How to Print a Score That Requires Sheet A1
Greetings,
I downloaded musescore two days ago and have been going like gangbusters. The videos and the handbook have been a great help. Extracting parts and massaging them for printing went well. My problem is that I'm too ambitious. Instead of starting with a small project just to get my feet wet, I went all in. The score has 26 staves because I'm making an arrangement for a concert band. I suppose that flutes 2 and 3 could be on one staff. The same could be said for clarinets 2 and 3 as well as alto saxes 1 and 2. I put these parts on individual staves because I saw no other way to print a 1st alto sax-only part if the staff also included the 2nd alto.
As you can imagine, this makes for a very large score. I couldn't even start note entry until I told musescore that it was on an A1 sized page. Otherwise, I couldn't even see the tuba line to start note entry. Although I can export the score to a PDF file, the page size in the PDF file is standard letter size and all I see is the top left corner of the score. Of course, I have a typical home printer that only handles standard 8.5"x11" paper. How do I print a score this large? If I could make a PDF file that I could take to Staples (or anywhere else) for printing, I'd be a happy camper.
Cheers,
Bill Fox
Notre Dame High School
Band Director
Comments
A PDF file can always be brought to a copy center where there are available various sizes of paper.
If the result is acceptable: modify "Scaling" from Page Settings
http://musescore.org/en/node/35896#layout-page-settings
Keep in mind the possibility offered by: http://musescore.org/en/node/36156
Welcome and ... Buona musica.
Welcome aboard.
You can save a score as a .pdf, and then have it printed on larger paper by a commercial printer. Of course, you must first be able to read it in a .pdf reader without any truncated staves.
This forum post may be of some assistance:
http://musescore.org/en/node/32861
In that same post:
http://musescore.org/en/node/32861#comment-139741
mentions legal size paper 8.5" x 14" which, in portrait mode, can accommodate more instruments as it is nearly 30% longer than letter size (8.5" x 11"). Legal size paper should work on most home printers.
Also, for MuseScore 1.3:
http://musescore.org/en/handbook/layout-and-formatting#Layout---Page-Se…
For MuseScore 2.0:
http://musescore.org/en/node/35896#layout-page-settings
Regards.
Edit: Ah! Greetings Shoichi ... our paths cross.
In reply to Welcome aboard. You can save by Jm6stringer
Thanks for the help. BTW, I'm using v1.3. Is v2 official yet or is it still in beta?
Here's what I did:
Layout -> Page Settings
I assume that the default setting on this originally was Letter. When I began and couldn't see the entire score, I scratched my head and started watching videos and reading the handbook. That's when I changed Page Size to A1. That got me going and note entry began.
From your replies (yours and Shoichi's) and my readings of the handbook, I was able to deduce that I should return the Page Size to Letter and then alter the Scaling Space setting. I reduced that until everything fit on the smaller sized page. An interesting artifact became apparent. Some of the instrument names as well as the tempo markings remained at the original size. I uploaded a screen shot to Facebook for you to examine:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1425893391037807&set=a.14258930…
I tried right clicking on an instrument name and selected Staff Properties, but I saw no parameter to allow me to change the font size. Here's a screen shot:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1425895104370969&set=a.14258930…
Is this a bug I should report?
Of course, the music is far too small to read so my next step is to choose a larger size page that Staples can print and try to make a PDF file that I can give them.
Cheers,
Bill
In reply to Thanks for the help. BTW, by Bill Fox
Versions 1.3,
2.0: https://musescore.org/en/node/50486
and Nightly: https://musescore.org/en/download#Nightly-versions
can coexist peacefully
Try them, it is worth.
is preferable, if you want, attach here your score
("File attachments" under the frame of the post)
See:
"...Meanwhile, if you find yourself in a situation with mismatched instrument name sizes, it usually works to change the text style, then delete the instrument names and retype them... "
http://musescore.org/en/node/42996#comment-193436
In reply to Thanks for the help. BTW, by Bill Fox
Scaling indeed doens't work well with certain text elements once already entered in 1.3. Should be much better in 2.0.
BTW, if you are in the US or another country where Letter paper is standard, probably you don't want A1 for an orchestra score - US print shops won't generally have those paper sizes. "Tabloid" would be the way to go. It's 11x17" - basically, two sheets of 8.5x11" side by side.
In theory, it should be possible to work in Letter with with a small staff size then scale up - there should be no risk of losing resolution from the scaling like there might be a bitmap graphics editor. But as you see, it doesn't work so well in 1.3 with some text. Best to get in the habit of setting the appropriate paper size and scaling early on.
In reply to Scaling indeed doens't work by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, guys, for all the help. I now have a printed score that is readable. Of course, once I looked it over, I found changes I needed to make so the original .mscz file is improved post printing.
The piece starts in 4/4 and then goes into 6/4. Rescaling made the 6 and the 4 misalign. I see what you mean by starting out with the proper size page and scaling afterward. My newbie ignorance had me resize the sheet in order to see everything. Now I know better. I'll also do things like increase the space in between two adjacent staves only where required rather than doing it globally. That should save a lot of vertical space.
Perhaps I'll download V2 and see if it will import my existing V1.3-created file and continue from there. Or I'll start from scratch because it's "only 20 measures."
I'll be looking at V2 to see if I'll be able to print individual parts from a single staff that has multiple voices. Failing that, I'll be looking to see if merging two or more staves into a single, multipart stave can easily be accomplished in order to save vertical space in the score.
I'm off to the races. Thanks again for the help.
Cheers,
Bill
In reply to Thanks, guys, for all the by Bill Fox
2.0 should open your 1.3 file with no trouble, and quite possibly realign the time signature as well, though it still might be a good idea to start from scratch in 2.0. Unfortunately, I quote from Part extraction : "In the current version of MuseScore, it is not possible to split a single staff (that contains two or more voices) into separate parts. So, any instrument that you want to print out a separate part for also needs to have its own staff in the full score." And as far as I know, oddly enough, the Explode/Implode feature in 2.0 only seems to apply to chords, not multiple voices.
In reply to 2.0 should open your 1.3 file by Isaac Weiss
Actually, Implode in 2.0 works in a limited but sometimes useful way with multiple voices. Select a single staff and MuseScore will attempt to combined the notes where possible into chords on voice 1.
Explode doesn't deal with multiple voices because that is not the problem it was trying to solve. it is intended more for the case where you are writing for a part of an ensemble - a trumpet section, say - and you find it is easier to enter the music as chords on a single staff since the rhythms will all be the same anyhow. Explode then fills the other staves within the score for you. It really isn't intended to have anything to do with extracting parts from a score, just an aid to creating the score in the first place in these particular types of cases.
The problem of orchestral scores that combined different parts onto the same staff using multiple voices is a separate problem. In these cases, there is no particular expectation the parts will match rhythmically (although of course they often do), and you won't want the extra staff in the score - it's *just* about generating parts.
In reply to 2.0 should open your 1.3 file by Isaac Weiss
Unfortunately, 2.0 is moot at the moment because my iMac's OS is only 10.6.8 and 10.7 is the minimum required. Bummer.
As far as merging two staves:
https://musescore.org/en/node/12345
"How to merge/combine/implode two staves in one with two voices"
I'll give that a shot after my parts are printed. Of course, I'll save the score with merged parts with a different name for use only as the source for the score PDF.
In reply to Unfortunately, 2.0 is moot at by Bill Fox
Brilliant! I can't believe you're already discovering things I never thought of. ;-) By the way, if the reason you haven't upgraded to Lion is called either "Office 2004" or "AppleWorks 6", I say to you: LibreOffice .
A1 is a rather extreme size! I usually go with A4, and when I print it just scale to fit on letter size. But my own standard practice to get things to fit is to select "Small staff" in Staff Properties for each instrument, and then in the Sizes section of the General Style window play around with the value until it works well—something like 85% is usually a good starting point. Also in the Style window, you can make the staves be a little closer to each other in the Page section.
On the other hand, here's something that might or might not work well for you: https://musescore.com/user/153179/scores/214261
And this is something that I've been using myself: Concert band template.mscz
By the way, you picked an excellent time to start using MuseScore—you'll be able to get in on the ground floor with version 2.0, which is going to be released in two days. ;-)
EDIT: I just realized that you won't be able to open the score I attached with 1.3, because I last saved it in prerelease 2.0. If you want to check out my template and begin getting used to the new version of the software immediately, you can pick up the release candidate at https://musescore.org/en/node/50486.
Hi Bill,
We're working on improving the template selection for the next release. The first draft of the first new template is up at http://musescore.org/en/node/53891, and it's a concert band template. Your input as to how to make it better would be greatly appreciated.
In reply to Hi Bill, We're working on by Isaac Weiss
I'll be glad to take a look at the template... so long as it will work with the old rev of Musescore. I can't use the latest rev because my OS is still at 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard?).
Cheers,
Bill
In reply to I'll be glad to take a look by Bill Fox
Shoot, I forgot. Sorry. The attached MusicXML version should be more or less compatible with 1.3 (though, as in other areas, 1.3's MusicXML import isn't great—instrument names will be very obviously too large). I feel sorry for you not being able to use 2.0, though. Putting aside everything else, when you're working with large ensemble scores linked part editing is such a blessing.
If you've got the hardware for it, upgrading to Lion would be a very good idea—and depending on what the PowerPC applications are that you most want to continue using, there are probably open-source alternatives that are their equal, or better. I went straight from Microsoft Office 2004 to LibreOffice when I upgraded from Snow Leopard and never looked back. (Admittedly, it took me three years to do it.)
Anyway, I would appreciate your professional criticism of the my un-professional template, especially in regards to what instruments should be included/excluded and how many parts per instrument (which is, after all, what it's all about). We can discuss it on the other thread at http://musescore.org/en/node/53891. Thanks!