Finale ceases development

[NeeraWM]

I see ... so there is still no real way to activate it on a new machine after August 2025.

[benwiggy]

No , but if you prevent Finale from overwriting the default file on first launch....

[Fred G. Unn]

Not only ceased development but will only support authorization until August 25, 2025. So the clock is ticking until the software is truly dead.

Microsoft is sunsetting Windows 10, 8, and 7 on October 14, 2025, and you can't upgrade to Win11 if your system doesn't have sufficient specs. I suspect there will be a lot of people buying new PCs less than 2 months after that August date that kills off the Finale registration authorization. We probably will see lots of people who hadn't really been paying attention griping about not being able to install Finale then.

[Harpsichordmaker]

I am reading Musescore has much improved, it could become a competitor?

I was considering downloading Musescore just in case (not needed just now: I own Sibelius and Dorico, never used Finale). While evaluating if Musescore has any known shortcoming about engraving my necessities (baroque, early classic, continuo, critical edition symbols…) I stumbled on this: Musescore doesn’t allow third-party fonts to be used, even though if it supports SMUFL. A deal-breaker for me.

[NeeraWM]

No , but if you prevent Finale from overwriting the default file on first launch....

This sounds quite hacky
...and also as if you know how to do that!

[OCTO]

I am reading Musescore has much improved, it could become a competitor?

I was considering downloading Musescore just in case (not needed just now: I own Sibelius and Dorico, never used Finale). While evaluating if Musescore has any known shortcoming about engraving my necessities (baroque, early classic, continuo, critical edition symbols…) I stumbled on this: Musescore doesn’t allow third-party fonts to be used, even though if it supports SMUFL. A deal-breaker for me.

Actually, you can use its original font Leland, that is generated from SCORE; or various alternatives (see attached file).
For your purpose, I believe MuseScore is perfectly good.  What I like with the software is that you can really move things wherever you want and they stay there fixed; the most stable of all I used (Finale, Sibelius).

[OCTO]

P.S. The reason why they don't allow custom fonts (yet that you can change if you can edit the source code!) is their platform for sharing music musescore.com — if everyone used their own fonts it would impossible to use it.

[benwiggy]

Actually, you can use its original font Leland, that is generated from SCORE

It's "inspired by" the glyphs in SCORE. They are not a direct copy -- and to be honest, the glyphs in SCORE weren't its best feature.

P.S. The reason why they don't allow custom fonts (yet that you can change if you can edit the source code!) is their platform for sharing music musescore.com — if everyone used their own fonts it would impossible to use it.

Does that mean you cant use custom text fonts either?

[Harpsichordmaker]

P.S. The reason why they don't allow custom fonts (yet that you can change if you can edit the source code!) is their platform for sharing music musescore.com — if everyone used their own fonts it would impossible to use it.

I know, but that is a very insufficient reason. If the platform is so important, and if there isn’t an automatic font substitution, they could force the use of the standard fonts if one wants their music published on the platform.

I second Ben’s question: are text fonts restricted as well?

How professional engravers and publishers can cope with such limitation?

(I know that I, as a Sibelius user, shouldn’t rant about poor choice of fonts in other softwares…)

EDIT: there is no limitation on text fonts: https://musescore.org/en/node/306527

[mducharme]

There doesn't appear to be a file that corresponds with /Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/.regdata27.txt on Windows that I can see. I would expect to find it in c:\ProgramData\MakeMusic folder on Windows. There is a demdata.txt in the "C:\ProgramData\MakeMusic\Finale 27" folder but I'm not sure if this is the Windows equivalent of the regdata27.txt.