Monthly Archives: July 2014

Walking in Notley Fern Gorge

Notley Fern Gorge is a short distance northwest of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Gowan’s Creek flows through a small patch of rainforest, surrounded by moss, fungi and the eponymous ferns. A 1.5 kilometre walking track loops through the gorge.

The walking track crosses Gowan’s Creek on four bridges. Floods in August 2013 damaged these bridges and the track. The Parks & Wildlife Service repaired the track, replaced the bridges and re-opened the circuit in June 2014.

Getting there

For people living in or near of Launceston, this is one of the easiest walks to reach. From the West Tamar Highway, turn onto Bridgenorth Road then right onto Notley Gorge Road. When Notley Gorge Road meets Notley Hills Road, take the sharp left turn. This route is sealed up to and including the car park at the start of the walk.

From the north, Notley Hills Road is unsealed.

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How can I turn my sheet music into a book?

You can do this, but there are at least three distinct methods.  Each has different compromises.

The destination: single PDF

For the purposes of this exercise, we want to finish with a single PDF document, storing the entire book. This is what you want almost all the time, including:

  • Printing yourself, with the printer on your desk
  • Sending files to other people to download and print
  • Taking to your local print shop
  • Selling via print-on-demand

PDF may not not be sufficient if:

  • You want to share work other people can edit – for this, provide your original notation file and also export to MusicXML
  • You want to distribute your music with interactive playback or video – tools exist for this, but are too complex to discuss here
  • You are working for a major publisher – in this case, they should provide specific file and formatting guidelines

So, how do we go from notation to a single PDF?

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What are vector graphics? When should I use them?

Vector graphics are images defined by shape coordinates, instead of the more common method of defining them by pixels.

You should use vector graphics whenever a vector file exists and the application you use can read it. Neither circumstance is as common as it should be.

Describing pictures

Below is a picture. Take a moment to think about how you would describe it.

Black arrow pointing to the right, looking sharp on most screens.

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