palette view

• Jul 9, 2017 - 19:49

" When opening a document, the palette tools (notes, rests, etc.) are so
small that they are impossible to recognize without placing the cursor over
them to get the description. How do I increase the size to a readable format?
I tried changing the view but that only increases the size of the staves. I
use Mac Sierra 10.12.1

I've attached a screen shot of the palettes

Also, the only way I can read my document is to go from 100% to 400%. Why does 100% not show the actual size of the document?

Attachment Size
Screen Shot 2017-07-09 at 1.45.07 PM.png 37.95 KB

Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

Thank you for your quick response. I tried 'revert to factory settings' but that didn't change anything. Your other option, since I'm not very knowledgeable on computers, scares me and I'm too afraid to try this. However, I tried all the different screen resolutions on my Mac previously, after reading some of the posts here, and that also didn't improve anything in MuseScore. Is there something else I can try that doesn't scare me to death?

MuseScore is normally able to detect your monitor resolution and adjust sizes correctly, so that indeed 100% is actual size and palettes are readable. But in rare cases, something about the configuration on some systems prevents this from working properly. So using the "-D": option allows you to specify the correctly resolution, and then all should be well. Don't be scared, this option doesn't change anything on your computer itself, it just allows MuseScore to size itself properly.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I opened 'Terminal' in my 'Utilities' folder and tried two different ways. They all came up with 'command not found'. Here are the things I tried:

mscore -D (followed by the 'Enter' key)
mscore -D --1920 x 1080 (followed by the 'Enter' key)

Please let me know what I'm doing wrong.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thank you. I'm a senior and not very comfortable with computers yet. However, with your help I found out that my DPI is 102. Also, the musescore file is in Applications/MuseScore 2.1.app. Is that the path I need to use? Your detailed steps, when I'm in terminal would be greatly appreciated since putting in this path and -D 102 also resulted in an error message.

In reply to by knacktoo

Hmm, 102 DPI should be producing good results right out of the box since that is right in the default range (anything close to 100 we consider to be standard and we don't try to scale). It's possible there is some macOS setting that controls how the resolution gets reported to programs that ask about it, I know something like exists for systems with "retina" displays and maybe somehow it is doing the wrong thing here.

Hopefully someone with more macOS experience can speak up about the exact way to give the command line, if the advice in the handbook isn't working.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

The best way to be certain about the path:

1. Go to the actual location of MuseScore.app (which you should find in your Applications folder)

2. Right-click and choose "Show Package Contents"

3. Open Contents / MacOS

4. Drag "mscore" directly into the Terminal window

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Thank you so much. I was so excited because that really worked. However, how do I make this a default? After closing musescore and opening it again it reverted back to being unreadable. I tried the following:

1. saved the file that i just opened, when it was in the readable format
2. restarted my computer

There must be a way to use this program without having to go into terminal each time I want to open musescore.

Oops! I just noticed that there was an error message in Terminal,on my previous attempt, which states:
initScoreFonts 0x7fda29865df0
in stat: : No such file or directory
in stat: : No such file or directory
Init midi driver failed
It opened up perfectly, however.

I just tried again with it opening up perfectly but there are a lot of error messages in Terminal again. Here are a few of them (there are too many to copy here):
initScoreFonts 0x7fac29dcd110
in stat: : No such file or directory
in stat: : No such file or directory
Init midi driver failed
Score::removeSpanner: Volta (0x7fac2daf4ab0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Volta (0x7fac2daf75f0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc0a5f0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc0c330) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc11310) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc15910) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc172b0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc1c9e0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: Slur (0x7fac2dc1f4a0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: LyricsLine (0x7fac2dc2a6b0) not found
Score::removeSpanner: LyricsLine (0x7fac2dc2a6b0) not found

In reply to by knacktoo

Great that is works!

Again, I know little about macOS, but I can tell you how you'd do this on Windows, and maybe macOS provides a similar capability.

In Windows, you would simply right click the program icon, click Properties, and a dialog would appear allowing you to customize the command line that is used to start the program.

The messages to the terminal, btw, are mostly just internal diagnostics, not meant to indicate any real problem.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

As I stated below, when putting in the path in Terminal and adding -D 102 and Enter, MuseScore opens up in the readable format. However, once I close it and open it in another session, it's in the unreadable format again.

I just threw out MuseScore and downloaded 2.1 again but that made no difference. The only way I can work on it is to go into Terminal each time I open it. There must be a better way. You have been very helpful in getting me to at least see what MuseScore should look like. I hope you can help me so that it stays readable as a default.

In reply to by knacktoo

Per the link above:

Open Automator and create an Application with a single Run Shell Script action:

/Applications/MuseScore\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore -D 102 &

This application will launch MuseScore and quit instantly, leaving only MuseScore running.

It's indirect, and not ideal, but it's a workaround for the time being. I can give more precise step-by-step directions if you can't figure out how to use Automator.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

What's the difference between using Automator or Terminal? It seems like both of them need to be opened up before I can work on MuseScore. I need something that will change MuseScore to be readable just by opening it, without going into another application first. Because of my lack of knowledge of computers I would opt to stay with Terminal, if the default is not an option, because I've now used that already, thanks to your help.

In reply to by knacktoo

The purpose of Automator is exactly what its name sounds like: to do a one-time setup so that you can then make something happen automatically in the future. In this case, the result is just an application you can double-click or keep in your Dock that will *automatically* launch MuseScore with the correct options.

In reply to by knacktoo

Sure thing!

1. When Automator starts up, choose "Application" (the second option).
2. On the left of the window, scroll down or search for "Run Shell Script."
3. When you find it, drag and drop it into the right half of the window.
4. Replace "cat" with the same path to mscore that you used in Terminal (probably "/Applications/MuseScore\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore"), followed by the same argument you used in Terminal (" -D 102"), followed by " &".
5. File / Save..., perhaps as "MuseScore-fixed-dpi.app" in your Applications folder or whatever you like.
6. Going forward, open "MuseScore-fixed-dpi" instead of "MuseScore 2" and watch the magic happen.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Thank you so much! That worked. I would never have been able to figure it out without your patience and help. Because there were so many different responses, is it possible to delete the others from this blog and just leave this latest one in for others that may have the same problem?

In reply to by knacktoo

I don't know what the right path to mscore is on Mac, but the Handbook does explain this. For the resolution, what you need is the figure in dots per inch, not just the dimensions. 1920x1080 means 1920 dots across the screen. Divide by by the width of the screen in inches and you'll have the right DPI figure. Note when a monitor is sold as 13" or whatever, that's a *diagonal* measurement, so get out a ruler to find the actual horizontal size. Or see if the DPI figure is listed somewhere in the specs.

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