How does one print from Scorch to a PDF, not to a physical printer?

Question

Sibelius' Scorch browser plugin prevents printing to files but only allows printing on paper. How does one create a PDF of the score anyway?

Answer 1

Overview Scorch checks whether the printer uses a FILE output. Thus, use printer A to print, but redirect output to printer B, which uses creates a file.

Install a new printer B

1. Use Windows' > Add printer to install a new printer
2. Configure it to use the FILE: interface
3. Use a driver for Generic > HP Universal Printer PS

Install the printer redirect software

1. Download and install PrintMulti from http://www.lvbprint.de/html/download.html
2. Find and edit its configuration file printmulti.ini from the installation directory

3. Add the following lines to the end of the file

   [Printer A exact name as displayed by Windows, eg. HP LaserJet 2]
   Active=1
   PrintSelf=0
   ActionPDF=Print;PDF
   
   [PDF]
   Active=1
   Printer=HP Universal Printing PS
   

4. Change the brackets for Printer A to the exact name

Configure Printer A to print using PrintMulti

1. Find and edit Printer A's print properties
2. Find the tab Advanced and click Print Processor
3. Select PrintMulti

Print from Scorch

1. Visit the Scorch plugin page
2. Print using Printer A.
3. Find the output in your Documents directory (depends on version of Windows). It's usually called sibelius*
4. Rename the file to *.ps and convert to PDF, e.g. with Acrobat
5. Reset the printer to use its own print processor

Answer 2

I have no printer at home, so of course I tried to download sheets from sites using this Scorch plugin. Fortunately enough, someone specified somewhere that he was using MAC OS , he could stop the printing process, then find the job, and then take the TIF file that was sent to the printer. So I tried from Windows to print to FAX, and of course not having one for real the process of printing was halted, and I just opened the sent document as an attached TIFF file. If you need it as PDF, just convert it to PDF with a third party software you like.

1. In your browser go to File, and then Print.
2. Choose Fax as your printer, and click OK to print. (You must not actually have a Fax setup)
3. The operation will fail, if you receive any prompts (eg: Fax Setup) click the necessary options to exit them until you get a New Fax window.

4. In the New Fax window find the attach line, it should have an entry in it with a box beside it.

5. Double-click on the box; you should get a prompt asking if you want to open the TIF file, choose open.
6. If you don't have a program associated with TIF files then you'll be asked what program to open it in. Choose Windows Photo Viewer, and once you have the picture opened you can save it to your hard drive, in the case of Windows Photo Viewer it would be File, and then Make a copy.
7. You will then need to use a third party program to convert the TIF file to PDF.

PS: You can also choose in the Scorch plug-in that the printing was not successful so the file will be available for other times also! :D

Answer 3

This can't be done under the SIBELIUS SCORCH LICENSE AGREEMENT, which is bundled with the installer.

Section 2-2.3-3:

You shall not, and shall not cause or permit any third party to,

...

use the Software to create files in any format (other than temporary files created and required by your computer's operating system or web browser), including without limitation screen capture files, files generated from the Software's playback, graphics files and print files, for any purpose, except for creating MIDI files (if permitted by the Software) for private non-commercial use.

I realise my quote may also be against the license (2-2.2), but I neither use the software or have agreed to the license.

Answer 4

Use the FAX print function in windows and Irfanview.

WEB STEPS

1. Download Irfanview (A free Photo Viewer).
2. Set Irfanview as the default viewer for .tif files.
3. Go the page with the Scorch Viewer music you would like to download.
4. Click the Print button.
5. In the printer settings, choose FAX for the printer.
6. When windows asks which you should do, network, or local, hit CANCEL.
7. Hit OK on the error message that follows.

You are now looking at an email style Fax screen. There is an attachment of a .tif file in the attachments section.

IRFANVIEW STEPS

1. Right click on the attachment and open in Irfanview.
2. Hit 'S' on the keyboard.
3. In the dropdown to choose the filetype to save as, choose PDF.
4. Hit SAVE.
5. In the PDF settings window which appeared, select the security tab.
6. Toggle the ACTIVATE SECURITY toggle to off.
7. Hit SAVE.

Viola. In 30 seconds you now have a PDF of your song file.

Enjoy.

Answer 5

There is a way to do that. It works on Windows XP. I have however not been able to get it working on Windows 7 64-bit. As workaround you can use "Windows XP Mode" (virtual Windows XP system) and follow the procedure below.

1. Install PDFCreator of PDFForge
2. Share the newly installed PDFprinter as PDF (or any other name)
3. Link a local printport to this share printer
4. Open a command prompt and execute:
   NET USE LPT1 \\\computername\PDF /persistent:yes
   (PDF is the share name you chose at step 2)
5. Add a new local printer
6. Choose "generic\MS Publisher Color printer" as the model
7. When completed, open the properties and make sure you set the settings as follows:
   • Set port to LPT1
   • On the Advanced tab check if driver is MS Publisher Color
   • On the same tab set option to print directly to printer
   • Change the PRINTPROCESSOR into "WINPRINT / RAW"
8. Click on Apply
9. Go back to the General tab and print a test page
10. PDFCreator should pop up asking you to save the file

In PDFCreator you can set a lot of settings like PDF version, protection and quality (DPI). I prefer to use 600 DPI as quality for printing.