[lionking]

Hello,
before i start to scan my sheets im interested whats the most recommended file format to use?
The songs normaly only have 1 or 2 pages.

Use PDF or images (png i guess)?

[Zubersoft]

PDF produces smaller file sizes and usually loads quickly (depends on how the PDF was created/optimized). I use PDF for the majority of songs in my library. I would recommend you use PDF for everything unless you encounter a file that loads very slowly, in which case you will have to either optimize the file using a PDF editor or switch to PNG.

Mike

[bumblebee]

I also like PDF because a PDF can have multiple pages which is how I prepare them before importing into MS. This way if I need to email to anyone, use on my computer etc. all the pages are together in one file. I can add lyrics for the last page, a notation version, transposed versions, chord page etc. so everything is there for a band.

[lionking]

Today i tested to use different ways to build the PDF´s.
My first step was scanning the score and then convert it to PDF.
Minimum resolution for a good quality is 600 dpi i guess.
But its important not to have a big filesize.
My filesize of a small page (DIN A5) has about 70 kB and my tablet needs about 2 seconds to load the score. Until now i didnt test with a multiple page document, but i guess its getting very slow.
Is there a better way to generate the PDF´s?
Maybe use a lower resolution, or other pagesize for the PDF?

[bumblebee]

Most people are happy with 150-200dpi, although if you have a 13 inch tablet you might want to run some tests around 200+.
600 is too high I think.
I often scan at about 300 and keep those files. Then downsize to 150 or 200 and use those. This way, I have enough resolution for any tablet in the future (hi-res screens, size etc.) because I will not have to scan from the books again (I can either batch process the original files or just use those).
Yes you are right, the bigger the file, the longer it will take to load.

Also crop out the white margins to save file size (unless you need the page numbers as reference) although you could add the page numbers back in where necessary using annotations in MS or Acrobat (or similar) somewhere after you have cropped.

[lionking]

I tried 200dpi now. Its not this clear but readable.
Specially the lines are not perfect in this resolution.
But its a very small filesize now.
I will do some further tests with other resolution if i have more time.

[bumblebee]

hmm that is interesting. This could be a few things, here are a few:
It could be the scanner (is it old? new?) Perhaps try scanning at 600 then using computer to downsample to 200 instead of scanning at 200 initially.

If it is colored stave lines (although looking black or dark) it could need de-screening (otherwise it can end up scanning fuzzy.) There should be a de-screening setting in the scanning software. If it is just a black ink page it should be ok.

If it is a small size, (as you see it on the page) then check the settings on the scanner software to scale it up and also set the dpi. It should do this well automatically, but you could do some tests with different settings.

The scanning software might have a sharpening function you can use. Play around with that. This will take out blur. It is usually a setting where you can change the amount of sharpening.

It sounds like you do not have much time to play around with all this, but once you have it figured out, it will be much easier to get the results you want. Post back here with any more queries and hopefully someone can help you further.

[lionking]

Today i did a quick test with a scanner at work. Seems like this machine does a better compression to the scans. A scan at 300 dpi does not look this good as a scan of 400dpi with my homescanner, but i can can generate smaller PDF.
And i think with 4.1.1 the rendering issue got fixed, wich allows to open the files in a moment. Before i needed up to 5 seconds to open a score.

[gman]

As a work around I started using jpegs for multiple images. No issues. Another trick is to save screen shots of lyrics or anything for fast production. This makes ms compatible with any graphic you can display. With minor cropping this works well. Sometimes on a break I look up lyrics do screen shot or look up chords in ireal for immediate song creation. Band in a Box is able to generate graphics saved to Dropbox direct to ms. This is my standard mode.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 4

[lionking]

A next issue of my sheets is, that i use the half page view in landscape mode. So it happens, that a line is exact at the half, so it is not displayed completely in top or bottom half of the page.
How do others handle this?

[Marshland]

Are you not scanning in black and white? Reduces file sizes and improves contrast considerably. If not, any existing scans are easily converted to 2-colours of course.

[lionking]

Of course i unse b/w for scans. In 4.1.1 the rendering is much faster than in 4.1, so i guess the filesize is not a problem any more. I also changed to 300 dpi, wich helped a lot.
Only the half page issue is still there, but as i know now, it will be fixed in v5.0.0.
I hope it will release soon.

[tjrob]

I use a book-edge scanner at the library. It goes MUCH faster than the HP printer-scanner-copier I have at home, and can scan to the center of the book. I have scanned hundreds of pieces, and one vocal score of 203 pages.

I scan to PDF in grayscale, high quality. The result looks great on my 13" tablet. On this scanner, black-and-white makes every noise speck be a solid black spot, which is visually distracting.

I also download PDFs from the Internet. Some of the larger ones (e.g. 116 pages) load slowly (3-5 seconds for the first page or two, after playing a page it's fine).