Dashed Slur.ms on Mac OS

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Dashed Slur.ms on Mac OS

2016-04-28 02:05 am

I needed a couple of dashed slurs, so I used Slur.ms. Everything looks great in the editor and in Print Preview, but when I print to PDF, I get solid lines. I'm running NWC on my Mac -- I'm wondering if this is a Wine thing. Can anyone on Mac or Linux confirm?

Re: Dashed Slur.ms on Mac OS

Reply #1 – 2016-04-28 02:46 am

Quote from: Francis Beaumier – 2016-04-28 02:05 am

I needed a couple of dashed slurs, so I used Slur.ms. Everything looks great in the editor and in Print Preview, but when I print to PDF, I get solid lines. I'm running NWC on my Mac -- I'm wondering if this is a Wine thing. Can anyone on Mac or Linux confirm?

I've observed the same issue with certain PDF printer drivers under Windows (not specifically for Slur.ms, but any custom object that draws dashed lines or curves). One such driver was NitroPDF. I've since switched to PDFCreator, which does not have this problem.

As a temporary workaround, try changing the line type to "dot" and see if the PDF has acceptable dashed slurs.

Mike

Re: Dashed Slur.ms on Mac OS

Reply #2 – 2016-04-28 09:12 am

I tested printing to PDF on Mac OS 10.11, using PDFwriter, and got the same results as Francis. I followed the advice from:

https://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/mac/faq/printfromcrossover

Neither dots nor dashes were distilled into the PDF.

I would guess that this is a limitation of the wine Postscript driver, but I am unfamiliar with the print architecture in this scenario. There is source code in wineps.dll that targets these line styles, so the issue might be elsewhere. ~~I only used the Preview app to verify, so it could even be an issue with that program.~~

Update:
Using a PDF inspection program, iText RUPS, I looked through the mac generated PDF with dashed slur. It is clear that the slur curve does not contain any dashArray instruction, which would be required to properly render the slur. It now seems more likely that this is a limitation in the Mac postscript to PDF conversion system.

The curve instructions on the Mac created PDF:

Code: [Select · Download]

ET
0.72 w
61.2 697.92 m
77.04 712.32 92.88 714.48 108.72 704.4 c
S

The curve instructions on a PDF created with Windows 10 built-in print driver:

Code: [Select · Download]

ET
Q
q
0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 RG
1 J
1 j
10.000000 M
0.960 w
[1.920, 1.920] 0 d
80.000000 188.479996 m
100.160004 179.039993 120.320000 176.160004 140.479996 180.320007 c
S

Re: Dashed Slur.ms on Mac OS

Reply #3 – 2016-04-29 09:36 pm

Gentlemen, thank you for your feedback. I'm glad to know that it's not just isolated to a single setup. I have access to a virtual Windows lab at my college, so I can always render the final NWC file there if I have to. If I feel so motivated, I might try to write an algorithm that generates the dashed line by using many small solid ones, but I think that requires using some parts of Math that I didn't particularly enjoy :-).

I'll also see if I can convince the Mac to leave the output at the PS stage and see if the slur renders properly in GSView. I guess I could also export to EMF as well.

Have a great weekend!