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Topic: separating staffs (Read 2875 times) previous topic - next topic

separating staffs

As a follow up to my first question in regards to printing staffs separately, and by the way the suggestions were quite helpful thank you, is there a way to remove the line at the beginning of the staff which is also connected to each now staff, so that they are completely separate at printout?

Re: separating staffs

Reply #1 –
Not that I know of. Indeed, in standard printed music, the staffs (staves) are connected that way. It's how you know that the staffs are to be played simultaneously (called a "system"). If you don't want the staffs connected, you would be better off making several independent NWC files, then pasting the several metafiles (from print preview) into a word processing document.

Basically, the way you are using NWC is "not as expected" by the program.

If you don't want to place several individual metafiles on a single document page, you can try this: Create a metafile of the entire page, place it in a document, make the metafile editable (may require ungrouping), and manually remove the left-edge lines. If you do that, you are making the music non-standard in appearance, so you are actually defeating the intelligent scoring of NWC.

Warning: In many document programs, ungrouping or editing a metafile will ruin it. That's a problem with metafile handling, not with NWC. So be sure to inspect the metafile after playing with it.

A better way to deal with this issue is to convert the metafile to a bitmap image using Irfan View (do not use printer setting over 600dpi). Then, in some sort of paint program, simply white-out the undesired lines. The finished image can be put into a document for printing.

Any better advice from other users?

Re: separating staffs

Reply #2 –
Put all of the music on one staff as if it were a single part.
Check it out in Print Preview.
Add Forced System Breaks as necessary.
Cook in 350° oven for 30 minutes.
Serves 12.
 

Re: separating staffs

Reply #3 –
Instead of Irfanview I use Ulead's PhotoImpact. I't inexpensive and sometimes can be found free bundled with magazines.
It doesn't read the EMF files but can handle the older WMF ones.
To get high quality bitmaps I print direct to postscript and use Ghostscript to extract a 600dpi mono bitmap. That works perfectly and is quite quick. PhotoImpact can be used then to do what you need to on the page. It has objects and part of a page can be made into an object and even saved as one for reuse. Staves can be moved around, squashed, deleted or even notes added or deleted...

I usually save the file as a tif which keeps the resolution and size data intact and these when placed in a publication layout program fit correctly. This way the publication can be saved as a PDF file which prints correctly.