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Topic: Staff lines not printing after first system (Read 8577 times) previous topic - next topic

Staff lines not printing after first system

Does anyone have any ideas as to why staff lines are not printing. The first system on the page are fine but after that only the notes, clef and key signature show up.  I am using NWC2 and an HP C5280 printer on an older Windows XP PC?

I have a work around by printing to a virtual printer (PrimoPDF) and then printing from there.

Thanks

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #1 –
This is almost certainly a printer driver problem, rather than a problem with NWC. Check Print Preview - if the staff lines are showing up there, then they are being sent to the driver. If you haven't updated the driver lately, that's probably the best place to start.

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #2 –
This is a common problem for some printers (especially from certain manufacturers), and the PDF trick is a good work around until the driver bug gets corrected. Historically, this bug eventually gets corrected, only to get reintroduced in another product line.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #3 –
An option to make the staff lines a bit thicker might solve this problem and be useful in general. I've been doing a bit of work in Lilypond and have come to like the thicker staff lines.

As it is, it only takes one clogged hole in a print cartridge to ruin your whole day. My spare printer is an old Canon (supports 11x17 paper) which I can't use for NoteWorthy because of unreliable ink jets.

Some of my associates have commented that the music I produce doesn't photocopy well. I suspect that the thin staff lines are partially to blame.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #4 –
I've had a performer complain that the staff lines didn't print in a .pdf I sent to him. I thought at the time that it might be due to the staff lines being too skinny to show up at whatever printer setting and scale (page size, not do-re-mi) he was using, but I didn't follow that up - just handed him hard copy the next time I saw him. I like the elegance of the current thin lines, but Rick may be right that we need an option to make them thicker.

Bill

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #5 –
The current line thickness works well on my laser at smaller staff sizes (16 point or so) but as the size goes up (say around 20 or 22 point) I would certainly like the option of a thicker line - this also applies to barlines and note stems etc..
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #6 –
There are historical reasons for the current staff line drawing approach. Perhaps it is time to revisit this. I will give it a new look.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #7 –
One technical note to add about this.

I suspect that the problems that some printers are having with the NWC staff line printing are caused by some sort of buffer or caching scheme. NWC currently draws a series of individual thin lines to create the thicker line that you see. A printer that stops drawing the lines might be trying to buffer or cache the lines, and it runs out of space to store them. It is easy to imagine such a buffering scheme causing the kind of symptoms described here. Printing to PDF first probably significantly reduces the number of lines, or depending on your settings, rasterizes the lines into a bitmap, thus making the whole thing printable in PDF form.

As mentioned above, we are looking into revising this technique to work around these new printer limitations. Details will be announced here in the forum when a new version is available.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #8 –
If you are experiencing the staff line printing issue, you might want to try this test version of the NWC Viewer.

First, make sure that you have the NWC Viewer installed on your system. You can get it from here:

NoteWorthy Composer Viewer
http://ntworthy.com/nwc2/viewer.htm

Next, replace the NWC2View.exe file with the one attached to the following message:

NWC Viewer Test Edition for Staff Line Drawing Changes

This test version uses a completely different technique for displaying staff lines (and other graphics), so it could very well resolve the issue. The technology will also find its way into a future release of NWC2.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #9 –
Thanks! Using the test version of NWC2 Viewer allowed me to correctly print a file created in NWC v.1.75 on an HP C6280 printer.  Attempting to print directly from the NWC editor had given the missing-staff-lines (and note stems) problem mentioned by others.
Do you have an estimate how soon we'll see that printing capability incorporated into a new version of the NWC editor?  It's great software; I love it!  But it was quite a shock that my new printer wasn't compatible with NWC, for whatever technical reason.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #10 –
Until you get the printer problem resolved, perhaps a workaround would be to "print" to a pdf file.  PDF creators emulate a printer, so when you're in NWC (or any other program) and select print, a pdf file is created.  You open that with Acrobat Reader, FoxIt Pro or something similar, and print normally from that application.  It sounds tedious, but on the other hand, if you're printing instrumental parts, you don't have to do it again if someone loses his part.  You just reprint the pdf for that part without fiddling with selecting staffs, checking line breaks, etc. 

There are a number of pdf creators, the one I use is pdfcreator.exe version 0.9.3, which is freeware from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/.  The most current version is 0.9.7, and I guess I should dowload that.  Maybe I will one day.  0.9.3 hasn't let me down yet.

Caution,though.  I see Sourceforge's opening page has some versions that are not freeware.  Just use the free one.  It's very good.

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #11 –
Hi Everyone

I agree that this is a printer driver problem.  I have looked on HP's website, and they say this printer is PCL3 compatible.  Try installing the Windows-supplied HP Deskjet 550C driver.  Connect it to the same port as the C5280.  Try printing a Windows test page.  If that prints correctly, then all is well.  Try printing your NWC file.

Please post back and let us (all) know how you got on.

Kind regards
Bob
 

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #12 –
I  know that it is a long time since this topic was publicly raised but I can't be the only person still  using work-arounds.  
Where the responsibility lies I don't know but since I installed NW2 I have had the problem not only in NW2 but in the original version.  Having updated my printer software (for an HP C6200 series) it would seem that it is a NW problem.  The printer is quite able to print lines and this allows one work-around.This involves changing the colour of the staff.

Tools Optioms Color then change one of the Highlight colours

Go tothe staff
F2 staff proprerties  change t he colour to the highlight you  have already changed

About the only drawback is to remember to do this.

Please can we have a proper fix?

Re: Staff lines not printing after first system

Reply #13 –
You might try printing with the NWC Viewer Test Edition
It uses a different method for defining how lines are drawn. NWC1 and 2 tell the printer to draw many very thin lines to make up a single staff line. The new viewer just tells it to draw a single thicker line.
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
This test version uses a completely different technique for displaying staff lines (and other graphics), so it could very well resolve the issue. The technology will also find its way into a future release of NWC2.

It could be that the problem is a clogged ink-jet. That would explain why staff lines print in color but not in black.
Registered user since 1996