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Topic: Missing Note Heads on conversion to *.PS and then *.PDF (Read 2522 times) previous topic - next topic

Missing Note Heads on conversion to *.PS and then *.PDF

For a long time I could successfully make *.pdf files of my Noteworthy sheet music by printing to file using a post script print driver, then using Ghostscript to convert the *.ps file to a pdf file.

But just yesterday I did this procedure to a song on a grand staff and in 2 identical measures in the pdf file, 2 of the note heads in the bass cleff disappeared.  The nwc file looks OK on the screen and prints OK, but the pdf has missing note heads on the screen and also in the print out.

The measure had 5 notes in it:  (1/4, 1/8, 1/4, 1/8, 1/4, syncopated in 4/4 time).  Each of the notes had an open 5th, Eb over Ab.  The note heads that disappeared were the Eb only of the 2nd and last quarter notes.  All the rest of the note heads were there, and the corresponding treble clef measure above it had no problems.

I need to attach the pdf file to an e-mail to deliver the song to my client.  How do I fix this?  Has this happened to anyone in the forum?

Re: Missing Note Heads on conversion to *.PS and then *.PDF

Reply #1 –
You wouldn't be using Acrobat Reader 3 to view this? The last time I had this kind of trouble was when reading the resulting file with AR3.05.

Does the same thing happen if you view the file in Acrobat Reader 4 or 5, or in GSview?

Good luck,
Fred

Re: Missing Note Heads on conversion to *.PS and then *.PDF

Reply #2 –
Fred,
Thank you for the good advice.  You are always there when I need you!  I found I have Acrobat V. 4.0, so that was OK.  And yes, I saw the missing note heads in GhostView when looking at the completed conversion to pdf.

So I tried making the note spacing in the trouble measures re-set to 1 from 0.  Didn't help.  Then I looked carefully at the conversion.  I was using resolution of 300, and then switched to 600.  Now the pdf is normal with no missing note heads.  I'm not sure if it was the 600 resolution or the combo of resolution plus note spacing, but I got the desired results.  Kinda felt like Edison doing all those iterative trials and changes.

That solved, I moved to my "other" Techno toys: Amateur Radio. Thanks again, Fred.
 

Re: Missing Note Heads on conversion to *.PS and then *.PDF

Reply #3 –
Hi Jerry,

Glad you got it working. Doing these PS/PDF exports sometimes is like that - tweak this, try that... I've even seen significant differences in file sizes produced by different PDF conversion programs, for no apparent reason. Then there are all those settings in the PostScript tab of the PS driver - some of which seem to do nothing, and others of which are so arcane it's hard to determine just what it is that they do...

Not too unlike amateur radio. ;-)

Fred