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Topic: Note heads not connected and text is blurred. (Read 3986 times) previous topic - next topic

Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

In NWC, the note heads are not quite connected to their stems, but instead a bit lower than they are supposed to.

I use the most recent version on both NWC and my display drivers.
I use Win XP pro.

PS.
Also, what is this "Light font" setting in the Options dialog? I see no change no matter if it is checked or not, I never have.

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #1 –
Possibilities:

(1) Your printer is set at low resolution, such as 72DPI.
(2) In print preview, items that do not appear connected will nevertheless be connected when printed to paper (or to PDF, if you have that capability). This has to do with the lower resolution of a computer monitor, compared to printing.
(3) If you are viewing your NWC file using other software (such as by placing WMFs into a word processor, or by creating PDF), then the other software may have settings for font smoothing and graphics smoothing. NWC note-heads and flags are "font" objects, but stems are 'drawing" objects. Smoothing treats them differently. I don't know what you are using for a printer driver, but maybe there are some settings you can change in the driver?

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #2 –
Sorry, I forgot to mention that this occurs in the Editor, not in Print Preview.
(Strangely enough, the preview notes are ok)

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #3 –
Unless the editor is showing something obviously wrong, I would not worry about it, as long as print is OK. I believe that in response to another inquiry, NWC once wrote that it uses an internal calculation for placing items in the editor, but uses parameters from your printer driver software for print preview and printing. There may be a math round-off displacement, when viewed on screen.

But if the disconnection is large or unpredictable, then maybe there is an oddity in your screen display driver. I use XP and have never had a problem. Some XP users (upgrades from 98 or ME, I believe) reported display oddities, back when XP was new. In each case, it was because their existing display driver was not XP compatible. One solution was to go to the screen manufacturer's site for a driver upgrade. The other was to use your computer's control panel, display, to reduce the amount of hardware acceleraion to less than maximum.

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #4 –
I just upgraded my home computer to Windows XP (only 5 years late!) and I encountered the "note heads not connected" problem.

Apparently this is caused by my display settings:  having the "clear type" font effect active.  When I revert to no font effects, the Noteworthy display looks fine.  Unfortunately, the rest of my Windows text goes back to looking like crap. :-(

So I guess I'll have to switch ClearType on and off.

 - seb

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #5 –
Hi, Steve -

Wow, and just as Microsoft is getting ready to put XP out to pasture...

Anyway, a couple of things to look for.  Since you say you just installed XP, i presume then it's also on a 5 year old computer (don't worry, I have XP running on an 8-year old computer that I built myself back in 2000 - Pentium III 800MHz, 768MB RAM, plenty of hard drive space - slow, but still runs.  I use it as my "digital" tape deck, to record old records and tapes onto disk before converting to CD/WAV/MP3).  My main computer, however, is much newer.

Anyway, which service pack are you running.  XP is currently up to Service Pack 3 (but depending on where you are, I'm not sure if you can go directly to SP3, or if you have to pass SP1 and SP2 first).

Have you updated your video drivers to the latest ones?  (And I don't mean just the video drivers that came with XP - just because XP found an appropriate video driver to use, doesn't mean it's the latest and greatest).

Have you updated you printer drivers to the latest ones?

I would definitely try those things first.  Remember, in XP you can set a restore point, so that if, in the process you install a driver that your computer doesn't like for some reason, you can backtrack to where you were before (just don't do any important work in between).

Hope this helps.
John
 

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #6 –
Quote
Wow, and just as Microsoft is getting ready to put XP out to pasture...

That's why I finally got a new one.  Otherwise I would have soldiered on until my machine broke, and then I would have had to get Vista (no way).

Quote
Anyway, a couple of things to look for.  Since you say you just installed XP, i presume then it's also on a 5 year old computer (don't worry, I have XP running on an 8-year old computer that I built myself back in 2000 - Pentium III 800MHz, 768MB RAM, plenty of hard drive space - slow, but still runs.

No, it's all brand new, and also custom built.

Quote
Anyway, which service pack are you running.  XP is currently up to Service Pack 3 (but depending on where you are, I'm not sure if you can go directly to SP3, or if you have to pass SP1 and SP2 first).

Service Pack 3.

Quote
Have you updated your video drivers to the latest ones?  (And I don't mean just the video drivers that came with XP - just because XP found an appropriate video driver to use, doesn't mean it's the latest and greatest).

That's like asking "Did you read your latest email?"  How can you be sure?  But seriously, I'm fairly certain my drivers are all as current as can be.

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Have you updated you printer drivers to the latest ones?

First of all, I loaded the latest printer drivers.  Second, this problem occurred before I even installed a printer, and remained the same after I installed my (old HP) printer.

Maybe I should have just gotten a better monitor that doesn't need "assistance".  ~-)

 - seb

Re: Note heads not connected and text is blurred.

Reply #7 –
Hi Steve

I have a similar problem with my brand new laptop - 15.4in WXGA, but in my case it is only the noteheads/stem relationship.  If I "zoom in" one click, the problem goes away.  My graphics card is a nVidia Geoforce and is set to 1280x800.  OS is Vista Home Premium which works, but needs lots of tweaks to function like XP!  So could it be the screen resolution?