beams on 8th notes- too thin on Preview/PDF/Print

[stubbsonic]

In the Quickscribe window, the display looks right-- i.e., the beams are proper. When I do any of the following: Preview, Save as PDF, or Print; the beams on 8th notes become very thin (1 pixel?), they are not visible unless they are slanted.

It is the same with my PPC G5 (OS 10.5), though for some reason, it is intermittent. I don't know what factors cause it. On my intel MBP (OS 10.6.4) it never works properly.

So far tech support has only suggested a problem with my print driver-- but I don't see how that would affect Preview & Save to PDF (since neither of these access the print driver). After that advice, I have not heard back.

I did find one older thread about this, but it sounds like it was unsolved. It must not be a common problem. I have had other problems with printing from DP (e.g., staff lines being too thin or light to even appear, etc.) but for this I have no workaround, and I'm really stuck.

I use DP's notation all the time as a teacher, so I'd like to sort this out.

Any help would be appreciated.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Actually, your print drive can affect PDF output. Been there; got the tee shirt.

Have you checked your fonts? Perhaps there is a corrupted font that can be replaced. Maybe try reinstalling DP as that would reinstall the QS fonts as well.

[stubbsonic]

Actually, your print drive can affect PDF output...
....Perhaps there is a corrupted font that can be replaced. Maybe try reinstalling DP as that would reinstall the QS fonts as well.

t
Thanks for the quick response.

I wonder why the PDF output would refer to the print driver-- since it is unrelated to a specific printer. Also, it does it whether I connect to my crappy Dell printer at home or an HP printer at work.

It's weird that it has affected both machines, and yet is not a more common problem.

I will try reinstalling to see if that corrects the issue. I'll post back soon.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

If you can install a different print driver and the system will attempt allow it in page setup, see if that works.

I agree, it makes no sense that a hardware driver affects a PDF (or preview). I "fought" that as well but was proven wrong. I don't understand the software stuff at that level, but my ignorant-based understanding is that the page setup of the hardware printer determines the look of the PDF output. You could install an Adobe PDF print driver (I think they are available to the general public - check Adobe or VersionTracker.com).

It always seems to come down to printing in the end. If something is going to f%^& up, it always seems to be printer related - at least that always seems to be an issue one way or another.

[stubbsonic]

Just as a quick test, I tried choosing Save as Adobe PDF, and Save as PDF-X. Both resulted in the same problem.

I think that because it is the same with my work printer and my home printer-- I'll continue with the theory that fonts are somehow involved.

Will it be enough to install from the latest updater (7.21) or will I need to go all the way back to the install discs?

Thanks for your help!!!!!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Not sure, but I'd guess the 7.2 update should suffice. Not sure if it replaces fonts or not.

[frankymax]

y'know, I've had this very problem happen from time to time with printing the Quickscribe. It's weird and intermittent, but every so often I have 16th and 8th note beams not print correctly so it looks like I have 8 quarter notes in a bar, when I should have 8 8th notes! But it looks fine on screen. It doesn't happen enough that I've made a report to MOTU about it, and it seems to happen mostly when I'm working with other clients DP or MIDI files, but I can corroborate that this bug does happen from time to time, and has happened to me on several different computers and printers.

[stubbsonic]

Thanks for posting that, Frank. At least I know there are two of us. As soon as I learn something (MOTU support has tapped out on this one)-- I'll post back here.

[stubbsonic]

I reinstalled from the 7.21 updater. No difference. I didn't Uninstall before running the installer (because I'm at work with my laptop, but my authorization code is at home).

I will try an uninstall just to see if that clears the bad font.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

If someone knows the font name and can post it that might save you time and headache. You might also report this to MOTU.

[Frodo]

Dunno if this'll help, but here goes:

This problem appeared when Snow Leopard came out. Apple messed up the font recognition scheme in a huge way. Since then they've basically fixed the problem, but our font caches don't always update to reflect that the problem is fixed.

First update OSX to the latest version of Snow Leopard if you haven't already. That alone might fix it since Apple has worked on the problem from their end. Still, you probably need to do a little bit more.

You have two main font folders:
/library/fonts

and

/username/library/fonts

Go into both of them and move the Quickscribe fonts to the trash. For many versions now of DP, we don't need any Quickscribe fonts in the fonts folders. If you ever need one of those files again, don't worry; I'm sure you can get one from somewhere. But you won't need it. Go ahead and trash it. [Ok, just to cover myself, maybe you ought to keep a copy somewhere, but I doubt you will ever need it]

Ok, now go to your Digital Performer application and make sure it has the QuickscribeX font installed inside it. You do that by right-clicking on the DP application itself (CONTROL-CLICK) and pull down the menu to "View Package Contents." Once you're inside the Digital Performer app, look inside the "Resources" folder. Type "qui" and it should take you right to the QuickscribeX font. If it is not in there, re-install DP from the DVD and go through the updates again.

I am 99.99% sure you won't have to reinstall.

But there's one more step. Now you need to clear the font cache. Reboot your Macintosh while holding down the SHIFT key. It should soon say something like "Safe Boot" on the screen, and you can let go of the key. Wait until it completely boots up. Go ahead and log into your account if it doesn't do it automatically, so you end up all the way into OSX as you normally would when you work. Be aware that things won't all work properly, because it has booted without any non-Apple extensions.

Wait until you hear the hard drive settling down and its activity stops. Then reboot your computer normally. Now the Quickscribe font should work. [in fact, this last step of safe-booting, then rebooting, may be the only one you really need]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If that didn't do it for you, let us know where you need more info.

Shooshie

[frankymax]

Hiya Frodo- I hope you're doing well! For me, this has been happening intermittently since OS 10.4, and I can usually just figure out what it's supposed to be (rhythmically) so I haven't made a big deal about it. But it is a weird one, and because it seems to come and go depending on the file, I don't know where to start detective work. I guess the next time I have it happen I should make a pdf and send the file and pdf to MOTU for help. Usually when it happens I'm in a time crunch having to do MIDI-file transcription and orchestration so I don't have the time to figure it out!!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Ever notice you have never seen Shooshie and Frodo in the same place at the same time...

Hmmm...

[stubbsonic]

UPDATE: I did get it to work properly by doing the following:

I created a new printer (based on my current printer), instead of loading the manufacturers driver (which is probably not very good, or snow leopard friendly)-- I chose the "Generic PostScript Printer" driver. The beams now appear normally in Preview, PDF, and print.

However, I'm not completely convinced. My PPC G5 already had the "Generic PostScript Printer" driver selected, and it has the problem intermittently.

I will follow the steps so generously offered by Frodo and Shooshie.

THANKS! I'll post results after some testing.

[stubbsonic]

Just checked both machines and neither of them had Quickscribe fonts in either of the library/fonts folders. Quickscribe X was indeed inside the DP7 package/resources.

Not sure what the next step is. I'll keep working on it. If I come up with any clarifying solution, I pledge that I will return with whatever I learn.