Notation font - Typefaces
I read that a new notation font (Leland) will be available with Musescore 3.6.
I can hardly judge between one notation font and another, and I usually keep the default (I see Emmentaler).
Is there some point in the documentation on this topic, and anything to help choosing:
- features of a Emmentaler, Bravura, Gonville, MuseJazz, Leland;
- specific application (if any) for each font (for example, MuseJazz surely address jazz style, but the others?);
- comparison collection of PDF...
or, is it just a matter of personal preferences, as I might prefer Arial versus Courier in my text documents?
Thanks and... happy new year!
Comments
It's subjective. Subtle differences in relative sizes and thicknesses of things, etc. Arial vs Courier is actually to me a much more significant difference - Courier is a fixed-width font whose main purpose was to help things line up in columns before the days of tables in word processors and has really no other qualities that would make one choose it. But between Arial and Times, it's mostly about whether you subjectively want serifs or not, and that's more like the decision between different music fonts too - they all serve the same basic purpose, none are as special-purpose as Courier. Well, except the handwritten ones, of course.
As Marc mentioned, it's really a matter of personal preference. Just as a reader, engrossed in a novel's plot, won't notice or care what font the book is set in, the average player won't consciously notice the music font s/he's reading from--s/he'll be too engrossed with playing the right notes. But you, as composer/engraver, may care a great deal.
Here's a nifty tool which allows you to toggle back and forth between two fonts:
https://elbsound.studio/music-font-comparison.php
(Bravura, Emmenthaler, and Gonville are all included.)
I'm waiting until a stable release of 3.6 to download it, but I'm intersted in seeing what Leland looks like; although I expect I can look at some old SCORE-engraved scores to get a good idea.
In reply to As Marc mentioned, it's… by wfazekas1
You could also simply download a nightly build, which coexists quite nicely with your installed version. I believe the release candidate does as well but can't guarantee that for all OS's. Benefit: then you have an opportunity to give feedback before it's too late.
In reply to You could also simply… by Marc Sabatella
Or the RC, which is, in essence, a nightly, but with an installer
In reply to You could also simply… by Marc Sabatella
What is a "nightly build," or an "RC," and how do I access it?
I like giving feedback (in other words, I'm a bit opinionated,)
In reply to What is a "nightly build,"… by wfazekas1
RC -> Release Candidate, as you can obtain from https://musescore.org/en/3.6rc
Nightly builds or development build, as obtained via https://musescore.org/en/download#Development-builds
In reply to What is a "nightly build,"… by wfazekas1
Sorry, you've been around long enough I assumed you knew :-)
Unfortunately, you've missed the window for providing any really major feedback in terms of influencing the overall design of the font or the other changes - the alpha or beta periods a couple of months ago would have been better. At this point its more about finding and fixing critical showstopper issues, at least as far 3.6 itself is concerned. But that is definitely very valuable in itself. And broader feedback could certainly be considered for 3.6.1 etc, or MuseScore 4.
In reply to Sorry, you've been around… by Marc Sabatella
Purely to satisfy my own curiosity, last night I dashed off a little, one-page waltz (for viola and piano), which I then set in Emmentaler, Bravura, and Gonville. I also downloaded the RC of 3.6 (now that I know how to do that!), and did a version in Leland/Edwin, as well another in Emmentaler/Edwin, as I understand the accidentals are slightly different. I tried to include as many glyphs as possible, in a brief but semantically coherent context.
Do you think it would be of any interest to share these files on this forum, on this or a new thread? If so, where?
In reply to Purely to satisfy my own… by wfazekas1
Why don't you share it in the Development and technology preview forum? Perhaps pictures would be nice so people won't have to download all of the files.
In reply to Why don't you share it in… by mike320
Thanks--should I export them as pdfs, and attach those? Or? (In any case, I assume the 3.6 files wouldn't open properly in 3.5.)
In reply to Thanks--should I export them… by wfazekas1
Use PNG files. You can then attach the file, put the cursor where you want to see it and click the insert link next to the file to get something like this random picture imbedded in the post.
In reply to Use PNG files. You can then… by mike320
OK that it would be an image of a whole page?
In reply to Why don't you share it in… by mike320
I did, But I've posted them in the Engraving forum, as it seems that's where they belong. Feel free to comment.