I have prepared a Piano/Vocal and Vocal Scores for a client, and he has been having problems when printing out from PDFs. When printing the entire file (well, either the entire vocal score or p/v score) some of the text prints incorrectly, though printing individual pages comes out fine. See the attached file for an example. The PDFs appear normal on screen, and this only happens for 5 of the 16 songs in the show (it's a musical theater score), and for those songs there are errors in both the Piano/Vocal Score and the Vocal score, but those errors are different! (I'll attach the P/V of the currently attached file to a following post)
Does anyone have any idea about this problem? What should I tell my client?
What technology was used to create the PDF? By direct export from Sibelius, or via some PDF-creator utility?
What is the name of the font used for Rudella's cue? Is that font available on the computers from which the PDF is being printed? Is the printing being attempted on PC or Mac?
What is the brand and model number of the printer which produces the distorted text, and what is the version number of the operating system printer driver for that printer?
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Sibelius 7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1, 4GB RAM
Sib 7.1.3 on Mac 10.7
PDF was exported from Sibelius and then many files were merged with Acrobat Pro.
The font is simply Times New Roman!
Don't know about the printer. If that's the problem that's his and not mine :P
This is easy: the font metrics in the PDF are off. PostScript fonts have two sets of data: the actual curves that define the outline of each character, and the font metrics that define how closely each glyph is positioned next to other glyphs.
This is most commonly seen when a page that you export as a PDF is printed on other printer that does not have the correct font. However, Sibelius 7 embeds all the fonts in an exported PDF file--so this should not be the case.
There's another possibility: Sibelius 7 uses PostScript Level 3, which many printers do not fully support. If your client is printing on an older printer--or is using a cheap (free) alternative PDF tool to print, the printer or PDF tool may be screwing up the font metrics.
Given that you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can fix this easily--don't export to PDF from Sibelius. Instead, print the scores to the Adobe Acrobat printer device--and use the printer options dialog to specify that you want to send all the text "as curves". That will send the glyph outlines and font metrics directly, rather than assume that the same font is resident on the printer. The PDF will be a bit larger, but it won't be much larger.
PDF export from Sibelius 7 was explicitly deemed to be a 95th percentile use case--meaning that it would meet the needs of 95% of Sibelius users. For that other 5% that were going to do color separations, feed page layout applications, print negative film from an imagesetter, or do other things that required much more detailed control of the PDF output, the best choice is to buy a copy of Acrobat Pro, and print to it.
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Sibelius 2 - 7.1 | Hauptwerk 4
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel i5 quad CPU, 8 GB RAM | M-Audio Fast Track C600
Keurig B60
Thank you John for that detailed answer. I thought that at some recent point, perhaps because Mac added a PDF section to their print dialog, that the Adobe PDF Printer is no longer used? I do have "Adobe PDF 9.0" in my printer list but it has an exclamation mark by it and doesn't seem to work. Will the PDF button of the normal print dialog work for this? I guess not because I don't see any place to select the option you mentioned...
Ah--sorry. I leapt to the conclusion that you were a Windows user--from your reply, I venture to guess that you're a Mac user.
On the Windows platform Acrobat functions like a printer. (In the original version of Acrobat, the "printer" was a separate product, named Acrobat Distiller. I was a Distiller 1.0 beta tester.) On the Windows platform, when you select a printer, you can then click a button to expose all the options for printed output--including the option to "print" all the text as Bezier-spline curves, rather than as text with a specified font and font metrics.
The Mac OS carefully, conscientiously hides a lot of details from the end user--but I'm sure the MAC OS has a means to permit you to make those choices.
If you can't find them, just export a PDF to your local machine, then open it with Adobe Acrobat. From Acrobat you can print (save as) the document to a second PDF file--but export the text as curves.
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Sibelius 2 - 7.1 | Hauptwerk 4
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel i5 quad CPU, 8 GB RAM | M-Audio Fast Track C600
Keurig B60
> you can then click a button to expose all the options for printed output--
> including the option to "print" all the text as Bezier-spline curves, rather than as text
John, perhaps you would identify the specific option name and setting, as I can find no such candidate in my Adobe PDF Printer.
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Sibelius 7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 7.0.2, Dolet 6 for Sibelius, Windows 7 32-bit SP1, 4GB RAM
Thanks John, this is good to know for many of us, what fantastic knowledge many users on this forum have. If you chose "use OS dialog" in the bottom of the print window then there are some options in the pdf menu like Save as Adobe PDF which is different from just save as pdf.
It might be that some of those options require Acrobat Pro but then you have that installed.
> If you can't find them, just export a PDF to your local machine, then open it with Adobe Acrobat. From Acrobat you can print (save as) the document to a second PDF file--but export the text as curves.
That sounds like a great idea! However, when I select "Save As" in Acrobat Pro it seems to just be a way to save it in a different location or with a different name. You can select a different format as well but in terms of PDF the options are only PDF and PDF Optimized. There are no options for curves or anything. Where else might this option be?
Thank you for this info. However, I am experiencing exactly the same issue - the jpg provided in the first entry is very familiar. I'm on Mac, latest OS and Sibelius.
My particular issue is that I work on large songbooks and rely on the Export Folder of Scores As PDF plugin. I can never print using my normal printer because of the font issues (including the music font!).
I'm not sure that (for every proof and every draft I need to produce...) going through dozens of individual files and using the OS dialog to print to PDF is going to make any difference. If it does, man, that is a LOT of clicking just to produce one set of proofs. In addition, some people see issues with embedded high-res TIFs from Sib files (they look rasterized).
I feel that this is all because of the aforementioned PostScript issues, but I'm lost as to what to do. Is there anyone else out there with this same issue that has solved it? Perhaps there's a script for this? Thank you, all.
> However, I am experiencing exactly the same issue - the jpg provided in the first entry is very familiar.
> I'm on Mac, latest OS and Sibelius.
Joe, you have resurrected a 6-year old thread, and the world has moved on since the above replies were made. Please state what version number of Sibelius you are using, and your precise issues.
> My particular issue is that I work on large songbooks and rely on the Export Folder of Scores As PDF plugin.
What is the problem with that?
> I can never print using my normal printer because of the font issues (including the music font!).
What font issues? Please be precise. How are you printing to the printer? Directly from Sibelius, or are you using some other application to print from a PDF exported from Sibelius?
What is the brand and model of printer? Have you installed the latest printer driver for that model of printer? Do not rely on the default drivers provided by Apple.
If there are problems evident in PDFs exported from Sibelius, are those problems apparent when viewing the PDF on the screen, or do they affect only the printed hard-copy version?
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Sibelius 2019.1/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2018.7, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.
Thank you for the reply - I apologize that I didn't see the year when reviewing the thread.
I am attaching an example of a recent score that printed with missing music and text fonts. I am using a Mac, latest Mojave, Sib Ultimate 2019.1. Latest Adobe Acrobat Pro. Brand new HP OfficeJet Pro 8720. But, this problem has been happening for a few years.
It appears that there is an issue with how Sibelius embeds fonts and images, but it is completely unpredictable as to when, where, and how these inconsistencies occur.
The printing houses I work with to print the songbooks never have an issue with the font embedding or the composited, print-ready PDF I send them (composited from individual PDF files generated by the aforementioned batch plugin).
The problem seems to be with consumer-grade printers, and it seems to be more a Mac issue. I have taken to sending my last proofs for books to a local print shop since I can't do it here in my office.
I don't know where to start here - it has been suggested (on the Adobe forums, etc.) that because the batch plugin doesn't use the OS dialog for producing a PDF, that there are embedding issues. I'm lost. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
I'm afraid that the attached image was so huge that I couldn't really make out what was wrong with it. But if the PDF looks right on the screen, and looks right when printed elsewhere, then the defect is with the local printer driver in the macOS.
Have you installed the printer driver for the Officejet Pro 8720 that is provided by HP's support web-site?
Have you upgraded the 8720's firmware to the latest level? (also from HP's support site)
You mention Adobe Acrobat Pro. What part does that play in this problem? When you send a PDF to your printer and see printing issues, was the PDF one which was unchanged since export from Sibelius, or had the PDF been processed by Adobe Acrobat before printing?
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Sibelius 2019.1/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2018.7, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.
Here are some very basic but easily overlooked things to check when creating a pdf on a mac:
In Document Setup, check that the page size is set the way you want.
In File>Page Setup, check that the paper size matches what is in Document Setup.
Now File>Print...
Be sure to uncheck Fit To Page and Color before saving as pdf.
Sorry if this is obvious, but it doesn't hurt to eliminate the obvious.
Grounded - V.JPG.jpg