PrimoPDF PDF print driver

[Mark Walsen (markwa)]

A customer reported to me today that he was happy using
a free PDF driver named PrimoPDF from http://www.primopdf.com/
with MidiNotate.

If you try out PrimoPDF, please comment on it here.

Cheers
-- Mark

[Phillip Sear]

I have used Midinotate with PrimoPDF for some time, and it works fine. PrimoPDF is a very reliable product.

Phillip

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Likewise.

[Sebastian Holmes]

Just tested PrimoPDF v3.0. It seems very 'light' in the sense of non-intrusive and ultra intuitive and easy to use, however I was trying to 'print' a short piece of choral stuff - four pages of SATB with a descant staff and the lines on the staves were of uneven weight which made the output look very weird. More specifically (all lines counting from the top of the staff): The fourth line of the Descant staff, the second and third lines of the Soprano staff, the first line of the Alto staff, the fifth line of the Tenor staff and the second and third lines of the Bass staff were all 'very heavy' - difficult to judge but at least double the width of the 'normal' ones. Also roughly 60% of the bar lines were of the same 'heavy' weight. There seems no pattern to it - it is not even concistent between one page and the next and it throws you somewhat.

I shall be looking for another PDF printer. Looking sadly though because apart from this one issue, Primo PDF is one of the best pieces of software that I have used (I'm an ex-Managing Director of a software house). The inconsistent weight of the lines is just too much for me - might be acceptable for others.

[Sebastian Holmes]

Further to my earlier post about PrimoPDF, I repeated the process on the same file but having installed PDFCreator. I experienced exactly the same result. At this point I wondered if it was a screen issue rather than a software issue. Bottom line is, it was. The hard copy is fine and when zoomed into the document in Acrobat at 1200%, the staff lines are completely evenly weighted - they just look horrible on screen at any 'normal' resolution.

There is little to choose between PrimoPDF and PDFCreator at all but for ease of use I think PrimoPDF has the edge - not by a lot but it does. PDFCreator is potentially slightly more powerful and gives you slightly more options at output time but for the vast majority of users I think PrimoPDF would be preferable for its simplicity (without appearing to compromise power).

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Sebastian,

(I just approved your two messages in the queue at the same time, and I'm not sure why they display in reverse order. That's a glitch on our part, not your's.)

Thanks for the excellent review of the two products PrimoPDF and PDFCreator, and for addressing the "weighted lines" issue that others may see as well.

My husband and I are big fans of Consumer's Reports, and your review here fits that format perfectly http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

ttfn,
Sherry

[Mark Walsen (markwa)]

Hello Sebastian,

I do not have a copy of PrimoPDF here to try out, but there is a good chance that the "weighted" (thick) staff line problem can be corrected.

Make sure that the pixel resolution that you specify to be used by the PDF driver is the same as the real pixel resolution used by your real printer.

Don't worry if in Composer's Page View you see uneven thick staff lines. That might happen for reasons that are complicated to explain. If you like to edit the score in Page View rather than Window View, then chose another printer driver than the PDF printer driver during your editing activities. Then, select the PDF printer driver only when you are actually printing to the PDF file.

Please let us know if the above tips help.

Cheers
-- Mark