Yet another method for NWC to PDF

2000-10-19 04:00 am

Those of you who follow the NWC forum know that PDF-format files of your NWC sheet music can be created in one of three ways:

(1) Export your composition on a page-by-page basis as placeable Windows Metafiles (WMF) from File > Print Preview > Copy. Then, place the WMFs in a compatible program that can read WMF and export PDF. Programs that can do this (such as Adobe Illustrator) tend to be costly and not owned by just anyone.

(2) Purchase Adobe Acrobat (TM) "not just the Reader" which is expensive, but is also the ultimate solution. An educational license is available.

(3) The cheap way: Create a Postscript (TM) file using compatiable printer driver software, then convert the Postscript file to PDF format using the free Ghostscript and GSview software. More about this is at Fred Nachbauer's site: http://www.netidea.com/~fredn/

But there is another way, that not many seem to know about: There is a shareware program (downloadable) that will create PDF files using the same simple paradigm as Adobe Acrobat PDFwriter. That is, it creates a phantom printer accessible from any application (such as NWC) that will print, and does the conversion to PDF format in a single step. The regular license is something like US$50, but for those of you who meet the educational license requirements, it is only US$20, very reasonable. It is from a Taiwanese software supplier called Zeon:

http://www.zeon.com.tw

I have tested the trial version. Caution: I have not exhautively exercised it, just took a quick look. If you try the Zeon product, be sure to do the following after installation: When selecting the "DocuCom PDF Driver" from within NWC, go to the printer's Properties dialog box, and be sure to check "embed all fonts." If you fail to do that, the NWCV15 font will not appear in your output.

I do not act as a shill for Zeon or anyone else. There may be other shareware or commercial products out there that do the same thing, but I haven't come across them. Yes, yes, Ghostscript is the freebie method. But I know that there are a lot of schools using NWC for internal distribution of music. The advantage to using Zeon DocuCom (or Adobe Acrobat) is that once it's set up then using it requires little by way of user instruction.

Note that any product has its own features and limitations. Decide for yourselves. One reason that Acrobat is so costly is that it will do many things besides convert files to PDF.