Combine multiple Musescores to create a PDF book for publishing

• Jan 10, 2022 - 13:58

I would like to create a professional book in PDF format for publishing:

  • Combine multiple v3 Musescores
  • Cover page
  • Table of contents
  • PDF index with links to jump to the song
  • including page number
  • High resolution PDF (360dpi)

What is the best way to do this?

Page https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/albums describes:

The Album feature has been disabled for 3.x. It will come back in 4.0.

I assume it is not implemented yet in version 4 nightly build?

Comments

• Jan 10, 2022 - 14:25

Because MuseScore can't do a table of contents with linkage within a PDF I think your best option at this point is to use a DTP/PDF software to assemble the completed PDF and perhaps even create your cover page in there.

As for DPI: MuseScore should use vector information when exporting a score to PDF, so that should be perfectly fine; but do check the DPI export settings in the Preferences for eventual images that might be embedded.

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• Jan 10, 2022 - 19:42

Thanks for your fast reply. External DTP/PDF software looks like the best way forward. Then I've full control over the document format. I found the Edwin font on Github and can be used in DTP/PDF software to create a consistent formatted document.

The export formats are:

  • PDF -> Export including searchable text
  • PNG -> Picture, text not searchable
  • SVG -> Includes vector information

Is text such as lyrics searchable when exporting to SVG, or is this information lost?

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• Jan 12, 2022 - 16:47

> A quick test shows that SVG changed a staff text to a vector-path.

Yes, you're right: Opening a SVG file with Inkskape shows the text in vector-path and is not searchable. Text looks like only searchable when exporting from Musescore to PDF format. There is external tooling needed to combine multiple PDF's and add a title, TOC, header/footer with page numbering afterwards.

With your DTP/PDF suggestion, I found a related topic to create a book: https://musescore.org/en/node/323901, but contains different workflows and personal preferences.

I'll check if Latex can be used to process a large batch of exported PDF files to a single book in PDF, preferably automated with some scripting.

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• Jan 12, 2022 - 20:41

I've created a simple songbook using Latex on Ubuntu which fulfills all my requirements:

  • Convert multiple Musescore files in a batch to PDF via Musescore commandline interface.
  • Title page including picture.
  • Using Edwin font.
  • Includes table of contents (clickable in PDF reader and jumps to the song).
  • Footer: Page numbering left/right page (odd/even), center copyright.
  • All text searchable as exported from Musecore -> PDF without loosing quality.
  • PDF reader shows clickable index to jump to a song in the PDF.
  • High resolution single PDF output in small size.

For the future: Convert a large amount of Musescores automatically to a PDF book via a Python script.

Please find attached an example piano-book.pdf, created from some public available (random) scores which allows sharing. Scores are upgraded using Edwin font, title is changed to invisible and header/footer disabled then exported to PDF.

To build from source latex-source.zip:

# Convert Musescore to pdf:
$ musescore --export-to "ouptput.pdf" "input.mscz"

# Install Edwin font from https://github.com/MuseScoreFonts/Edwin

# Install Latex tools on Ubuntu
$ sudo apt install texlive

# Convert .tex file to .pdf
$ mkdir output
$ xelatex --output-directory=output --halt-on-error piano-book.tex

# Note: Run the xelatex command twice to generate TOC correctly. This is known behavior.

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