Problem with smooth scrolling behavior in music notation software
- tarokoike
- Mar 23
- 3 min read
Recently, while speaking with a Finale user, I received a consultation regarding a problem where scrolling in Finale was not smooth on both Mac desktops and notebooks.
While this is a rare issue with Finale, there was no effective solution even when Finale was being developed and sold.
As far as I can recall, this issue was confirmed around 2023 on macOS 13 with Finale 27, but it remained unresolved.
Originally, Finale had some issues with its drawing functions, and various problems were reported by users, especially when using the Windows version of Finale on high-resolution monitors.
Based on suggestions from MakeMusic, the developer of Finale, it seems that these symptoms may be solved by adjusting settings that would reduce the burden on the software's drawing capabilities, such as the following:
In "Preferences > Palettes & Background," change the score background from the default "Graphic File" to "Solid Color."
Do not use full-screen mode.
Reduce the size of the window displaying the score.
Use scrolling view instead of page view, or if using page view, use "Single Page" in "View > View Mode."
Regarding the first point, changing from "Graphic File" to "Solid Color," as you can see by zooming in on the score screen, Finale's default setting uses a "Graphic File" with various color information for the score background. This is one of the reasons why the data size of score screenshots becomes large.
Also, for the Mac version, if you right-click the Finale.app icon in the Applications folder and select "Get Info" to display the Finale Info dialog box, and there is a menu item called "Open in Low Resolution," checking this and then launching Finale may improve performance.
Depending on your macOS environment, this setting may not be available, but I believe the solution is basically the same as described in the following article. *
▼ Improve the performance of Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. by using "Open in Low Resolution" (External Website; Japanese only)
* Depending on your processor type and macOS version, this option may not be available.
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As you know, technical support for Finale ended at the end of August 2025 by its developer, MakeMusic, and all support, including technical support, for the Japanese version has ended. (The details of this are explained in another article on my blog.)
However, after speaking with various people, it seems that quite a few people are still using Finale for various reasons.
When you're juggling a large workload with looming deadlines, learning new operations to use Dorico or Sibelius isn't practical. Furthermore, in industries like Japanese music score publishing, where older versions of Finale were already used for workflow reasons, many users might find the end of development and sales of the final version of Finale, which they never even bothered to adopt, to have little practical impact.
Personally, I've already switched to Dorico, so I thought I'd no longer be writing articles about Finale. However, the drawing-related problems I've discussed here seem to occur in other graphics software like Photoshop and Illustrator, and there's no guarantee they won't occur in other music notation software like Dorico, Sibelius, or MuseScore in the future.
Therefore, I’m thinking about continuing to organize the know-how I've gained from my past experience in Finale technical support, and share information like this from time to time that might be useful for everyone in the future.
