Overview: Perfect Layout, v4.0019 (beta), macOS/Windows

Perfect Layout v4.0 includes more than 210 new features and improvements.
The chronological list of changes in the sub-versions 4.x is available here.

Perfect Layout (beta) v4 is available for free testing to all users with
a full version 3 license until the official release of v4.
Users with a version 2 license (which includes beta 3.0) need to purchase the update to version 3 first. Then they can also access the beta 4 for testing.
Beta version 3 is not available anymore for download.

Although Perfect Layout v4.x (beta) has been thoroughly tested and passed all our tests, it is still a beta version and unknown problems might come up. We therefore recommend using a before-and-after comparison as described here and to always save your document before applying the plug-in.

What is new?

Four demo videos:

1. Instant Orchestra Score Perfection in Finale 2014 - 27
2. Example of a Linked Part
3. Enhanced Score Layout
4. Perfect Layout on an M4 Pro with Sequoia


Video: Example of a linked part with Perfect Layout 4

Image 1: Example of another linked part with the default settings of Perfect Layout v4.0019.
This is the "one-click result" - no manual adjustments were made.

A separate system and staff spacing plug-in:
ES System Layout!

Optimize your existing score with ease:
the new ES System Layout plug-in brings the powerful staff and measure layout features of Perfect Layout into one single-tab dialog.
It comes with a separate installer and can be applied to the score, to a single part, or to the score and all parts.
Since it uses the same code base as Perfect Layout, it has the same version number.


User Dialog of ES System Layout 4.0

System/Staff Spacing

-The main new feature of Perfect Layout v4.0 is a new system layout algorithm ("Prefer Identical Staff Distances").
It is the default selection in Perfect Layout for all scores with more or less the same number of staves per page.
If the number of staves differs a lot, then the old system layout algorithm is chosen automatically ("Prefer Flexible Staff Distances").
The algorithm can be selected manually in Systems->Layout Style of Score.

Image 2: Layout style of score: Auto-selection by default

The new score layout algorithm tries to find a good average staff distance that can be the same on all pages and on all staves of a group of instruments without any collisions. Minor deviations are possible if collisions still occur on some pages.
It is a bit more time-consuming than the original algorithm from Perfect Layout v3.x. But it results in a significantly better visual impression, especially when the number of staves on each page is almost the same.

The third algorithm ("Optimize System Distances Only, and Keep Staff Distances if Possible") retains the original staff layout and only optimizes the note spacing where collisions occur.
This algorithm is only recommended if the staff layout is already very good before applying Perfect Layout.
In most cases, the new "Prefer Identical Staff Distances" produces better results than this third option.

Example 1:

Image 3: Example score before and after Perfect Layout 4 (PDF with higher resolution: browse backwards and forwards)
Even on the densest page in the score (third page from the left), Perfect Layout matches the system layout as closely as possible to that of the adjacent pages.

Example 2:
Download example pages from a demo score layout with all three algorithms plus a 5 minute real-time video where these examples pages are generated:
Finale's default look (same distances between all staves): Download
Option 1: "Prefer Identical Staff Distances on all Pages" (New default in PL4.0): Download
Option 2: "Prefer Flexible Staff Distances" (Old default in PL3.0): Download
Option 3: "Optimize System Distances Only, and Keep Staff Distances if Possible: Download

Here is an external video on Youtube that shows the new staff system layout feature and the making of these four PDF example files.
Video: The new staff system layout feature in Perfect Layout 4

-New option "On the First Page of a Score with two Systems, add Empty Space to Below Second Staff System":
if there is more than 450 EVPU of free space on the first score page, at least 3 staves and a maxium of 11 staves per staff system, then the free space will be split: half of if will be put after the top system, the other half below the bottom system. This results in a better visual balance on medium-sized staff systems than putting it all between the two systems.
This only affects the first page of the score, and only if the other pages of the score have more than two systems.

Image 4: Extra space between two systems on the first page

More improvements on staff system layout:
-Improved staff system layout if the bottom staff of the score is fully invisible through a staff style, not used in a linked part and the score uses Finale's pick-up feature.
-Improved staff system layout if a staff system is totally invisible.
-In some cases improved staff distances on glissando smartshapes and on cross staff notes in two-staff group (e.g. piano) notation.
-More consistent vertical staff alignment on the last score page with the previous pages, if the previous pages have several staff systems, but the last page only has one staff system which doesn't fill the whole page (same with staff systems on first page).
-Improved staff system spacing on linked parts, if there are only very few staff systems plus a coda staff system.
-Improved linked part layout: attempting to fit the staff systems more efficiently onto fewer pages.
-If the bottom staff of a uses the "cutaway" staff style and the Finale measure reflow settings allow "Reflow Systems Across Pages", then a page update is performed on the score before running the plug-in. In some cases, this improves the metrics calculation and system layout. If possible, avoid the "cutaway" staff style on bottom staves: because of the large white space at the bottom, it makes the bottom spacing of a staff system much more difficult, both manually and for Perfect Layout.
-If "Systems->Optimize System Distances Only and Keep Staff Distances" was selected and the bottom staff was close (<400 EVPU) to the page bottom margin, then the staff systems would be spread to the bottom margin of the page, even if "Force Spread to Bottom Margin" was not activated. Now the max. distance was reduced to 50 EVPU. On larger distances the staff system will only be spread to the bottom margin, if "Force Spread to Bottom Margin" was activated.
-If "Systems->Force Spread to Page Bottom Margin" was activated before starting the plug-in, three disabled fields on the systems tab would show wrong values. However, the plug-in still worked fine. Fixed now.
-Improved system distribution on two page parts and on the last two pages of a multi-page part
-In some cases slightly improved vertical distances between staff systems on linked parts: some distance parameters were fine-tuned.
-In some cases improved system layout when both the first and the bottom staff are invisible
-Improved staff system layout on 2-page parts with only only 3 or 4 staves on the second page
-Increased vertical staff distances between two close staves if the bottom staff has dynamics above the staff, to not make the dynamic look like it belongs to the top staff.
-The option "Systems->Distribute Single Staff Systems Evenly Over Last Two Pages if at Least (5) Systems on Last Page" will be overridden with 4 or 3 systems, when there are at least 12 or 13 systems on the previous page, which means a total of 16 systems.
-In some cases improved auto-detection for staff system layout algorithm when "Always Hide Empty Staves in Parts" is selected and the part has many staves to hide
-In some cases slighty improved vertical staff spacing between one line percussion staves at the end of a group and the next staff.
-Renamed "Optimize Page Breaks" to "Optimize Page Turns" to make it more clear
-If "Reflow Systems Across Pages" is deactivated and only one staff system doesn't fit on the page, Perfect Layout now tries to fit that system on the page too.

Cues

-Many new cue note features that especially improve the placement of rests and stem direction in cue note measures. Details will follow...
-Automatic flipping of slurs and ties on cue notes
-If a cue note section spans several cue instruments and several bars,separated by instrument names as text expressions in the "Cue" expression category, then the whole rest placement (above or below) and the stem direction will be decided individually on each bar of that cue note section.

(Many thanks to Csaba Puskás for permission to display the score!)

Image 5: Cue notes in a linked part before and after Perfect Layout 4.0 using its default settings (higher resolution)
"Default settings" means: this is the direct output of PL v4.0015 without changing any of its options. Everything done automatically.

Automatic Measure Layout

Perfect Layout v4.x now includes several optimizations of the measure layout, especially minor shifts of 1 or 2 bars to the previous or next system, if this makes sense and the spacing is not too dense.

Here is an external example video on Youtube and PDFs from a score and its parts to compare before and after Perfect Layout.

In detail:
-Improved measure layout on parts: remaining single bar systems are shifted to the previous system (if possible).
-Improved shifting of single measures to the next/previous staff system for better music spacing, if the linked part has mixed one staff and two staff systems
-Improved detection for avoiding a single staff system on the last page of a part
-Improved avoidance of a single staff system on the last page of a part
-Improved measure layout if the final syllable on a long note is the first bar of a system. If possible, it will be shifted to the end of the previous system.
-If the last staff system of a part or the last staff system before the coda system or the last staff system before a new movement starts contains only two measures (or one bar and a multi-measure rest), then PL tries to shift two measures to the previous system, and one measure from the previous system to the system before. In most cases this works. In few cases PL doesn't shift, for example, if rehearsal marks are the beginning of a system.

-Gold only: Two new options on Systems tab: "Allow a Single MM Rest System to be Shifted to Previous System" and "Allow Only on Very Last System".
When a staff system on a linked part consists of a single multi-measure rest only, it will be shifted to the previous system, if this option is activated, Finale's "Measure Reflow" is set to allow reflow across systems, there is sufficient space on the previous and the overall spacing density of all staff systems will not be changed.
The sub-option "Allow Only on Very Last System" is useful, when this is only applicable to the very last staff system. All other staff systems in between remain as they are.
These options are activated by default (also in Silver).

Image 6: "Allow a Single MM Rest System to be Shifted to Previous System" & "Allow Only on Very Last System"

Music Spacing

-In some cases improved slash measure spacing on staff systems with chords
-Improved music spacing on multi-measure rests in m.1 on wide text expressions that collide with a tempo/rehearsal mark expression after the multi-measure rest
-Improved music spacing when only a small region of measures is selected in the document
-In some cases improved music spacing, if short hairpins are attached to the identical start and end position in a measure. (If possible, avoid this: always attach the start and end of hairpin where it actually should appear visually. Avoid ambiguous placement by using the same start and end point.)
-In some cases improved music spacing in linked parts on two layer cue notes including lyrics
-If only a small region (at least one bar and two staves) is selected on a score page, and the score page has more than 6 subsequent measures, then the music spacing is improved in some cases.

Staff Names

-"Hide group names" and "Hide staff names" are now only done when PL is applied to the full document.
-New option: "Reset/Hide->Hide Staff Names in Parts with only one Staff" (in PL Gold only, in PL Silver activated by default). It hides the staff names when a page text element is visible that includes the staff / part name. This feature is especially useful in two cases:
1.) If you revise an old Finale document where the "Show Staff Name" feature was still activated for each part. Just add a page text with "Page Text->Insert->Part/Score Name" and PL will hide the staff name in all linked parts.
2.) If you have linked parts with both single and multiple staff systems, e.g. a part "Vocal 1" and a part "All Vocals + Piano", Finale's own "Hide Staff Name" property won't work as it would hide the staff name in both linked parts.
With this feature PL will instead hide the staff name only in the "Vocal 1" part, but not in the "All Vocals" part where the staff name is required to identify all staves. If you need to make the staff name visible again, use Staff->Position Names->Full Staff Name and set it to a visible position.

Staff Hiding

-New option "Allow Hiding Of Empty Piano Staves": The "Hide Empty Staves in Parts" feature can now optionally include two-staff groups (like piano).
This feature is deactivated by default, as it is not very common. The option is currently only accessible by editing the JALAYOUx.ini settings file.

Measure Numbers

-The warning message that measure numbers are missing in the parts is not shown twice anymore.
-The prefix/postfix symbols from a measure number region are taken into account for measure number placement.
-In some cases improved measure number metrics, if "Clear Individual Measure Number Positions and Visibility" is deactivated. However, as measure number regions are often corrupt, it is recommended to have this feature activated.
-If "Automatically Set Measure Number Offsets at Start of System" was activated, then the horizontal and vertical offsets in the user dialog sometimes showed wrong values, although they were used correctly in the processing of the plug-in.
-Easier handling of the horizontal and vertical offset of measure numbers at system start
-Improved placement of measure numbers over chorus brackets on groups with single staff systems

Staff Attributes

-Support for 2 or 3 individually hidden staff lines on a 5-line staff system. If only the outer staff lines are visible on a 5-line staff, and some of the inner staff lines are hidden, then this is now handled as a 5-line staff, because the outer borders are the same. -Improved collision removal on irregular barlines (above or below the staff lines)

Lyrics

-Lyrics on low cue notes are shifted slightly closer to the notes (6 EVPU) to avoid very low entries on that staff ("MoveLyricsOnCueNotesCloserToNotes" in the settings file)
-In some cases improved lyrics metrics (if the lyrics are hidden in the score with a staff style that does nothing, but hiding the lyrics)
-Improved detection of vocal staves, if there are only 1 or 2 syllables and most notes have a word extension, but no lyric.

Piano/Organ Notation

-Improved dynamic placement on piano notation if there are several layers on the top staff with the lowest note stem down, but the main note is stem up and aligns with the other staff. In this case the dynamic will be assigned to the lowest note layer (in order to not collide with the stem), but horizontally centered to the main note.
-In some cases improved collision handling on two staff groups (e.g. piano, harp) where the bottom staff is completely empty and "Bypass Empty Staves" is activated in the Perfect Layout options.
-On scores with two staff groups (e.g. piano staves), the "Document Options->Stems->Reverse Stem Adjust" value is increased to 240 EVPU (216 EVPU is the Finale default). This will avoid unwanted flipped beams in cross staff piano notation, if the distance between the piano staves changes. If necessary, this value has to be increased further before starting Perfect Layout.
This option will only be updated, if Perfect Layout is applied to the full document.

Accidentals

-Partial support for improved horizontal accidental distances on chords three accidentals (previous versions only supported two accidentals) -Improved accidental metrics on chord clusters with several accidentals

Image 7: Examples of new accidental corrections in PL4

-Improved horizontal alignment of multiple accidentals on staves where "Ignore Key Signature" and "Transpose Chromatic" are activated.

Chords

-"Chords->Show Chords in Score Only on Staff" now correctly loads the last saved setting when the last item of the pop-up dialog was selected.

Image 8: Option "Show Chords in Score Only on Staff X"

-If only partial regions of a staff system are selected, then the chords in the unselected area until the end of the selected staff system are not aligned anymore.
-In some cases improved chord metrics on multi-staff linked parts when "Chords->Show Chords in Score Only on Staff" is activated
-New tag "CHORDREPEAT" for centered chord repeat expressions. If PL detects this expression, it will shift the expression together with the chord baseline on that staff system.

Image 9: Add the CHORDREPEAT tag to an expression definition

Image 10: Align the repeat expressions together with chords

Hairpins

-No vertical connection of hairpins with dynamics when the hairpin is below the staff and the dynamics is upon the 5 staff lines in the upper half
-Improved alignment of hairpins that end with a dynamic after beat 1 and where a repeat bracket occurs in the previous bar.
-Improved handling of invalid hairpins that start before the final bar of the score and that end after the final bar.
-In some cases improved alignment of hairpins that end between measure position 0 and 560 EDU on very long notes.

Niente Hairpins

-Support for niente expressions that are attached to the identical measure position as dynamic expressions
-Optimized the opaque background size of niente expressions
-Improved placement of visible hairpins attached to invisible niente expressions
-Improved placement of (visible) niente expressions, if there are invisible niente expressions at the same measure position

Slurs

-The slur collision algorithm was completely rewritten in Perfect Layout 4. This results in significantly improved slur metrics and thus better collision removal on slur collisions.
It mainly affects more complex slurs, like in dense scenarios or on slur collisions with stems or accidentals.
-Improved metrics on some extreme slurs
-Improved up/down slur detection on unusual slur placement settings (especially on old files from the 90s)
-In some cases improved metrics of slur endpoints
-Improved slur direction detection on unusual slur placement settings
-In some cases improved slur metrics (especially on unusual "Slur Shape Placement" values) -Improved function for retrieving a slur to a given note entry
-Improved slur metrics on system break, if the first note on the second system starts with a natural or sharp accidental
-Improved handling of corrupt slurs which end beyond the last visible measure
-Finale 2014/2014.5/25 only: improved slur metrics on notes with inside slur articulations
-Improved slur support for modified dotted notes, where the dot is made invisible by moving it behind the visible page section.

Other Smartshapes

-In some cases improved metrics of trill smartshapes
-In some cases improved placement of trill smartshapes that end on beat 1
-Improved placement of glissando/tab slide smartshapes that are attached to invisible rests instead of the visible note before.

Ties

-In some cases improved metrics on open ties.
-Improved detection of false "Open Ties" on non-l.v. instruments
-Improved detection of fake ties (=slurs used instead of ties) on clusters with two notes and multiple layers

Articulations

-Partial support for vertical collisions with arpeggio articulations (i.e. collisions below or above an arpeggio articulation). However, not all cases are handled yet.
-Improved vertical collision removal of fermata and caesura/breath mark articulations on rests
-Arpeggios on two-staff groups (e.g. piano notation) that span two staves are not taken into account for collisions with hairpins between the two staves
-In some cases improved placement of arpeggio articulations that span two staves

Image 11: Arpeggio over two staves
-In some cases improved placement of arpeggio articulations after grace notes
-Improved placement of arpeggio articulations on some multi-layer scenarios

Image 12: Arpeggio improvements on multi-layer scenarios

-Vertical collisions of fermata and caesura/breath mark articulations are now corrected, if the corresponding note has an additional articulation or if the corresponding note is a rest.
-The option "Fix Caesura Placement After Barline" now also includes fermata articulations after the barline that are often above caesuras or breath marks

Image 13: Improved fermata/caesura placement

-Pedal articulations are not reset anymore on two staff groups when assigned to the top staff, but placed below the bottom staff
-Improved detection of combined "trill plus accidental" articulations
-In the case of collisions between two articulations and a tuplet where one articulation is placed above and one below the note, only the articulation that actually collides with the tuplet is now taken into account for the collision distance.
-Improved metric calculation of up/down bow shape articulations which leads to improved collision removal between staves
-Gold only: If the feature "Artics.->Shift Articulations on Rhythmic/Slash Notation Above Staff" is deactivated, all articulations now remain below the staff on slash notation, even if other articulations in that bar are above the staff. However, it's recommended to have this feature activated for a uniform look.

Image 14: Option "Shift Articulations on Rhythmic/Slash Notation Above Staff"

-Gold only: the old feature "Fix Caesura Placement After Barline" can now be deactivated. However, it's activated by default on Silver and Gold. Deactivating this feature only makes sense if the articulation placement of the caesuras is very corrupt in the original score.
The feature shifts caesura articulations that were accidentally placed or shifted slightly behind the barline to shortly before the barline.

Image 15: Option "Fix Caesura Placement After Barline"

-The feature "Shift Fermatas on the Bottom Staff of Two-Staff Groups Below the Staff" now also works when the plug-in is applied to an extracted part.
-The feature "Shift Fermatas on the Bottom Staff of Two-Staff Groups Below the Staff" is not applied anymore to fermatas on rests.

Image 16: Option: "Shift Fermatas on Bottom Staff of Two-Staff Groups Below the Staff"

-Gold only: "Articulations->Allow Fingerings to Overlap with Note Stems by x EVPU" (24 EVPU by default). This feature shifts fingering articulations on the stem-side closer to the note, unless the note is beamed. Is is deactivated by default, but will be activated when the "Tight Spacing" preset is loaded.

Image 17: Option: "Allow Fingering to Overlap with Note Stems"

A new preset:
Process Hairpins and Dynamics Only

With this new preset, you can easily process the dynamics and hairpin alignment only.
Expressive text expressions attached to the dynamics are also aligned.
If a hairpin requires more horizontal space, for example in order to fit between two dynamics, minor music re-spacing is also performed. This preset is currently only available in Perfect Layout Gold.
While this feature gives the most versatile hairpin and dynamics alignment available for Finale, it has two drawbacks compared to the full feature set of Perfect Layout 4.0:

Note 1: This preset only processes dynamic (and some expressive text) expressions. You must therefore fire ensure that the below staff expression baseline is set correctly before you run Perfect Layout.
In the full feature set of Perfect Layout, on the other hand, the expression baseline is optimized automatically for all expressions. However, it is not possible to optimize it for dynamics only without changing the placement of the other expressions.

Note 2: you will get a warning message if you try this preset on a document that was imported through MusicXML.
In this case, it is strongly recommended to run the full Perfect Layout first, in order to update the placement and settings of all expressions first. Otherwise you might get inconsistencies.

Expressions

-Added a new expression tag "IGNORE": if assigned to the description text of the expression, then the expression will be ignored for collisions, remain at its position and also be ignored for staff/system alignment. This is useful if you have large rehearsal marks that may otherwise interfere with the system/staff alignment over all pages.
-The "Hide Expression in Score" feature now requires ALL "Hide Expression" keywords in the category name, not only one from the list. This is to make sure that a category name doesn't include one of these words by accident.
-Improved alignment of text expressions at the end of a system that overlap with courtesy key signatures

Dynamics and Expressive Text Expressions

-In some cases of multiple expressions above and below the staff and multiple note layers on the same beat, a dynamic expression below the staff will get an improved placement.
-Impoved horizontal placement of dynamics in linked parts, if the dynamic in the score has a high horizontal offset value under a long note value and the dynamic in the part has a 0-offset, and at the same time the measure widths are quite different in score and part (at least 25%).
-Improved detection of when to shift dynamics on very low notes before the note
-Improved detection of connected/non-connected dynamics and expressive text expressions that are slightly further apart (between 60 and 100 EVPU)
-A dynamic that starts on the second note in the first bar close to the first note is shifted to the first note, if there is no other dynamic or hairpin.
-Improved alignment of very wide dynamic expression that collide with an accidental two notes later (e.g. "mf cresc.")
-Improved alignment of expressive text expressions connected with dynamics, if only the expressive text expression collides with an accidental

Measure Counting Expressions

-Measure counting expressions are now applied separately for score and linked parts, which allow different counting dependendent on the (independent) staff styles used.
-If "Counting->Hide Measure Counting in First Measure" is deactivated (which it is by default), it now shows the measure counting in more first measures of the counting sequence.
-Improved visibility of measure range expressions on slash staff styles on the first bar of a measure counting sequence.
-Improved drum pattern recognition for measure counting expressions on 2/4 bars.
-Improved support for slash measure counting for conga and bongo drums
-Improved detection of old measure counting expressions that will be automatically removed when new measure counting expressions with a differenct counting sequence are added

Technique Text Expressions

-Slightly increased tolerances for shifting expressions to the left on articulation collisions
-Improved vertical collision removal on technique text expressions with enclosures

Other Expressions

-Improved metrics of "5-staff line" expressions for clef changes on 1-line staves on bars with no other expressions.
-Improved collision removal on small pedal expressions (e.g. "P" instead of "Ped.")
-Better support for expressions that only include brackets and space symbols, e.g. to put chords in brackets by using bracket expressions.
However, it's not recommended to use bracket only expressions on other symbols. If possible, use only one type of tool for the brackets and the main symbol.

Tempo/Rehearsal Mark Expressions

-Improved collision detection on tempo alterations at the end of a bar that collide with a rehearsal letter in the next bar.
-In some cases improved placement of tempo marks at the beginning of a new staff system.
-Improved collision removal of tempo and rehearsal marks (more horizontal shifts added).
-Improved collision removal of rehearsal marks with notes and articulations from the beginning of the previous measure
-Improved detection of collisions of short tempo expressions attached to whole rests that are centered in the bar above the staff. When the placement "Above Entry" is selected in the expression definition, it's likely that Finale places the expressions higher than necessary.
-Improved horizontal collision removal on rehearsal marks with enclosures on measures with key changes
-Improved support for more complex rehearsal letters in brackets and/or with several letters and numbers
-Improved collision removal in some cases of rehearsal marks over backward tied notes
-Improved distances on rehearsal letters on repeat brackets with wing styles
-Improved support for rehearsal marks in brackets (like the ones from the "JW Rehearsal" fonts)
-In some cases improved placement of rehearsal marks above other text expressions, especially if the other text expression was moved towards the staff through Perfect Layout.

(Many thanks to Csaba Puskás for permission to display the scores!)

Image 18: Tempo and rehearsal marks before and after Perfect Layout 4.0 using its default settings (higher resolution)
"Default settings" means: this is the direct output of PL v4.0015 without changing any of its options. Everything done automatically.

Enclosures

-Improved metrics on some some enclosures with negative margins.

Page Texts

-System dividers (as page text elements) are not adjusted anymore when staff sytem layout optimization is deactivated
-Improved detection of copyright texts at the bottom of the first page in more languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian)

Tuplets

-Reduced the default distance on tuplet number collisions with articulations to 10 EVPU (used to be 13 EVPU).
-Improved tuplet bracket placement on cross staff tuplet brackets, if the tuplet bracket is set to "Manual" placement and the "Engraver Tuplet" option is not activated in Finale's tuplet settings and "Optimize Tuplet Settings" is activated in Perfect Layout.

Multi-Measure Rests

-Improved creation of multi-measure rests on hidden time signatures

Repeats

-Improved alignment of text repeat symbols in some cases, if they are set to "All Staves" and the top staff of a linked part has "Ending & Text Repeats" deactivated in the staff attributes dialog.
-Improved detection of whether repeat texts are to be aligned with the barline: if ambigious, also the placement in other linked parts is taken into account.
-Text repeats above chords get a better vertical placement if the chords are shifted because of a vertical collision.
-More keywords are supported for text repeats that are usually placed above the staff. (e.g. End, Fine, Fin, Ende, Ad lib, To, Zu, D.S., DC, etc.)
-In some cases improved placement of texts in ending repeat brackets

Coda

-Improved detection of coda systems, which is necessary to slightly shift the systems down compared to the average system distance.

Notes

-Better support for invisible flag symbols
-Improved metrics of percussion noteheads with notehead modifications
-Manually shifted cross staff notes with a horizontal offset above 10 EVPU are not reset anymore
-Parenthesized grace notes created with the Patterson "Parenthesize Trill Notes" plug-in are now supported and not reset anymore, if they use standard brackets.

Rests

-In some cases improved improved placement of consolidated rests on staves with percussion notation style.
-In some cases improved staff position of consolidated rests
-In some cases improved placement of whole rests on cue notes with lyrics

Beams

-Gold only: New "Optimize->Add 16th Secondary Beam Break" option similar to the existing "Add 32nd Secondary Beam Breaks" feature. However, it's deactivated by default.
-RGP Lua only: The "Add 32nd Secondary Beam Breaks" feature now also works if other (non-colliding) beam modifications exist

Clefs

-Improved detection of mid-measure clefs
-In some cases improved music spacing and clef change detection on clef changes where only cross staff notes are affected.

Layers

-The option to automatically move layer 2-4 notes to layer 1, if layer 1 is empty and doesn't use a different playback or MIDI channel, now also works if the sound device is set to none for that instrument.

Time Signatures

-Improved detection of hidden time signatures

Key Signatures

-Improved detection of key signature metrics if the score also includes keyless measures
-Improved metrics of courtesy key signatures at the end of a system

Fonts

-"Chaconne Ex", "Sovietta", "Vintage Plate STD", "Vintage Plate Light" and "Vintage Plate" music fonts are now supported
-"Splentino" and "Bodoni Moda" are now automatically detected as new text fonts
-"Finale Numerics" now supported as chord font
-Improved detection and font metrics extraction on some OTF fonts
-Improved reading of OTF font metrics that require MacSymbolFonts.txt. This automatically generates new .f2n files if necessary.
-Recompiled font symbol library with a few new symbols
-Windows only: The plug-in now has an integrated auto-installer for the font component Node.js.
-macOS only: It doesn't have a Node.js auto-installer in the plug-in yet (but in the plug-in installer), because there are no known issues on the macOS Node.js installation. However, on macOS the plug-in now also throws an error message if it detects an installation problem with Node.js. In this case, it is recommended to re-run the Perfect Layout installer or to install Node.js manually from this link: https://nodejs.org/download/release/v22.19.0/node-v22.19.0.pkg

Installer

-macOS only: Improved installer: in some cases no log files were saved -Windows only: The installer adds an extra version of the plug-in compiled to work with RGP Lua 0.67-0.78.
If you intend to use it, you need to install it manually:
1.) Replace the RGP Lua 0.66 file with your new RGP Lua version (0.67-0.78) in the plug-in folder
2.) Copy the new Perfect Layout file JALAYOUx64_54.lua into that folder (x can be B, H or G dependent on Silver400, Silver and Gold).
3.) Rename the old Perfect Layout file to JALAYOUx_old.lua
4.) Rename the new Perfect Layout file to the original file name JALAYOUx64.lua (make x the letter that it used to be before)
5.) Open the RGP Lua dialog (click on the "RGP Lua" plug-in) and set the ES Perfect Layout plug-in to "Trusted". Otherwise it won't work at the moment. Perfect Layout's own very strict security check is currently not compatible with the new RGP Lua security check.
6.) Restart Finale and then start the plug-in.

User dialog

-Improved "Deactivate All" preset. It will deactivate all features except the dynamics processing.
-Improved dialog: if the auto-update detects a new major update and the user accepts the update, then the plug-in will cancel directly afterwards in order to be restarted. It will not show the demo files dialog anymore.
-Some improvements in the Polish and French user dialog
-The title of the user dialog now includes the score type that Perfect Layout has detected. E.g. "Score Type: 2 Instruments". The score type is mainly relevant for the automatic slider settings on the Systems tab that control the distances between groups, staves and systems.
-A few visual improvements on the main user dialog
-The "Open Demo Files?" message is not shown anymore when a demo file is already the current document.
-Spanish translation by Sebastián Herrera
-AI-automated Polish, French, Italian and Japanese translation, partially with proof-reading.
-More preview images

Other

-Improved detection of "Score or (extracted) part" types in scores with only two staves
-If undo doesn't work or is deactivated in Finale and you cancel the plug-in, all individually resized staves are now correctly restored to their original size (and not to 100%). Same goes for page margins and page text positions.
-The Elbsound font file names file (ESFontFileNames.txt) that collects all installed font names for Finale now has a version handling, so it can automatically re-generate itself, if necessary. However, updates to the format of this file are still rare. The last ESFontFileNames.txt update was from PL v3 to PL v4.
-macOS Only: The macOS installer doesn't remove the ESFontFileNames.txt file anymore by default, so the file needs to be regenerated less often. The version handling now happens in the plug-in (and not in the installer anymore).
-The log file now also opens when the plug-in has been cancelled.
-The log file now includes a message, if there is a problem with the internet connection.
-Windows only: the Windows tool WMIC is no longer needed for running Perfect Layout. In Windows 11 version 24H2 WMIC is not activated by default anymore, so a new solution to access the Windows management instrumentation (WMI) is now implemented.
-As the original WMIC tools are slightly faster, they are still used when available.
-Updated the node.js component to version 22.19.0. Node.js is required for reading metrics of OTF fonts.
-Improved processing speed in many features, although the overall processing time has slightly increased due to new features

RGP Lua 0.68+

-RGP Lua 0.68+: Improved "Freeze Stem" correction on notes with both "Reverse Stem Up" and "Reverse Stem Down" flags set
-RGP Lua 0.68+: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua 5.4 (Avoid invalid measure width)

Fixes

-Fixed an error that could occur on ties in hidden staves
-Fixed an error that could occur in rare cases of tied cross staff notes across the middle of measure.
-Fixed an error that could occur in a case of a hairpin in the very last bar that ends on no note, but close to a rest.
-Fixed an error that could occur on scores or parts that include many staff systems, but no visible staves.
-Fixed an error that could occur on corrupt trill extension smartshapes
-Fixed an error that could occur on ties in the very last bar extending past the final barline.
-Fixed an error that could occur in rare cases on the automatic page break feature in linked parts.
-Fixed an error that could occur in rare cases of invalid unicode symbols
-Fixed an error that could occur in rare cases of invisible playback notes that use the tie flag.
-Fixed an error where corrupt staff systems could return an invalid staff number

System requirements:

Perfect Layout v3/v4: Finale® 2014, 2014.5, v25, v26, v27 for 64bit Windows 10, 11 or macOS 10.13+ - 15.x (tested until 15.2).
Note 1: PL v3/v4 will probably also work in Windows 7 and 8 when all the latest Windows updates are installed, but Elbsound.studio doesn't support that and hasn't tested it.
Note 2: According to some users PL v2 also works in macOS 10.11/10.12, but Elbsound.studio doesn't support that either.
Note 3: The official Microsoft support for Windows 10 ends on the 14th of October 2025. We therefore recommend to update to Windows 11. As of September 1st, 2025 Elbsound.studio has no computers with Windows 10 anymore, so we can't give support or reproduce issues on specific Windows 10 problems. However, we don't expect this to be relevant, as there are no open OS-specific issues with the plug-ins in Windows 10.

Perfect Layout v2.x-4.x runs in Finale® 2014, 2014.5, v25, v26, v27

OS support: as long as Finale® 2014-27 runs on the computer, the plug-in is supported too. The plug-in has been tested in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 and macOS (tested in 10.13 - 15.2, 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: 300 MB, macOS: 470 MB of free hard drive space (after installation ca. 300 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.

macOS only: both Intel and modern Apple processors (e.g. M4 Pro) are supported

Windows only: Powershell, WMIC, cmd and curl must be installed (it is installed by default on Windows unless the user has removed it manually). Sometimes WMIC has to be reactivated manually on Windows 11.

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