Converting BWW Files to PDF
Barry Taylor
files to PDF in order to be able to attach printable notation files to email
messages. PDF files are readable and printable using the free utility Adobe
Acrobat Reader. I have met with reasonable success, so I thought I'd share
what I've discovered with other Bagpipe Music Writer owners.
Step 1 - Install a Postscript printer file
Install a postscript printer driver for an HP Colour Laserjet 5/5M PS from
your Windows CD. (You don't need the printer; all you're doing is installing
the driver.)
Step 2 - Configure the Postscript Printer
In the setup, configure the printer to Print to File instead of to the
printer port. The resultant file will bear the suffix .PRN but will be, in
fact, a postscript file. If you wish, you could save the output file with
the suffix .PS, but this isn't essential.
Step 3 - Open Bagpipe Music Writer Gold and print your desired tune to File
Print the Bagpipe Music Writer file, but select the new HP Laserjet printer
driver instead of that for your desktop printer. Name your output tune file
and save it to a desired directory. As mentioned above, the suffix .PRN will
be added automatically.
Step 4 - Convert the Postscript file to PDF
Visit http://www.ps2pdf.com/ ...a free file conversion site. In the
appropriate dialog box browse to point to your newly created tune_name.prn
file on your hard drive, then click the Convert button. In a few seconds the
screen will repaint and your tune_name.pdf file will be returned to you and
appear as a hyperlink at the bottom of the form. Save this file to your hard
drive.
Step 5 - Email your tune
Just file attach your new PDF file to your email message as an attachment.
When the recipient opens the attachment Adobe Acrobat Reader will be invoked
and the BWW tune will appear on the recipient's screen ready to be printed.
The margins will be exactly the same as your original BWW file.
Comments on Quality
The output image quality does not match that of the BWW file printed to the
local printer. It appears that the machine and printer quality are factors.
For example, the reprinted image from my P100 machine and Epson Stylus
inkjet printer at home contained some small extraneous marks even on high
resolution. Yet the same output file was excellent when reprinted on the NT
and laserprinter I use at work. Even in the case of my home setup, though,
the notation is nicely readable. More importantly, it provides a small file
that can be sent to other individuals via email for them to reproduce
effortlessly.
There are slicker ways to accomplish this PDF conversion, such as through
the use of Adobe Acrobat (expensive) or with the installation of the
freeware utilities Ghostscript and Ghostview. For the casual user, though,
the BWW to Postscript to PDF method I've described is probably just fine,
and you need not install any additional software on your machine to make it
work. Once the postscript printer driver has been installed, the file
conversion process takes less than a minute.
I'd appreciate advice on improving the image quality. Any file conversion
gurus out there?
--
Barry Taylor
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
http://members.home.net/bntaylor/canmidi.htm
C Carter
"Barry Taylor" <bnta...@home.com> wrote:
> I have been experimenting with ways to convert Bagpipe Music Writer
BWW
> files to PDF in order to be able to attach printable notation files
to email
> messages.
This is great, Barry. I don't use BMW, but I am going to play around
with this on another program, and if it works, I'll send you a tune.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Jim Sabatke
I am NOT an expert at the Windows versions.
1.
I use TeX to process the BMW file to a dvi file. Requires: musictex and
bagpipe.tex.
2.
Then use dvips and ps2pdf to convert to Postscript and PDF.
The output is very high quality.
Jim
Barry Taylor wrote:
> I have been experimenting with ways to convert Bagpipe Music Writer BWW
> files to PDF in order to be able to attach printable notation files to email
> messages. PDF files are readable and printable using the free utility Adobe
> Acrobat Reader. I have met with reasonable success, so I thought I'd share
> what I've discovered with other Bagpipe Music Writer owners.
>
<snip>
JFMACR
Writer as the printer in BMW. I do this all the time. This program, however,
is not cheap.
Jim MacRae
Göran Seifert
> Install a postscript printer driver for an HP Colour Laserjet 5/5M PS from
You may want to try the generic Postscript printer driver to get rid of
possible Printer specific codes. It is available for free at
http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/main.html
--
______________________________________________
Goeran Seifert
dana ezekiel
Dana
C Carter
=?iso-8859-1?Q?G=F6ran?= Seifert <sei...@lep-philips.fr> wrote:
> You may want to try the generic Postscript printer driver to get rid
of
> possible Printer specific codes. It is available for free at
> http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/main.html
I did exactly this. Required installing a .ppd file as well.
Worked perfectly. I copied the score as a graphic from Adobe Reader to
a wp program (Word) and printed it. The print quality was not as good
as the original program, but is perfectly readable (but probably
wouldn't photocopy too well.)
Original file was in Lime. Printed my .lim file using the PS printer
set up as described, converted to PDF as per instructions, emailed it
to myself (the step seems redundant, any way it can be avoided?),
opened my email account and saved the attachment, opened the attachment
using PDF, copied the graphic to Word, and printed it. Whew! Six steps
in all, but now at least I can email music to those who request it.
Thanks, Barry and Seifert.
Dan Maker
> ...emailed it
> to myself (the step seems redundant, any way it can be avoided?),
Just take the pdf that you've created and open it in your pdf viewer of
choice (I use Ghost View under Linux)
Dan
--
Linux Advocate * Fiber Artist * Piper * Genealogist
Bagpipe FAQ - http://www.xmission.com/~redbeard/rmmb_fom/cache/1.html