Image files stored in MS?
I suspect that image files are somehow embedded in MuseScore files. If the image file is large - and it doesn't have to be - then it can perhaps be replaced by a more compressed version. However I think this may still leave a larger file "inside" a score.
Is there a way to check what additional files are embedded - and also remove them? I recollect using some form of Unzip utility to do this - but I can't remember what works.
Comments
Open the mscz file with e.g. 7Zip
In reply to Open the mscz file with e.g… by Jojo-Schmitz
OK - I'll try. Can I also remove unwanted image components using that tool - or is the method to uncompress that file into a folder, then recompress it to generate a new Zip file (aka .mscz file)?
In reply to OK - I'll try. Can I also… by dave2020X
Deleting the image from the score should remove it from the archive too
In reply to Deleting the image from ths… by Jojo-Schmitz
That didn't seem to work on my system. The method using convert to .mscx then back to .mscz does work.
I tried simply deleting the image from a test score file. The file remained more or less the same size. Then using an unzip tool - again The Unarchiver showed that the image file was still embedded.
Maybe this works in some OS systems.
In reply to That didn't seem to work on… by dave2020X
I'd regard that a bug then. Removing an image from the score should remove it from the mscz too.
Please file in the issue tracker
In reply to OK - I'll try. Can I also… by dave2020X
Saving as .mscx format removes images.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/file-formats
You can then add a smaller sized image and save back as .mscz. I have sometimes added a duplicate image to a score and not been able to remove it without resorting to .mscx format.
In reply to Saving as a .mscx format… by yonah_ag
Thanks for this. It doesn't seem to quite be true. I tested with a file containing an image, plus several presumably stored larger images. The file size shrank dramatically, though the one image which was actually used still remained. According to the Handbook images are stripped out, but that didn't happen for me. The feature may be OS dependent.
This is very helpful, and does at least partially solve the problem.
In order to see the components again it does seem necessary to save again as an .mscz file, after which an unzip tool (I tried The Unarchiver in MacOS) to see the component files.
Very helpful tip.
Note: Large image files can be replaced by smaller ones by this method - or presumably vice versa. If the image file is actually used in the score it may not be stripped out by this conversion process, but image files which are bulking out the score and not used will be removed. If the images actually used are too large, then then can be removed individually, and replaced by similar ones with lower resolution.