MakeMusic Finale Bracket Bug
	MakeMusic Finale 2000..2006 Bracket Printing Jaggie Bug

The Finale 2000..2006 Bracket Printing Bug

It is rare to find a long-term fault in a major software product, a defect that survives through four main releases and half a dozen intermediate updates, despite detailed bug reports, printouts and other evidence. But just such has happened in MakeMusic's Finale program, billed by its authors as "The World's Best Sellings Music Notation Software".

Way back in 1999, when Finale 2000 was first released, it quickly became apparent that every printed page of every score was likely to be marred by one or more ugly "jaggies", on one or both sides of most of the "Group Brackets" that link instruments of a given type. The effect is to thicken these brackets, about half way down towards the bottom.

This problem never existed in earlier versions of Finale (97 and 98, for example), so must have been introduced during the preparation of Finale 2000 itself.

The Finale 200x Bracket Printing Bug

The close-up image on the left shows the jaggie clearly: about half way down most group brackets on any given page, one or both sides grows in thickness by exactly one pixel. The coarser the print or display resolution, the more apparent the problem, but on standard output to a typical inkjet printer, such as the HP Deskjet 1220C, it is clearly visible on paper, ruining the appearance of any score.

Please help persuade MakeMusic to fix it!

Despite literally dozens of emails sent over the past four years, with simple instructions on how to show the bug, together with screen shots and even scanned printouts, the techs at MakeMusic claimed variously that this problem did not even exist, or that it must be "my computer setup", and, of course, that "No-one else had ever complained".

However, this bug has been demonstrated clearly on 5 different computers (various Compaq & HP desktops and laptops), using 5 versions of Windows (95, 98, 98SE, NT4, 2000), and 4 different print drivers (PostScript, HP DeskJet Plus, HP DeskJet 1220C, Adobe PDFwriter). So it cannot just be "my computer setup", and must have been noted by others!

Please help get MakeMusic to fix this: it seems that more than one voice needs to be heard. If you have Finale 2000..2006 (or the demo version), just try the following:

1. Start Finale, and get into the document setup wizard
2. Click [Next>] to ignore title/composer/copyright screen
3. Select "Piccolo" and "Flute", then click [Next>]
4. Click [Next>] to time and ignore signature screen
5. Click [Finish] to ignore tempo, pickup and font screen
6. Click [Next>] to skip first screen
7. Select the "View/Show PostScript Preview" menu item
8. SEE THE BUG RIGHT ON SCREEN, AS SHOWN BELOW...

Finale 2006 in PostScript Preview

You may need to try different zoom levels to see the jaggie if it doesn't show first time, but you will see it eventually.

Also try printing, and inspect the result closely: below is a 300dpi scan of actual output from the Finale 2003 Demo onto an HP DeskJet 1220C printer, and the jaggie is clearly visible!

Finale 2003 Printed to HP DeskJet 1220C

Check out this Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file, which was created by printing from the Finale 2003 Demo to the Adobe Acrobat 4.0 PDFwriter, for further evidence!

Please get in touch!

If you've tried the instructions above, and seen the jaggie, either on screen or printout, please send a brief email to finalebug@brian.cix.co.uk with a little info about your setup (make of computer & printer, versions of Finale & Windows, etc). Once I've got a few more people on board, I might be able to persuade MakeMusic to fix this in time for Finale 2007, rather than waste their time designing more 3D toolbars and textured backgrounds!

To contact Brian, please see his home page!