Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: NWC to PDF (Read 9968 times) previous topic - next topic

NWC to PDF

Simple!

just get PDF995 and print your file set the pinrter to PDF995! Easy!

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #2 –
PDF995 did not work for me.  I downloaded it, installed it, opened the progr... opened the progr... opened the progr... hey! Why won't it open?  Uninstall, reinstall, ope... ope... ope... ... Uninstall, redownload, reinstall, ope... screw it.  I'm done.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #3 –
Are you sure you got the right version?

goto www.pdf995.com to download the latest version

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #4 –
Ken, that seemed to happen to me too. But when I looked in the printers folder, I had like five PDF995 ports since I had clicked five times.
Sincerely,
Francis Beaumier
Green Bay, WI

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #5 –
David, I got the version that was at the site when I tried it only a few months ago.  It looks like the same thing that's there now.
Francis, did you ever get it resolved?

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #6 –
Was there already a PostScript printer driver (such as MS Publisher) on the system? Could be interference.

What happens if you try to remove the spurious new printers? If they cannot be removed without error, then there is a system screw-up. It's not necessarily related to the product mentioned.

Sorry I can't be more specific. But something of the sort happened to a friend, and there the software was "famous name."

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #7 –
I tried this as well. The software installed fine, but when I printed to the pdf995, it produced a pdf file that had large "K"s where the notes ought to be (along with other oddities of a similar sort). Any clues about why this might be?

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #8 –
That effect is not specific to the product mentioned. It can occur if: (1) All fonts are not embedded. In this case, even if the font (such as NWCV15) is installed on the same computer, the PDF reader may substitute a default font such as Courier. (2) Early versions of Acrobat Reader 5.0 had a problem interpreting certain kinds of fonts. Alas, that particular version is the one that often comes pre-installed on new computers. The solution is to upgrade Acrobat Reader.

That said, there IS the possibility that some PDF-creation programs will not properly embed the NWCV15 font, or will convert it to a bitmap that cannot be scaled. That's true regardless of the software cost or brand name.

All told, I firmly recommend the Ghostscript (and related software) solution. It works very well. Third-party PDF creation programs often derive their value from having certain office-related features that you don't need, if all you want to do is create good PDFs from NWC. Using Ghostscript with Redmon and FreePDF_095 on my XP machine (also known to work with 98), I can create PDF just by "printing" the file. Again, see Fred Nachbaur's user tip on this subject.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #9 –
"PDF Creator" is a Sourceforge (open source and free) project. The latest update to this software was July 21, 2003, so this is hot out of the oven. I just tried it, and it works great with NWC. (On Windows XP, should work on other Windows, too.)

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pdfcreator/PDFCreator-Setup-0_7_1.exe?download

When you get to the above page, choose a site near you and click the "download" icon at the right of the page.

Besides being free, this software fills my only two requirements for any software: (1) WORKS, and (2) NO-BRAINER.

You download an executable file, and double-click its icon. Accept the defaults, and everything (everything!) self-installs. I did say NO-brainer, didn't I?

To create a PDF file from within NWC, you just select "PDF Creator" as your printer. When you print, up comes the dialog box asking you where you want to put the file, and whether you want to view the finished product immediately in Acrobat Reader, or not.

It is positively that simple. The underlying engine is based on Ghostscript 8.00, and I've been using that engine with other software for months. Works like a charm. You don't need to install Ghostscript yourself, because the PDF Creator does it for you (in fact, if you already have Ghostscript, it will install its own version in its own folder).

I haven't tried to configure anything. The software worked the first time, right out of the box. I did notice that it embedded every font (or subset) used in the document. That might mean that the resulting PDF file is somewhat bigger than it needs to be.

Fred N.: When you finally read this message, you might want to update your wonderful user tip on this topic.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #10 –
ahhhhh!

Though I really don't care for PDF files - occasionally I get a request for one - and now they are EASY!  Thank YOU!

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #11 –
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the PDF Creator software from Sourceforge is that simple. (So, how do other suppliers get away with charging money? - Their software packages offer additional features. If all you want to do is make PDF files, you don't need the other features.)

For those who already have Ghostscript installed (or who want to use another version), PDF Creator allows you to specify paths to wherever you put Ghostscript (in whatever version). So, you don't have to install a second copy of Ghostscript unless you want to.

One minor warning, with any PDF program: When a font is partially embedded (maybe even fully embedded), it loses its identity. For 99.9% of uses, that's just fine. But if you plan on opening the PDF file in a vector drawing program (such as Adobe Illustrator), you may not be able to do it.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #12 –
Mario:  I was helping an acquaintence learn to use NWC, and had sent them a finished piece to look at, and use to teach certain things we were discussing.

A few months later, I received an email from another person in Europe who said, "I received this piece from ------ and though it has that person as the composer, this sounds like something YOU would write."  Well, it WAS something I wrote, the piece I had sent the person in the first paragraph above.  That person had changed the composer from my name to his.

In discussing this with my brother, who is a college professor, he recommended I do as he does, and print my work to Adobe pdf files.  He does this to keep others from easily plagarizing his work.  "If they are going to steal my work, at least I can make them work for it."

Also, EVERYBODY has access to the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.  They can open, view, and print sheet music without having to have the same program.  We provide lessons and other sheet music at Sax On The Web (www.saxontheweb.net) in zipped pdf files.

We had tried jpgs... nope, to have good, readable sheet music, the pages had to be about 1 mb each.  Tried gif, tif, and other picture type formats.  We had no control over page size.  Many people downloaded and could not get a readable sheet of music.

Here are two good reasons to convert to pdf.

Paul C.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #13 –
That's right!

Above, I mentioned that the non-free software to create PDF files generally has features that the free stuff doesn't have. The most expensive, of course, is the authentic Adobe Acrobat (not just the reader). Among the additional features it has, is the ability to encrypt your PDF file so that it can be viewed on the monitor, but not printed to paper (you can unlock the paper-printing with a password). That's something that might be of interest to professional publishers of sheet music.

But the general NWC user doesn't need that capability.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #15 –
Great program but how do you put more than one file in together. Say you wanted to print a collection of songs together pages 1 - 10 say, and each song was 1 or 2 pages?
 

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #16 –
IIRC the same people who supply PDF995 also offer a utility that concatenates PDFs. Let's see... ah, here it is. PDFedit

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #17 –
Seems like PDF995 (and related products) are in the category of software that is not entirely free (the free version has ads), but has more features than the software that is entirely free.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #18 –
Yes, if you don't want the ads and the popups, you have to pay.  But $20 for the suite is a whole lot less than $149 for Adobe Acrobat; especially if all you want to do is a down and dirty PDF.  Also, PDFEdit lets you embed fonts, concatenate files, format those files, etc.  And it's as easy to use as printing.

Just my $0.02 worth.

John

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #19 –
I'm sorry, make that more like $450 for Adobe Acrobat. (I was looking at the upgrade price by mistake).  My comment on cost difference still stands, especially now.

John

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #20 –
I forked out for Acrobat (not for NWC but for something else) and I'm still trying to figure out the help file <g>

Tina

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #21 –
Summary, so far: Want to do PDF for free? Use "PDF Creator" (based on Ghostscript) from Sourceforge. Link is above. Incidentally, the "Open Office" software suite (free alternative to MS Office) now has PDF built-in, but that doesn't help you with NWC.

Want to encrypt your PDF file so the (for example) if can be viewed but not printed or modified without a password, or want  to merge several PDF files into one? Then you need something more than Ghostscript. These features may be very important to the pros among us. The person who started this thread recommended PDF995.

Want professional electronic paper capability (which, incidentally, does NOT imply full editing of existing PDF documents)? Then shell out the big bucks for Adobe Acrobat. I've used Acrobat at work (don't have it myself) and it has some high-powered features beyond PDF making. That's not obvious from the extremely limited menu choices. It's just that many of the menu choices invoke some heavy-duty software.

Want to edit an existing PDF document? It can't necessarily be done. The concept of PDF is "electronic paper," not intended for editing.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #22 –
Make that David Kendal for "The Person who started this Thread"

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #23 –
Sorry, David, I did not mean to ignore you. But the more frequently a name is mentioned here, the more likely a search engine will come here if someone is looking for you. That could be a difficulty if you have your own web site.

Re: NWC to PDF

Reply #24 –
May be someone has already mentioned this method.

A simple and free way to create pdf from nwc (or any application for that matter) is to print it to a file using a postscript printer driver (e.g. Apple Laser writer), then go to www.ps2pdf.com (a free site) to convert the postscript file to pdf.

There is no need to install any software on your computer.