2-Up View, Cropping

Two feature requests we often get are for a 2-Up viewing mode, and for the ability to crop pages arbitrarily, rather than using a centered zoom. We’ve faced some steep technical hurdles that have prevented us from adding these features so far, but we’ve been exploring some other ways that our users can accomplish these goals.

On a Mac, both of these things can be done with the built-in image and PDF viewer, Preview. Since Apple’s developer tools run only on a Mac, we don’t have much direct experience trying out these concepts with comparable software on a PC, so if you’ve found a way to do so please let us know and we’ll be happy to add that information here. [Note: These instructions have been written using Mac OS X 10.6.6, so while some of the images may look different, the procedures should still work with version 10.4 or later.]

2-Up View

To create a new PDF with two pages displayed side-by-side, open the original in Preview, choose File > Print… (or use command-P) and choose 2 Pages per Sheet in the layout section. Then, use the PDF button in the bottom left-hand corner and select “Save As PDF…” to create your new file. Add the new file to forScore, and you should be ready to go!

Cropping

To crop pages, use the select tool to draw a rectangle around the portion of the page you want to keep, and select Crop from the Tools menu (or use command-K). Repeat this step for each page, removing as much of the margins as possible. When you’re finished, just save the new file and add it to forScore.

Caveats

Because both of these methods involve changing the layout of the file, any existing forScore annotations won’t line up correctly with the new file. Be sure to use these procedures on new files, or on files with annotations that can easily be recreated.

We realize that these options aren’t replacements for integrated feature additions, but we hope that they’ll be helpful until we can find a way of bringing these capabilities to the iPad in a powerful, reliable way.