Hi. When I print from Finale v25 the print is not entirely black. It is as if it is in economy mode, but it isn't. When I print to a PDF and zoom in on it on the screen, the problem is there as well. When I print from other programmes, like Pages or Numbers, there is no problem at all.
What's wrong? Is it a software bug or do I need to change some print settings?
Anders Butenko. MacOS Sierra 10.12.2. Finale 25.2.0.79.
Agreed with Joseph -- seems to be exact same issue that I have. And now that I look more closely: the PDF from Finale 25 is a bit gray and that is most likely why it prints poorly. I don't know if this is a connection, but I also have a (black and white, laser) brother printer. I don't think it's in the printer settings since printing from Finale 2014.5 with the same settings, prints fine. Tried with two different printers, same problem (although both are Brother printers).
Are they any hidden settings in Finale?
Made these PDFs with Peter's method of saving Quartz-filter: Create Generic PDFX-3 Document. As you can see, the colors are definitely not the same.
Finale 25, brand new file: 
Same file, saved to Preview via Finale 2014.5:
The problem is likely in the basics. Since it shows up when you print or create a PDF, it's not in the PDF conversion
What brand printer? In Page Setup, do you have your printer selected or is it generic?
if your printer is set to greyscale, this can happen. HP calls it black and white which is confusing—Text is really b&w. Color shouldn't give you this.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm on OS 10.11.6 El Cap. My printer is a monochrome Brother HL-L2340DW. I opened the band template and set the staff size to .3334 in, and zoomed in to 400%. I noticed there is a setting in the print dialogue for black and white, so I tried that as well, so:
Directly from Finale 25 1. Printed with default settings, 2. printed with black and white
Opened in Preview, and Saved as Generic PDFX-3, then printed 3. default and 4. black and white
Reopened in Preview (from F25) and Saved as Black and White, then printed 5. default and 6. black and white
Exported to Finale 2012 and printed on 7. default and 8. black and white.
Went back into F25, into the page setup and changed "format for any printer" to my specific printer, then printed 9. default and 10. Black and white
The picture was taken outside in direct sunlight (since my composing cave is dark) on an old iPhone. I handed the pages to a non-music person and said, "choose the black one." They chose 7 and 8.
Close up 1
Close Up 2 (not sure why it posted upside down, it's right side up everywhere else...)
I'm not crazy. Or am I? I dunno, maybe. But don't get me wrong! I LOVE Finale and I really, really, really want it to work.
I'm guessing for brother that black means black since this is the only program I have run into this issue. F2012 prints as expected. Sibelius prints as expected. Pages, Number, Safari, etc... print as expected.
Just for grins, I printed to a pdf and opened it in photoshop and used the color picker to determine the color and this was the result:
Not black.
To be fair I did the same with this file, a pdf created from Finale 2012.
Black.
It's not the printer.
Yes, I did that and it's a known bug that's currently being worked on.
In the meantime, for any people that also have this problem: they told me of a good workaround.
You can also use the Graphics tool to export PDF's (that will be in true black) until a fix is released. Here's how:
1. Select the Graphics tool from the Main Tool Palette.
2. Go to Graphics > Export Pages...
3. Change the Type to PDF and click OK.
For anyone still following this, I've documented this in a Scoring Notes blog post, and have also included a link to a Keyboard Maestro script that can automate the process for an entire set of parts.
For anyone still following this, I've documented this in a Scoring Notes blog post, and have also included a link to a Keyboard Maestro script that can automate the process for an entire set of parts
Saw that — good article. I was going to comment that 27 fixed this on the Mac. PDF from the Print menu now gives you true black. You might want to update your article to note this.
Here is a link to three results:
As I told you on Facebook, Print to .pdf on the Mac has resulted in true black since 27.0. See this thread from last year.
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/1500001313002-Finale-27-arrives-next-week
This was in the list of bug fixes for Mac:
After rebooting, I saw that it was true black, same as using the Graphics/Export tool. On 27.2 now, it still is. If you aren't seeing this, my guess is that you reinstalled 25 or 26 after 27. I have verified this can cause Print to PDF to revert. OTOH, if you install 27—even the demo—then 26 adopts the new behavior.
Windows has never had a native pdf printer and the Microsoft pdf driver mentioned in that thread from last year is no longer included in Windows 11 or Win 10 updates. Many Win users use CUTE PDF to get the job done.
Since you post as Scoring Notes on Facebook, I would think you want to disseminate correct information. If you are not seeing the correct result, please contact MM Support. If you don't have a direct pipeline, use the Submit a request link at the top of the page.
I read those threads. I don't understand why it works for some and not others. It doesn't sound like there is a definitive way to reproduce one way or the other. All i can say is that I and lots of other people still have this problem. But I am glad it works for you. I did not install Finale 25 or 26 after installing 27. I have rebooted many times. It does not solve the issue. Well, at least people have a workaround thanks to the Scoring Notes post. All the best.
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