Convert to PDF?

• Aug 17, 2016 - 19:14

Once your music is ready is it possible to convert it to a PDF? Or does anyone know how I would go about having it published from the existing files? Thanks!

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• Aug 23, 2016 - 18:24

I was able to use the export option and all of the songs were saved as individual pdf files in one folder. It is exactly what I was looking for. Now I can edit them in acrobat and send them off to print and bind them! Thanks so much!!

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• Aug 27, 2016 - 17:36

I have the opposite problem. I am able to save music to my computer as a PDF. These are not images of the music, they are just a basic PDF. However, I am unable to export the PDF to MuseScore as a MSCZ type of document. Also, I have been unable to find any reliable software that will do this.

Many songs are in a key that does not work for leading church worship services. I would like to to MuseScore to change the songs to a different key without having to go in and create a new score (entering in all of the notes, ets.) which is very time consuming.

Suggestions please.

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• Aug 27, 2016 - 17:57

Unfortunately, this is a very difficult problem to solve. Technology has recently gotten good enough at recognizing scanned text to be useful, and that's a much easier problem to solve, als there are many more people interested in that problem and hence many more people working on it. I take it you tried the experimental "File / Import PDF" function from within MuseScore? What went wrong when you did?

There are a number of commercial OMR (optical music recognition) programs on the market - eg, SharpEye, PhotoScore, others. Feel free to search on any of those terms to find reviews, maybe trial versions of software to experiment with. But don't hold your breath expecting miracles, even if it is for a church :-)

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• Aug 27, 2016 - 20:49

When you use the File / Import PDF option, it shoudl redirect you to the musescore.com website. At that point, the file is put in a list for processing later. You should receive email when that processing is done, or if you reload that page on musescore.com, it should show the status. Did you receive an email telling you the file was finished processing? Did you then download the file? If so, it would be stroed wherever your browser typically puts downloaded files - for example, on Windows and some Linux systems, it goes by default to a folder call Downloads. Your browser may also allow you to choose a different location. You can then tell MuseScore to open that file by browsing to that same folder.

So, how far did you get in this process?

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• Aug 28, 2016 - 00:48

As Marc has explained, the PDF import project for MuseScore is still experimental, and may or may not not yield the results you need. If it turns out that it does not, a thought occurs to me. You might speak with the director of your local high school music department and see if the school uses MuseScore in its music theory classes. If it does, you might be able to find some sympathetic music students willing to do input from your PDF scores, and send you mscz files which you can then transpose the to key(s) you need. What is the old proverb? 'Many hands make light the work?' Transcribing one hymn is not a big deal--by the time you find a program to do the work for you (and there is no assurance that you will), you could have done it quicker yourself. But if you have a lot of music to transcribe from old, public-domain hymnals, and you are not (obviously) doing this for profit, it makes sense to ask your local community for some willing hands.

When you approach the school's music director, it might be good to point out that copying music would be good practise for the students. Many music students, once they leave high school and move on to a conservatory, find that doing copying work for music publishers is a good way to earn extra money which they sorely need. The more experience they have at doing this, the better they will make out. When I was in college (about a million years ago) I copied parts for Broadway musicals at $1.50 per page using pen and ink. That was a lot of money back then; one could buy three glasses of beer, five packs of cigarettes, or two bassoon reeds for a buck and a half. (My, how times have changed!) ;o)

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• Aug 28, 2016 - 01:44

According to one website I just checked, 'professional' reeds are about $20 each. Which is whacky, because most professional don't buy reeds, but make their own. But I don't actually know much about current prices, since I haven't had a bassoon to play since 1969 when I left music school. They are one of the most expensive instruments out there, and I never owned my own bassoon. ;o(

A pint of Guinness is now $8.00 or more; a pack of smokes (with all the sin taxes added) is close to twelve bucks, and if someone asked me to do music copying at less than a page per reed today, I'd probably tell him to ask someone else. But for a student striving to get through music school, such work is a good way to make the money last to the end of the month.... ;o)

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• Aug 28, 2016 - 10:36

@Cindy – If you want to convert a pdf sheet music (not image!) there is this software: PDFtoMusicPro (http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusicpro.htm). You can import the music and edit it, then export as MusicXML (and import in MuseScore). You can download the trial version and see if it works.
I use the simple version PDFtoMusic to let play the pdf scores: you can export as midi but not as MusicXML.
This software will sing your scores, too. ;-)

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