I've used ENCORE because it's very easy to get good quality and is not
as expensive as the others.   Passport also makes MusicTime, which is
less than $100 bucks and is also as good with less features.   Both can
understand MIDI files.

No program will make good engraving sense out of MIDI files unless the
original MIDI file is completely quantized and simple minded.   They make
the best guess from what is handed to them, which is usually so awful that
no musician can read it.   You then have to do a lot of by hand post
processing to get the durations, spacing, enharmonics correct and up to
engraving quality.   With piano music it's worse because the split between
the hands doesn't work well either.

Having said that, you can *get* decent quality out of them.   Look on my
page at the samples of "His Eye is On The Sparrow" in PDF format.   That
was done with ENCORE.

Computers are "idiot savants".   Always remember that.

GB
*************************************************
George Bogatko - gbogatko@intac.com
                 http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko