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Topic: Converting PDF to Noteworthy (Read 11023 times) previous topic - next topic

Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Is there a way to convert a PDF file to Noteworthy.  It would be nice for arranging.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #1 –
Yes, but it's not a simple answer and it does have an associated cost.

You need photoscore (from Neuratron) which will read scores in pdf format.  Photoscore will read both pdf scores and scanned tiff scores.   The output is either midi or mxml. (Note that the lite version has a number of limitations including output to midi only)

Having got an mxml file from your pdf, you can then use Nicolas Hatier's mxml2nwc facility to convert the file to a NoteWorthy file.
(mxml2nwc is free but Nicolas asks for help with costs)

Many have had varying degrees of success using this method. I guess it might depend on the complexity of the music.
Rich.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #2 –
I do a similar thing with a program called Sharpeye.  But again, it's not cheap or quick.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #3 –
Phil,

Correct me if I'm wrong - but I think that Sharpeye (last time I checked) does not read in pdf files, only tif and bmp.

Rich.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #4 –
Yes, only tif and bmp.

I use ghostscript (GSView indeed) to generate a bmp of each page, then I use them with sharpeye.

"But again, it's not cheap or quick."

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #5 –
There is a program I use, PDFtoMusic Pro, available at myriad-online.com, which can read a PDF score generated by any music software, play it, export it in miscellaneous formats, play or even sing it.  It works on about 95% of the files I've tried.  It's nice since you can get a feel for the music before converting it.

debaumann

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
Phil,

Correct me if I'm wrong - but I think that Sharpeye (last time I checked) does not read in pdf files, only tif and bmp.



Correct - but it's pretty easy to convert PDF to any image file type - the simplest being to display the PDF on screen and take a screen shot.  I happen to have a licensed copy of the PDF995 software which will also convert a printed image to a TIFF.
 

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #7 –
How much does it cost for PDFtoMusic Pro?  How much for Sharpeye?  What formats do they generate - MusicXML or LilyPond or something else (which then has to be converted to NWC?)?  I think I'd have to do a lot of cleanup after the conversions, so I'm not sure the automation is worth much money to me, but I could be wrong.

How about the other direction - is there any way to bulk convert NWC to PDF?  There is nwc-conv, which gets you from NWC to NWCTXT.  Then I think there's utilities to get from there to MusicXML or LilyPond or something else?  (Sorry if I'm remembering these other formats wrong.)  Then is there anything out there that can generate PDF from these other formats, using command line parameters?

I've got batch NWC scripts which take an SATB hymn "master" and generate various versions, for instruments pitched in different keys and/or read in different clefs (never sure what instrumentalists will show up for church ensemble any given morning).  But right now, I have to load each version into NWC in turn, and "print" out a PDF file (with PDFCreator).  Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #8 –
PDFtoMusic Pro is $199.  Pricey, but the $49 version (non-Pro) doesn't have the options in Pro.  Pro will export to XML, mid, etc.

For converting nwc to pdf, I use Bullzip (a freebie from www.bullzip.com) which will work with nearly every application.  It defines a PDF printer that will save your output as a PDF file wherever you want to save it.  Anything you can print on your printer can be saved as a PDF file.

debaumann

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #9 –
Quote
I use Bullzip (a freebie from www.bullzip.com) which will work with nearly every application.  It defines a PDF printer that will save your output as a PDF file wherever you want to save it.  Anything you can print on your printer can be saved as a PDF file.

PDFCreator does exactly the same.

SharpEye 2 costs $202.80 and outputs MIDI, NIFF and MusicXML. Pricey it too.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Randy Williams –
How about the other direction - is there any way to bulk convert NWC to PDF?  There is nwc-conv, which gets you from NWC to NWCTXT.  Then I think there's utilities to get from there to MusicXML or LilyPond or something else?  (Sorry if I'm remembering these other formats wrong.)  Then is there anything out there that can generate PDF from these other formats, using command line parameters?

LilyPond automatically generates PDF as its "normal" output.  My Noteworthy->LilyPond converter has, as an undocumented feature, the ability to take an NWCTXT file as a command-line argument, so you could write a batch file to autoconvert NWC to PDF - providing the NWC isn't too unusual for my converter to handle.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #11 –
Thanks for the info all, but I was looking for a conversion from NWC to PDF which at no point involves having to fire up another GUI.  Does bullzip or lilypond have a command line mode, to automate conversion to a PDF?

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #12 –
Lilypond does not have a GUI.  When installed, simply double clicking the lilypond file (.ly) or running "test.ly" from the command prompt or a batch file creates the PDF.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #13 –
Bullzip installs as a pseudo-printer.  You "print" your nwc file (or Word, or whatever file) by selecting the Bullzip printer.  It saves the output as a pdf file into whatever directory you choose.  You can then print that pdf file as you would any pdf file.

debaumann

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #14 –
Quote from: debaumann –
Bullzip installs as a pseudo-printer.  You "print" your nwc file (or Word, or whatever file) by selecting the Bullzip printer.  It saves the output as a pdf file into whatever directory you choose.  You can then print that pdf file as you would any pdf file.

...which is how all pdf-creation programs work. Randy is looking for a way to batch-process nwc to pdf, not just a way to create pdf files from nwc files.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #15 –
Thanks for the info Phil!  It sounds like I can get what I need by:

  • Converting NWC to NWCTXT via nwc-conv.
  • Converting NWCTXT to LY via your converter.
  • Converting LY to PDF via LilyPond.

Once I have a script that automates NWC to PDF conversion (similar to my previous script for NWC to MIDI), I'll post it, in case anyone else is interested.

Re: Converting PDF to Noteworthy

Reply #16 –
I have a number of PDFs of instrumental parts created in other programs and sent to me.  I found PDF to TIFF Converter at http://www.digitzone.com/index.html a week or two ago.  It quickly converted the 3 pages of the part that were in the PDF to TIFFs. I ran those through Sharpeye to make XML. which I imported to NWC using MXML2NWCC.  It worked well.  There were a few errors to fix up, but that's normal with Sharpeye.

I used the test version of the program; the licenced version is $58.  Cheaper than the alternatives mentioned in earlier messages in this thread.

I also came across this just now at http://www.pdfforge.org/other-projects :

"fly2pdf is a free ActiveX-library which allows to create PDFs out of own applications easily"

I don't know what that means, but it might be what Randy was looking for?