Once we've created a musical score, we need to output it in one way or another:

1. Local printout

A Finale score from the laser or inkjet printer attached to your computer looks professional: crisp, clean, almost engraved-quality. The sharpness is limited only by the ability of your printer. These results are excellent for classroom use, even publication in many circumstances. For a recent music textbook which I co-authored, I sent scores to the publisher printed on my laser printer.

2. Files for publisher

Some publishers may get better results from a PostScript file or from a Finale ETF (Enigma Transportable File) file, both exportable from Finale. Unless they do a lot of music publishing, they will prefer the PostScript file; you can negotiate that with the publisher. To cover all the bases when I submitted a paper recently to a publisher with whom communication was not reliable, I included a laser printout, a PostScript file, and an ETF file, all from Finale.

3. Computer graphic file

You'll need a bitmapped graphic file for local or Web computer screens. In the early days of EOL, we took screen captures from Finale, since it exported only PostScript, not bitmapped graphic files. In Finale 98, you can now export a bitmapped image of a whole score or any portion that you choose. Selecting a portion of a score is especially useful for illustrating a point in an academic paper or a book. I used bitmapped exports from Finale for an online version of a paper.

discuss on SEM-L list