Overview: Perfect Layout, v2.6, macOS/Windows
Perfect Layout v2.6 includes
25 improvements and fixes.
The chronological list of changes in the sub-versions 2.60-2.62 is
available here.
v2.x customers and customers who bought the full version of Perfect Layout v1.x after the
27th of March 2020 are eligible for a
free update.
For all other users the update is available through our
online shop.
Please
read our FAQ on how to install the update, especially on Windows.
Perfect Layout has
user dialogs in English, German, French, Polish and Italian.
A
Spanish and Japanese version are also included, but still in beta state.
We have also updated all
25 Perfect Layout videos:
List of Improvements (until latest version v2.62)
v2.6 includes many processing speed optimizations.
It is the fastest version of Perfect Layout on macOS so far.
Improved:
-Processing speed boost (especially on macOS) for the lyrics alignment if the file includes lots of syllables.
-Faster calculation of expression and text metrics that are repeatedly used in the score
-Many minor processing speed improvements all over the plug-in
-More music font names added.
-macOS installer now asks to close Finale 27 before installation.
-Improved enigma tags optimization in the case of ^font(...)^size(...)^font(...)^size(...).
-Horizontal lyrics metrics for vertical staff spacing are now calculated more precisely.
-Horizontal collisions of expressions with lyrics are now partially taken into account.
-In some cases improved measure number metrics at the start of the system (with enclosures and measure number regions that don't start at measure 1).
-Improved vertical staff/system spacing on parts with only one page and lots of free space.
-Improved placement of enclosed measure numbers at system start.
-Improved placement of wide, enclosed measure numbers at the start of the system in case of clef collisions
-Improved cue text expression placement on two staff piano notation if the top staff is empty.
-Improved lyrics placement on tall uppercase lyrics letters like ÜÄÖÉÈ etc.
-Improved font metrics if a font has kerning tables with multiple sub tables
-Improved Spanish, French, Italian, German and Polish translation
-Improved support for negative baseline, tracking and superscript values in texts
-The "Download Updates" page on the Elbsound.studio website now automatically detects the operating system
-Articulation with tie/slur collision removal now also works with tremolo articulations on whole notes
-Moved "Clear Manual Vertical Lyrics Positioning" to the Alignment tab in the lyrics section. When everything the "Deactivate All" preset is loaded, it's now possible to activate vertical lyrics alignment with one click only.
Fixes:
-In rare cases an error message could occur on stem collisions in measures that also have hidden notes. Fixed now.
-If irrational time signatures are used (e.g. 0.375/1), Perfect Layout doesn't crash anymore. Note: JW Lua can't read these time signatures, so please don't use them. For 0.375/1 write 3/8.
-On the Chords tab a text was visible that had no function yet. The text has been removed.
-In very rare cases Finale could show an error message when calculating the volume of a dynamics. Fixed now.
-In rare cases when an expression used a non-installed font and Finale changed its font value to "Missing Font" instead of the real font name, Perfect Layout had problems in deciphering the expression text. Fixed now.
-If a score had multiple piano instruments and a hairpins between the two piano instruments (below the bottom staff of the top piano and above the top staff of the bottom piano), in some cases these hairpins were centered between the two instruments instead of aligned with the top instruments. Fixed now.
-In rare cases Finale could hang when a certain combination of grace notes, freeze stems and hidden notes was in one measure. Fixed now.
System requirements:
Perfect Layout v3: Finale® 2014, 2014.5, v25, v26, v27 for 64bit Windows 10, 11 or macOS 10.13+ - 14.x (tested until 14.6).
Note 1: PL v3 should also work in Windows 7 and 8 when all the latest Windows updates are installed, but Elbsound.studio doesn't support that.
Note 2: According to some users PL v2 also works in 10.11/10.12, but Elbsound.studio doesn't support that either.
Perfect Layout v2: Finale® 2014, 2014.5, v25, v26, v27 for 64bit Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 or macOS (tested in 10.13 - 12.6, according to some users also working in 10.11/10.12)
Minimum 4 GB RAM, for huge orchestra scores exceeding about 20.000 frame assignments 8-12 GB RAM and Finale® v25, v26 or v27 are required, otherwise the plug-in may run out of memory.
Windows: 250 MB, macOS: 400 MB of free hard drive space (after installation 250 MB), plus space for the font annotation files dependent on the number of fonts that are installed
For the installation/(de-)activation you need a user with administration rights
Internet connection during the installation and update process, and an email address to receive the activation code or an installed email program to request the activation code.
macOS (PL v2.x+) and Windows (PL v3.x+): an internet connection is required during the processing of the plug-in for checking the activation
macOS only: You need to grant access to Finale to use the Terminal app, Image Events and System Events for activating/checking the license, downloading updates, displaying the plug-in's progress bar (optional) and finding out the number of screens for correct coordinates.
macOS only: The macOS standard tool "sudo" is used for some system calls. You may need to disable sudo plug-ins, if they cause problems with Perfect Layout's sudo calls.
Windows only: Powershell, WMIC, cmd and curl must be installed (it is installed by default on Windows unless the user has removed it manually)
macOS only: The macOS Bash system must be available together with the tools curl, defaults, sudo, echo and osascript. They are available in macOS by default.
The faster the processor speed, the faster the plug-in (see this comparison). The plug-in is single-threaded, so multiple cores do not speed up the processing.
Data Privacy: For the activation and license validation of the software some data will be stored on our servers. For more info read Data Privacy at Elbsound.studio and the EULA
