Help pages "Downloading and printing files"
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:51 pm
Just posted this on "help...discussion" but it seems to be easily overlooked there (not shown in the recent discussions menu as far as I can tell) so I post it here as well:
Completely missing from the help pages is any description how to download and print pdf files, for new users of imslp. After recently hearing "have never been able to download anything" or "pages come out like a small postcard in the middle of a page" or "on every page something is cut-off" I attempt here a first draft of such a section:
Downloading files from a workpage: If you point your mouse over the file description on the left, the arrow next to it will turn yellow. Click on the file description or the yellow arrow - and the file will open in your browser. For items on the EU-, US-, or Canadian server only a disclaimer page will initially open where you have to agree that you are legally entitled to download.
Better: right-click (PC) or option-click (Mac) and save the file on your hd. This allows you to choose a program to open the file and may circumvent many problems in the browser window. Incomplete files (especially in MS explorer): If a file is repeatedly truncated, clear the browser cache.
Printing: Files on imslp are collected from many different sources. You have to take account of this to obtain the best results. For greatest compatibility, use a recent version of the free "Adobe Reader" to open the files.
a) Most foolproof way to print: Make sure, in the Adobe Reader Print menu "fit to printable area" has been chosen. This will avoid cut-off from the margins but on some scans with already large margins, the margins will now be even larger and the printed music even smaller.
b) to increase the printed area on such files, you can select "none" instead of "fit to printable area" and also select "Auto-rotate and center". Now the size control is in the page set-up menu: You can try to set print size for example to 90%, then return to the print menu and check if margins are correct and nothing is cut-off. This works for many files of the orchestra-parts project. Some library scans are pdf's converted from 72dpi jpg's with hugely inflated page sizes - for these you have to try much smaller print sizes.
c) Use an image-processing software (Photoshop, Gimp or similar) to crop pages to the margin you like (this will require a lot of time).
Editing and comments welcome
Completely missing from the help pages is any description how to download and print pdf files, for new users of imslp. After recently hearing "have never been able to download anything" or "pages come out like a small postcard in the middle of a page" or "on every page something is cut-off" I attempt here a first draft of such a section:
Downloading files from a workpage: If you point your mouse over the file description on the left, the arrow next to it will turn yellow. Click on the file description or the yellow arrow - and the file will open in your browser. For items on the EU-, US-, or Canadian server only a disclaimer page will initially open where you have to agree that you are legally entitled to download.
Better: right-click (PC) or option-click (Mac) and save the file on your hd. This allows you to choose a program to open the file and may circumvent many problems in the browser window. Incomplete files (especially in MS explorer): If a file is repeatedly truncated, clear the browser cache.
Printing: Files on imslp are collected from many different sources. You have to take account of this to obtain the best results. For greatest compatibility, use a recent version of the free "Adobe Reader" to open the files.
a) Most foolproof way to print: Make sure, in the Adobe Reader Print menu "fit to printable area" has been chosen. This will avoid cut-off from the margins but on some scans with already large margins, the margins will now be even larger and the printed music even smaller.
b) to increase the printed area on such files, you can select "none" instead of "fit to printable area" and also select "Auto-rotate and center". Now the size control is in the page set-up menu: You can try to set print size for example to 90%, then return to the print menu and check if margins are correct and nothing is cut-off. This works for many files of the orchestra-parts project. Some library scans are pdf's converted from 72dpi jpg's with hugely inflated page sizes - for these you have to try much smaller print sizes.
c) Use an image-processing software (Photoshop, Gimp or similar) to crop pages to the margin you like (this will require a lot of time).
Editing and comments welcome