Why Jazz Fonts?
Some people seem to place a high priority on having a "Jazz font" they can use with their scorewriting software -- even some people who post to this forum.
No disrespect intended.
Does anyone think they're fooling anyone into thinking that they're handwriting their scores when they use such a font?
Or is a score created with such a font considered easier to read?
Comments
There are a few respects on which "jazz" fonts do some readability advantages. They tend to use heavier weight strokes for a given font size, which makes for more contrast on the page and that can be easier to see when sightreading in dimly lit bars. The music tends to be less dense on the page as well; these fonts don't work as well for denser music. For chord symbols specifically, the fonts are usually designed to minimze the width of the chord symbols for a given height - and again have relatively heavy and easy to read strokes. This is god because the chords stand out but don't collide with each other as much as they might otherwise. Finally, the "hanrdwritten" quality does have the effect of making stems, beams, and flags stand out as more distinct from each other other, which I susect also helps.
But for all that, I thnnk it's mostly a matter of familiarity. People not used to reading these type of charts are unlikely to be impressed, but if you're accustomed to reading charts written this way, "regular" charts can look sterile and mechanical in comparison.
In reply to There are a few respects on by Marc Sabatella
An extra notation font - particular for all jazz music - shold be avaiable in Musescore 2.0.
Both Finale and Sibelius offer one or even two 'handwritten' fonts. So I have a big request for it.
The stronger but more peppy style of notation is part of this music. On all jazz lead sheets, realbooks, parts, arrangements etc. the classical notation looks too honest or unsophisticated - although Musescore's notation graphic is great and excellent - for classical works.
A piece of jazz feeling already appears on the music sheet - if Musejazz as a textfont comes back
- even in combination with Emmentaler, Gonville or Bravura. A good basic position, but this should only be half of the way.
In reply to Extra notation font for Jazz by Rudi cj7tb
For the record, MuseJazz isn't going anywhere - it will continue to be available for text & chord symbols. It is possible we will also extend it a little to make it easier to use for certain musical symbols like dynamics and pedal markings.
There is at least one person working on a "jazz" font for music symbols as well, and one of the major new "features" of MuseScore 2.0 will be support for the brand new SMuFL standard for music fonts, which will in theory make it easier/possible to plug in third party fonts that also support this. i don't think that is likely to mean you can just download any old SMuFL font and have it work magically - at least, not right away - but it should mean that if a font comes along that seems like a good fit for MuseScore, it would be relatively for the development team to make the necessary changes to support it.
In reply to Extra notation font for Jazz by Rudi cj7tb
MuseScore is a community effort. Requesting is good but you can do better. Check http://musescore.org/en/node/25027 and support, encourage Gootector in his work, or create a font yourself if you have the skills.
I think it's more of a comfort thing. After looking at "jazz" font for 20 years, I gotta have it if possible The standard helvetica just won't do! It is bigger than most and that makes it more readable.