Printing

Under normal circumstances, Finale prints your pages in portrait orientation—with the page taller than it is wide. For some scores, however, you may want the page turned sideways, in landscape orientation. While printing both the score and parts, you may want to use the orientation specified in the Page Format for Score and Page Format for Parts instead of the orientation specified in the Print dialog box. When you lay out your score for legal-size (8.5 by 14-inch) paper, you must choose Legal from the Page Setup dialog box and make sure you’ve created a Finale score with the appropriate dimensions. For more information on page size and format, see Page layout.

Noteman says: In order to use printing functions in Finale, the program must be authorized or still within the trial period on the computer that you are printing from.

  1. Choose File > Page Setup. Your computer's Page Setup dialog appears. Click Letter or Legal to specify the paper size. Specify the orientation by clicking Portrait or Landscape.
  2. Make sure your page layout matches the paper size and orientation you’ve just specified (unless Use Finale’s Page Orientation Instead of Printer’s Page Orientation is checked in the Preferences - Save and Print dialog box, in which case the printer’s orientation is ignored).
  3. Click OK (or press RETURN). If you’re in Page View, go to page 1.
  4. Choose Utilities > Update Layout. By choosing Update Layout, you’re reformatting the music so that no measures are unnecessarily wide or narrow.
  5. Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears letting you specify the range of pages to print. If you only want the first page to print, type 1 in both the From and To boxes.
  6. Click OK (or press RETURN). The printer should begin to print in a few moments.
  7. To cancel printing, press COMMAND+period (.). Because the computer sends data to the printer faster than the printer can process it, there will be a momentary pause before the computer and printer stop printing.

See Printing linked parts.

Follow these steps to print marching band parts formatted to print two pages per 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, stacked vertically.

  1. Start your marching band score using the "Marching Band" Document Style or "Marching Band" template.

    If you are working with a score that you did not start one of these two ways, set the part page size to octavo:

    1. Choose Document > Page Format > Parts.
    2. Choose Page Size > Octavo (6.75 x 10.5), set the orientation to Landscape, and click OK.
    3. Choose the Page Layout tool icon and choose Page Layout > Redefine Pages > [the pages and parts you wish to change to octavo] and click OK.
  2. Choose File > Print. Choose the parts you would like to print and the number of copies of each by clicking on the number to the right of each part/score and click OK.
  3. Select 2-up under Layout.
  4. Click Print.
  1. Choose File > Page Setup.
  2. Choose Landscape as the page orientation.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Open the file you want to print, then choose Plug-ins >FinaleScript > FinaleScript Palette. The FinaleScript Palette appears.
  5. Under Misc, double-click Print Booklet. The FinaleScript Editor appears.
  6. Follow the instructions in this script to print your score. For example, if you do not have a printer that is capable of printing on both sides, enter // before print booklet (so FinaleScript will ignore it) and remove the // characters before print booklet recto and print booklet verso.
  7. Click Save and Close and then click the button to print the booklet.

Tip: For a complete tutorial written for beginners through advanced users, see Using FinaleScript.

  1. Choose File > Page Setup.
  2. Choose Landscape as the page orientation.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Check how many pages you have. If the number of pages is not divisible by four (such as 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 etc.), add a blank page to the end of your document. This will allow for staggered printouts (see Blank pages). If you have 4, 8, or 12 (etc.) pages of music, you do not need to add a blank page at the beginning.
  5. Choose File > Print.
  6. Select 2-up printing.
  7. If you want to run the paper through your printer once and then go to a print shop and copy your 1 page originals to front and back, enter the following numbers (including commas) in the Page Range field then click print.
    Number of pages with musicPage numbers to type (blank pages in bold)
    34,1,2,3
    44,1,2,3
    56,5,4,1,2,3
    66,7,7,5,4,1,2,3
    78,1,2,7,6,3,4,5
    88,1,2,7,6,3,4,5
    910,9,8,1,2,7,6,3,4,5
    1010,11,11,9,8,1,2,7,6,3,4,5
    1112,1,2,11,10,3,4,9,8,5,6,7
    1212,1,2,11,10,3,4,9,8,5,6,7
    1314,13,12,1,2,11,10,3,4,9,8,5,6,7
    1414,15,15,13,12,1,2,11,10,3,4,9,8,5,6,7
  8. If you wish to run the paper through your printer twice to have music on both sides of the paper, enter the first row of numbers in the Page Range in the Print Score dialog box.
    Number of pages with musicPage numbers to type for first side (blank pages in bold)Page numbers to type for second side (blank pages in bold)
    34,12,3
    44,12,3
    56,5,4,12,3 (Do not place paper with page 5 in printer second time)
    66,7,4,17,5,2,3
    78,1,6,37,2,4,5
    88,1,6,32,7,4,5
    910,9,8,1,6,32,7,4,5 (Do not place paper with page 9 in printer second time)
    1010,11,8,1,6,311,9,2,7,4,5
    1112,1,10,3,8,52,11,4,9,6,7
    1212,1,10,3,6,72,11,4,9,6,7
    1314,13,12,1,10,3,8,52,11,4,9,6,7 (Do not place paper with page 13 in printer second time)
    1414,15,12,1,10,3,8,515,13,2,11,4,9,6,7
  9. Click Print.
  10. Turn the paper over and place back in the Printer to be printed on.
  11. Enter the second row of numbers in the Page Range in the Print Score dialog box.
  12. Click Print.

Noteman says: There are some known issues with tile printing and certain Mac operating systems. If you are running into problems, visit our Finale Knowledge Base.

If you want to print a full-size score (11 by 17 inches, for example) and don’t have a printer capable of printing on 11 by 17 inch paper, you can use Finale’s tiling pages feature. Finale can automatically tile the pages—in other words, print out several standard-size pages with a portion of the full score page on each, so that you can then tape them together (and, if you wish, photocopy the result onto large single pages).

  1. Set the page size of your score to the proper size using either Document > Page Format for Score or the Page Layout tool icon.
  2. Choose Utilities > Update Layout.
  3. Choose File > Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog box appears.
  4. Choose Portrait for the orientation, Letter for the page size and click OK.
  5. Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears.
  6. Select Tile Pages and specify the page range on which you’ll be printing.

    Some printer drivers will allow you to specify the size of the component pages (Letter or Legal) here. Other printer drivers store this information in the Page Setup dialog box.

  7. Type the amount of overlap you want in the Tile Overlap text box.

    The units are whatever you've selected under Finale > Measurement Units.

  8. Click Print.

Noteman says: You must have a ClosedPostScriptA page-description language that computers and high-resolution printers use to communicate with each other. printer to perform these steps.

  1. Set the page size of your score to the proper size using either Document > Page Format for Score or the Page Layout tool icon.

    When entering the final, taped-together page dimensions, the key is to subtract one inch for each page that will be side-by-side with another. If your score is to be 11 by 16 inches, for example, it will be composed of two letter-size pages taped together. Therefore, set the page height to 10 inches (not 11). For the width, enter 15 inches (remember, you’re subtracting one inch for each page that will be side-by-side). By subtracting one inch from each dimension in this way, you provide for a half-inch margin of overlap on each page, so that the resultant pages will be easier to tape together.

  2. Choose Utilities > Update Layout.
  3. Choose File > Compile PostScript Listing. The Compile PostScript Listing dialog box appears.
  4. Select Tile Pages and specify the page range and the size of the component pages (Letter or Legal) on which you’ll be printing.
    • Select Center Music on Page to center the printed image of the full score page on the taped-together physical page; if you don’t specify this option, the music will appear beginning in the upper-left corner of each full-size page, requiring you to cut off the extra paper on the right and bottom margins, if necessary.
    • Select Include All Fonts in Listing to embed the actual music fonts into the PostScript file. The resulting file will be larger, but you won’t have to worry that your music fonts aren’t installed on the computer that will ultimately be doing the printing.
  5. Click Compile.

To print the resultant compiled file, you’ll need a downloading program such as the LaserWriter Font Utility. For more information, see Encapsulated PostScript (EPS). For best results, have a paper cutter on hand to trim the default quarter-inch margins created by a PostScript printer on each page that you’ll be taping together.