Figured Bass Text Style (nightly build)

• Oct 24, 2013 - 21:30

I've been taking full advantage of the nightly builds' figured bass tool. In fact, I use 2.0 almost exclusively when it comes to notation because of this feature.

However, I have a problem. In my scores, which I tend to format relatively small (spacing is 1.175), the figures lack clarity, and I can't seem to edit the font with which MuseScore figures the bass.

In figured bass entry mode, the only options I can change (on the toolbar at the bottom of the GUI) are ordered/unordered list and indent less/more. The font drop-down box is grayed out; MScoreBC is the selected font. Using Style>Text, Figured Bass does not appear on the list of text styles. However, when I try to create a new style entitled "Figured Bass", I get a pop-up error message saying "'Figured Bass' does already exist, please choose a different name".

Any ideas?

I'm currently using revision 06153cf (which I know is not the current revision; I will update when I get a chance and see if this solves anything, then check back here).

Thanks in advance!

Comments

• Oct 25, 2013 - 10:02

Hello zstadt!

I'm glad the figured bass feature is so useful to you. The supported way to customize the appearance of figured bass items is via the "Style | General... | Figured Bass" menu command.

As documented here , in this dlg box it is possible to change several properties, including the font size.

A "Figured Bass" text style does exist, but it is hidden, because textual management of figured bass items is different from regular texts (it has specific needs, like vertical alignment or shape combining, which cannot be covered by the common text properties and may be disrupted by playing with them).

Hoping this might help you,

M.

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• Oct 25, 2013 - 22:28

Your help is greatly appreciated.

I've been able to increase the size of the figures.

Now, just as a follow-up question, is there any way to install other fonts for figured bass? I understand this would cause some issues (especially with figures like /6 or 4+), but I figured I'd ask.

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• Oct 25, 2013 - 23:12

When I designed the f.b. system, I had multi-font in mind since the beginning, so it has the theoretical capacity of using different fonts (not more than one for each score, though). The score file structure also is already prepared to accept different fonts.

What is missing is a practical way to add new fonts and to have them recognized by the system. Also, some kind of table will be needed to tell the system where each glyph is in the new font(s).

So, the short answer is "not yet". There is no definite plan but, the priority of such a feature being relatively low, a reasonable guess is that f.b. multi-font will be possibly activated for version 2.1, if there will be a reasonable demand for it.

M.

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• Oct 26, 2013 - 16:48

We have more glyphs than SMULF has, as it has only one variant of each combined shape, sometime the modern shape (as for 6\) and sometime the historical shape (as for 7\).

It also lacks the 3+ and the (theorically possible) 1+ and 8\.

So, I think it is premature.

(Given the incredible amount of pictograms and micro-tonal accidentals it includes (both rarely used, I think), I wonder why they spared a handful of glyphs for basso continuo.)

M.

P.S.: SMULF also lacks the 'real' brevis shape, only has that funny round shape...

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