid levels in the paper.

17th century paper (you don't say which Civil War so I'm assuming English) was made of rags and consequently was more durable than modern papers.

HTH

The best way to preserve something is write it on the surface of the moon using a sharp stick. Second best would be to paint it on the wall of a cave. The best real-world solution is to propagate the data on the web via cloud storage, keep hard-copy on disc or hard drive and to frequently back up to new media.

To bring different scores together into book form is not really a MuseScore function. It is a layout program job. I had a similar task last year. I used Scribus to assemble the individual scores into a single book. Export as PDF from MuseScore, import into framed pages in Scribus and scale however you wish.

It isn't a trivial task. When the scores reach Scribus they are naturally no longer editable in MuseScore, they have become redefined as lines and blobs, even the text.

You also want to start with more suitable page settings in MuseScore. You'll have to experiment to find suitable ones.

And a warning: a bug in Scribus prevents it handling more than about 100 pages. Break your work into smaller chunks. If they are to be perfect bound pages will have to be in 32 page groups or so in any case. Ask your printer.

My advice would be to write your opera and not to worry about it. This is a major distraction that will lose you days and probably weeks of effort. I know, I've been there.

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