Creating custom graphics for use in MuseScore
I need a custom ornament and custom repeat sign used in French baroque music. I have skills to create these.
By searching forum posts, I found that it is possible to drag a graphic into a MuseScore file; once it's there, it can be dragged to a custom workspace. (I tried searching the handbook for "graphics" and "insert graphics" but got nothing; perhaps this could be added to the manual.)
Questions before I create my custom signs:
a) What graphic formats does MuseScore support?
b) Any suggestions for creating the best graphics for small things like ornament signs (size, vector vs bitmap, etc.)? I tried selecting and copying one of the existing trill signs from a score and pasting it into a graphics program to get an example, but that didn't work.
Comments
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/images
In reply to See: https://musescore.org… by Jm6stringer
Got it, thanks! So I can use SVG or PNG/JPG.
Still will appreciate any suggestions for creating image files that will work best for things like ornament signs.
In reply to Got it, thanks! So I can… by redux02
If you won't be scaling images to very large sizes, any of those should work. If you notice pixellation with PNG or JPG, use SVG.
In reply to If you won't be scaling… by Jm6stringer
I won't be scaling anything to large size.
The thing is, my score will contain dozens of these signs. (Yes, the French clavecinistes loved their ornaments!) If I were only inserting one or two, and my image was too big, I'd just resize. But it will really help if I can get a size that will work well in a typical letter-size score without needing to be resized. If someone knows that, for instance, the trill sign built into MuseScore is about 100 pixels wide and 50 pixels tall (made-up numbers), that could save me a lot of trial and error.
In reply to I won't be scaling anything… by redux02
My peference is PNG. The symbols look decent and the picture files are small.
In reply to My peference is PNG. The… by mike320
But png is a pixel format; surely everything in Musescore uses vector graphics, which is why it can be scaled, and why there is no need to start off trying to decide on an optimal pixel density. If you can produce SVG this should be automatically better.
In reply to But png is a pixel format;… by Imaginatorium
I keep things simple and don't normally resize articulations I've created as a graphic so the larger SVG file is unnecessary for what I've done. I don't see the need to normally resize an articulation. If you are creating some sort of instructional booklet where a larger articulation would make sense, then an SVG file might be the best route. For adding it to the score, PNG is sufficient.
One more note. If you use the image capture tool in MuseScore to create an image you are going to use in MuseScore you need to set the DPI to 360 rather than 300 when you capture the image so it will be the same size as the image you captured.
In reply to I won't be scaling anything… by redux02
The symbols that exist within MuseScore (make sure to search the Master Palette to see whether your symbols aren't available already) are glyphs of a font.
So SVG would be the closest matching image format to use for designing these. If you're wondering about designer size; 300dpi is a good printing resolution.
In reply to The symbols that exist… by jeetee
Thanks for this. Because I work a lot with typesetting print books as well as music, over the years I've picked up some fontmaking skills. Putting my symbols into a font would solve any issues with resizing, I would then add them as staff text. However, I do recall reading in a forum post that some of the symbols aren't resizable. I think the context a discussion of some early music scores. I'll see if I can dig up that reference. I'm sure the font will work, but I'd just like to know how MuseScore handles these rare symbols since I may find others in the future I need to create.
BTW, those of us who work with early music do appreciate that there many symbols for us -- the ones I need just don't happen to exist (at least I couldn't spot them in the master palette). I'd be happy to submit mine for a future version of MuseScore if there's a mechanism to do that.
In reply to Thanks for this. Because I… by redux02
Symbols added from the master palette cannot be resized. There are two possible workarounds for this. One way is to make an image and use that so it can be resized. The other way is to see if the same symbol exists in special characters (press F2 while editing staff text) you can put the symbol into almost any text type object (staff text, system text, lyrics...) and resize it using the font size for the text object.
In reply to Symbols added from the… by mike320
It should be the case that anything in Symbols is also in Special Characters. So adding as text should always be a way to resize where necessary. Although the default sizes are designed to be musically correct already. If one needs a custom symbol, a graphic isn't a bad way to go instead.
In reply to It should be the case that… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you both for the clarification. So I can add something from Symbols to my custom palette, which is much more convenient than hunting through the long list in Symbols, as long as I'm happy with the default size; if not, then add it as text and adjust the font size.
In reply to Thank you both for the… by redux02
You can also put the text in a custom palette for later use.
In reply to I won't be scaling anything… by redux02
I have a similar yet different problem. My objective is to be able to input special symbols that do not appear in the master palette, in the form of lyrics text so that they will always be right beneath the lyrics no matter how the score changes. (The symbols are the Jianpu note names similar to Solfege but the Solfege names are generated in the note head and are too small to read.) Have read all the replies to this thread and tried various ways including using svg file like the one posted by redux02 in this thread. I can create a custom palette, but the symbols can come from the master palette; I cannot drag and drop the svg symbol onto my custom palette. I also tried true type fonts. My symbols can be input with the true type font as symbols, however it is very tedious because I have to switch to the tailored font for inputing the symbol, and have to use the space bar to delimit to the next note, which automatically switches the input font back to the default one. Since I need to do this for all notes, this method is too tedious.
Hi redux02!
I was wondering if you still have this French baroque ornaments...It would be possible to share them with me? I would be very very grateful!!🙏🏼😄
In reply to Hi redux02! I was wondering… by spotifyspotify
"...French baroque ornaments"
I did a search on the SMuFL website (Standard Music Font Layout) which turned up this web page:
Other baroque ornaments (U+E570–U+E58F)
https://w3c.github.io/smufl/latest/tables/other-baroque-ornaments.html
You can find many of these symbols on the Master palette. Go to the Symbols section at the end of the palette list and search for ornament (or possibly for baroque).