Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view (Read 13217 times) previous topic - next topic

creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Hi
I´m new in this forum and have for some time searched the internet for advise on how to convert note-examples made with NWC into a fil format, that can be inserted into a Word2010 doc., and eventually be clearly readable, when the doc. is converted to pdf. Many music-writers seem to have this problem. In this case I´m doing an eBook layout, so it´s not the same story as if I wanted a printed output. Until now I´ve tried print-screenshot and "Paint", saving as TIF, but the solution obtainable here is not above 100dpi. The pictures have blurry notelines and other weeknesses. I need at least 300 dpi.
Any recommendations?

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #1 –
If you are wanting to take a copy of a full page as displayed in print preview, then once in print preview, click copy and select file *.emf.
Save it as and where you will with a .emf name.   Once in word, do the usual insert pic from file.

If you want just a few measures, then highlight the measures required. Then click Edit/ Copy special. Select Just the active staff   or   all open staves as appropriate.

This will be copied to the clipboard.

Go into Word and paste.
Rich.

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #2 –
Yep, what a difference! Thank you! Just tried it out, and the result when in PDF is excellent. But NWC makes the whole sheet into emf. Is there a way to mask just the needed part (the staff is only two bars long, and contains only the motif I need to use as an illustration), or do I trim the picture afterwords in f.i. Microsoft Office Picture Manager? Or where is the highlight-tool you mention?

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #3 –
When I say highlight, I just mean select the bars you want (shift and arrow) on the staff that you are on. If you want just two bars but all the staves, you can still do this.

So select the measures you want and then click Edit/ Copy special.  It will then ask you if you want just the one staff you are on or all of the staves.  When you have selected which you want, the relevant bars will be copied to the clipboard in emf format which you will then be able to paste into Word.

HTH.
Rich.

Re: Creating clear NWC images

Reply #4 –
The trick is to use Print Preview:
  • Right-click to get full resolution.
  • Use the scroll bars to roughly center the subject matter.
  • Print the entire screen.
  • Paste the Clipboard contents into your favorite graphics editor and crop it.
I used this method to create attachment #1 from Seasonal Sample for NWC Viewer 2.5 (Beta)

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
The pictures have blurry notelines
Music doesn't resample well. You can see the flaws in attachment #2. Slurs may look better, but stems and staff lines suffer. Resampling also creates a larger file.

To get the image the proper size without resampling, adjust the dpi of the printer that you have selected with the Printer Setup Command before you capture the screen. Attachment #3 shows the result at 260dpi.
If you don't need to modify the song, NWC is not needed. I used NoteWorthy Composer Viewer and IrfanView to create the attachments.
Registered user since 1996

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #5 –
Thank you for this (have been away for some days, so couldn´t answer.)
"The trick is to use Print Preview:
Right-click to get full resolution." - right-clicking doesn´t give me a choice of resolution, only view-%. What do you mean here?

"adjust the dpi of the printer that you have selected with the Printer Setup Command before you capture the screen." - Your attachment #3 looks perfect with totally sharp nodeheads and lines, but what happens to the slurs here?? Looks like bad resolution? If they weren´t blurry, I´d surely use this sample. As I understand your comments, sample #3 was made with Print Preview and printscreen, right? Are you then saying that "Printer setup command" gives me the possibility of changing the resolution of a printscreen? I read a lot about this topic, and no one seems to be able to come up with means to change the hard default resolution of approx. 72dpi, that is used in printscreens. I therefore assume that using (from Print Preview) "Copy/save as .emf" (as Rich. suggests in the former post) will give me a picture with a better resolution. Do you agree - or have I missed something?

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
When you have selected which you want, the relevant bars will be copied to the clipboard in emf format which you will then be able to paste into Word.
Two questions: where is this emf saved? (I need to use the sample more than once) - and the anchors appear also. Is there a way to avoid that?
The emf looks quite good after inserted in Word, but the slurs are not convincing - in strong contrast to the very sharp notes and lines.

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
Two questions: where is this emf saved? (I need to use the sample more than once) 

If it is from the print preview, then wherever you specify (standard windows)
If it is from copy special, then it is only in the memory. So if you want to use it at a later date, I would suggest pasting to a graphics package and saving from there. If you have pasted into Word, you may be able to re-use this depending on you knowledge of picture manipulation.

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
and the anchors appear also. Is there a way to avoid that?
The emf looks quite good after inserted in Word, but the slurs are not convincing - in strong contrast to the very sharp notes and lines.

You can change the anchors - see tools options editor. Select Custom expression anchor and reduce the size right down to a suitable level for your copy.
Rich.

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
right-clicking doesn´t give me a choice of resolution, only view-%. What do you mean here?
Right-click displays the page at full printer resolution. You don't get a choice.

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
Your attachment #3 looks perfect with totally sharp nodeheads and lines, but what happens to the slurs here?
They are too sharp. Beams are also a bit ragged. Windows smooths anything produced by a Truetype Font, but the rest is comprised of black pixels.

You might prefer the attachment below. I started with attachment #3 from above and ran it through IrfanView's Blur filter twice. A better graphics editor might let you selectively blur just the areas with curves and diagonals.

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
As I understand your comments, sample #3 was made with Print Preview and printscreen, right?
Right.

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
Are you then saying that "Printer setup command" gives me the possibility of changing the resolution of a printscreen?
No. Your screen resolution is fixed. You can use a custom print resolution to control how large the area to be cropped is. When you save the image, you can specify its dpi.

Quote from: Stephen 0352 –
I read a lot about this topic, and no one seems to be able to come up with means to change the hard default resolution of approx. 72dpi, that is used in printscreens.
Well, I get about 85dpi from my monitor. Some eReaders can reach 200dpi. Monitors and printers have fixed resolutions. You can create graphics files with arbitrary resolutions, as I have shown by my attachments. When displayed or printed they are either rendered as is, or adjusted to match the physical constraints of the device. Some devices do this better than others.
Registered user since 1996

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #9 –
Hi
I´ve made some experiments using methods suggested by the two honourable members Rick. G and Richard W. and have described these in a pdf, which I had hoped to be able to attach to this post. But I can´t find out how. There is no sign of it in "additional options"? Until you get this pdf, this post doesn´t really make sense, but here it is anyway.
For me the goal is to have nice onscreen-readable illustrations in a published pdf (ebook). This would be a different matter had I used e.g. InDesign for the book layout instead of Word, but I can´t change that right now.
The two things I find most annoying in this quest is 1) the fixed resolution when using Windows printscreen and paste to e.g. Paint (because that method is so easy), and 2) the difficulties in preserving vector graphics without getting enormous files.

A few things I still can´t figure out:
I still don´t see any change in resolution or message when right-clicking from Print Preview?
I would prefer to find a method that would allow me to make "fixed" pictures containing a setup of e.g. two different music examples and some explaining text -and be able to insert these into Word, instead of having to control interaction and and position of the mentioned elements in the layout.

Thanks for the help so far. I hope to get even closer!  

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #10 –
Ok, for attachments I had to upgrade my account. However, the pdf I made was too big, so I post the text here and attach the examples.

Creating music examples with NWC2 to be inserted into Word2010  and converted to PDF for onscreen reading (eBook)

Working with an eBook layout I have made some illustrations - music examples and black/white drawings with small texts - and I discovered that allthough these appeared perfectly in a printed version of the book, the same illustrations weren´t good enough for onscreen viewing, where they have to appear clear and readable on different screens and in different sizes (if the reader would like to zoom in). So I need some vectorbased illustrations of a reasonable size and in a format, that can be inserted into Word without ending up with enormous files. Using the easiest way – printscreen and Paint, it seems you won´t get resolutions above 100 dpi. 

Example #1: (se attachment ex.1)
Done this way: In NWC highlight bars, Edit/Copy Special, mark ”all open staves”, paste into Word, needed to change color to black since one of the staffs were blue.

Ups: In Word this picture stands very clear and the colour is absolutely black. When converted into PDF (prepress settings) this method gives me by far the best resolution in the endproduct, compared to the other methods suggested. All elements (notes, beams, slurs etc.) stands perfectly sharp from 75 to 800%, although for some reason the 100% view isn´t quite as clear.

Downs: How to get rid of the anchors? (they are still showing in front of the two texts, although minimized to 0,1 using Tools/Options). And I don´t get the brace in front of the two staffs and the barline in the end. And the colour problem.

Example #2: (se attachment ex.2)
Done this way: From NWC Print Preview, Copy to clipboard, pasted into Corel Paintshop Pro X5, cropped and saved as .emf (preserving vectordata). Inserted into Word with no colourchanges.  (Using the NWC Printer Setup Command shows me different options (from 300 to 1200 dpi), but choosing any of them doesn´t seem to affect the resolution of the Screenprint. I think the settings are only kept if I press “ok” to print, but I may be wrong here).  

Ups: I get the whole staff picture, including the brace in front of the two staffs and the barline in the end of the staffs. And no anchors.

Downs: Already in Word this picture is worse than example #1. It ´s greyish in colour, the notelines are poorly rendered. The resolution in PDF (converted as before using prepress settings) is not satifying, the whole picture is blurred.

Question: If from Print Preview (ex.#2) I choose “save as emf” instead of copy to clipboard, I get an emf-file that is 1) of a reasonable size, and 2) looks good when inserted into Word. But - the file hasn´t been cropped! So, if for that purpose I open the file in Corel Paintshop Pro, it doesn´t show notes as when pasted into the same programme, but some boxes where to the notes should be. Why is that?
 
Conclusion: I´ve been told that taking vector graphics into Word (needed for delicate detailed figures as f.i. musicnotes) can ony be done in eps, wmf and emf formats. I haven´t been succesful working with eps, but emf – as recommended here in the NWC forum – seems to be the right format. However I find it difficult to go through a graphics editor such as Photoshop or Corel Paintshop Pro, because I seem to get either a loss of resolution (bitmap instead of vector) or enormous filesizes. Apparently some exercises with the settings in Paintshop and other software is needed here, since many parameters seem to influence what happens to the graphics when the file is opened and saved.
 

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Stephen 0352 –

Question: If from Print Preview (ex.#2) I choose “save as emf” instead of copy to clipboard, I get an emf-file that is 1) of a reasonable size, and 2) looks good when inserted into Word. But - the file hasn´t been cropped! So, if for that purpose I open the file in Corel Paintshop Pro, it doesn´t show notes as when pasted into the same programme, but some boxes where to the notes should be. Why is that?


You don't really need the Corel stage:
Open Word - import the emf file (insert picture) - double click on the picture and edit it (crop, change size etc.). No quality loss or other problems that I can see.
Hope this helps
Leon

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #12 –
Yes! That was the missing cue! I can see now, that Richard W. suggested this path already in his first answer, but then I didn´t know I could crop the picture in Word.

So - for anybody, who might need this too - the procedure goes like this:
Take your piece of music into "Print Preview", enlarge it if needed, press "Copy", chose "Save as emf". In Word insert the emf, doubleclick and do the editing, cropping etc., save the Wordfile. From this file you can copy the finished picture into another Wordfile, if you wish.

This took a heavy burden off my shoulders, thank you. A nice start in this forum!

By the way - I have seen people struggling with this problem in other forums, so I wonder: Is this method described anywhere in NWC helpfiles? Maybe it ought to be?  

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #13 –
IMO, viewed at 100% in Adobe, Ex1.pdf and Ex2.pdf don't look very good.
Contrast with my attachment, generated with this simple html code:
Quote
<TITLE>Topic 8276</TITLE>
<img src="NoteWorthy Composer\Forum\Topic 8276 rg01.png"><br>
<img src="NoteWorthy Composer\Forum\Topic 8276 rg02.png"><br>
<img src="NoteWorthy Composer\Forum\Topic 8276 rg03.png"><br>
<img src="NoteWorthy Composer\Forum\Topic 8276 rg04.png">
and printed to a PDF file.

It reinforces what I've been saying: Good staff lines and bars require that the images be generated in the proper size. Slurs, ties and beams are ragged at the lower printer resolutions, but lines and text are good.
Registered user since 1996

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #14 –
Hi, it´s more than ok that you point to the week part of the method I just described: the 100% view isn´t satisfying. However I must assume that my method preserves a very high resolution all the way through to the pdf, since both the 75% and 800% views are totally sharp! A mystery to me, actually, why only the 100% view goes blurry??

I still would like to try what you´re suggesting, but I´m afraid I don´t understand the code (not being an expert - yet). What do I do step by step with my NWC theme?
And are you also saying that it makes a difference, which fontsize or print preview magnification I use - before saving as emf?

Re: creating clear NWC images in PDFs for onscreen view

Reply #15 –
Quote from: Rick G. –
IMO, viewed at 100% in Adobe, Ex1.pdf and Ex2.pdf don't look very good.

Ups, I forgot to attach the latest attempt, described yesterday at 5:03pm. Here it is. It´s clearly better than the two previous, and actually I find this ok from 100% and up.