Following the re-release of five of the legendary Music Type Foundry fonts earlier this year, the remaining three fonts are now available exclusively from our Notation Central marketplace. This is the first time ever that MTF-Gutenberg 1939, MTF-Ross, and MTF-Improviso — the standout hand-copied music font — have been made available as fully SMuFL-compliant fonts.
In addition to the newly released fonts, each of the original five MTF fonts has received significant updates. These are MTF-Arnold, MTF-Beethoven, MTF-Cadence, MTF-Haydn, and MTF-Scorlatti.
What’s new
All fonts released today are at version 3.100. Although it seems like a minor bump on the odometer from the current 3.000 or 3.001, this is really a major revision.
New and expanded glyph set
Taking inspiration from Abraham Lee’s original designs, and building upon Dan Kreider’s early revisions, font guru Nor Eddine Bahha — no stranger to designing fonts himself — has expanded the glyph set of all of the MTF fonts, in some cases creating several hundred new glyphs in visual harmony with the original set.
Now, all of the MTF fonts each boast a native glyph set of at least 1400, making it much less likely that a substitute glyph will be needed for all but the most obscure symbols in a musical score.
Alternate versions within a music typeface
For the first time, most of the MTF fonts now come with alternate versions to suit the most discerning music engraver. When appropriate and possible, a Music Type Foundry font will also come with a Heavier, Lighter, and/or Rounded version. Of course, these fonts can be loaded completely as the default font in a project; or, if desired, an engraver can mix and match glyphs using the tools provided in Dorico or other SMuFL-compatible music notation applications.
The differences are subtle in some instances, with the “Rounded” version softening some of the sharper angles of accidentals, accents, and other markings, not unlike the design of Bravura.
Music text versions of fonts
Also for the first time, each of the SMuFL music fonts come with a corresponding “music text” font. These are still fonts with music glyphs, but the metrics and scaling are designed for use with text-based applications (or for mixing musical symbols with free text within a music notation application).
So, for instance, the MTF-Beethoven suite now comes with six versions, three each for music and music text:
- SMuFL music fonts and accompanying font metadata files for use in music notation applications
- MTF-Beethoven
- MTF-Beethoven Lighter
- MTF-Beethoven Rounded
- SMuFL text fonts for use in text-based applications or mixing musical symbols with free text
- MTF-Beethoven Text
- MTF-Beethoven Lighter Text
- MTF-Beethoven Rounded Text
In addition, as we’ve done with the re-release of the first five MTF fonts, the newly released fonts each come bundled with a complementary text font (more on that below) and an accompanying font metadata file containing the recommended engraving settings for crucial elements that are not stored within the font file itself.
You don’t need to worry about where on your computer to place all of these font and metadata files. Each MTF purchase contains all of these items in easy-to-use installers for Mac and Windows that will drop everything into place for you, so that they can be used immediately after purchasing and downloading them.
MuseScore Studio compatibility
The MuseScore Studio 4.6 update brought support for SMuFL fonts beyond those that come included with the application. This opened up MuseScore Studio users to the world of third-party music fonts, like those from Music Type Foundry.
All of today’s updated Music Type Foundry fonts (version 3.100) work very well in MuseScore Studio 4.6. To use an MTF font in a MuseScore Studio project:
- Go to Format > Style…
- In the dialog window that appears, select Score in the left menu, and, from the Musical symbols font dropdown list, select the desired font:
- The Musical text font will automatically update with the corresponding music text font (i.e, for dynamics, etc.)
- Check the box to Automatically load style settings based on font
- Click OK to return to your score
Unlike Dorico, MuseScore doesn’t have an option to update the text fonts when changing the music font, so you’ll need to take an extra step to load a MuseScore style sheet, if you wish to use the complementary text font included with a Music Type Foundry music font. We’ve created special MuseScore style sheets specifically corresponding to MTF fonts that only change the text font in your document, and nothing else, so your page settings, etc., won’t be affected.
To load this text font, go to Format > Load Style… and select the style sheet corresponding to the music font group. For example, MTF-Gutenberg 1939 and MTF-Gutenberg 1939 Light will both use the MTF-Gutenberg 1939.mss style sheet.
In effect, this tells MuseScore Studio to use EB Garamond as the text font.
The fonts
The three fonts released today are:
MTF-Gutenberg 1939
MTF-Gutenberg 1939 is carefully crafted and designed to mimic an old movable typeset. This font is based off a specimen found in the (non-music) typesetting book Buchgewerbliches Hilfsbuch, a technical printing trade reference by Otto Säuberlich, published by Oscar Brandstetter of Leipzig.
MTF-Gutenberg 1939 is bundled with the EB Garamond text font, an excellent, classical Garamond. It is a revival of Claude Garamont’s famous humanist typefaces from the mid-16th century. This digital version reproduces the original design by Claude Garamont closely; the source for the letterforms is a scan of a specimen known as the “Berner specimen”. Its elegance and readability make it especially suitable for print.
MTF-Improviso
MTF-Improviso is a typeface designed to resemble the style of traditional hand copyists. It features uniform strokes through all notation glyphs, as if it had all been written with a marker or pen. This typeface was heavily influenced by hand-copied specimens found in the book Music Preparation: A Guide to Music Copying by Ken J. Williams.
MTF-Improviso is bundled with the Playpen Sans text font, an exceedingly well-developed typeface with 8 weights from Thin to ExtraBold. Playpen Sans provides seven different glyphs for each character that are automatically applied as you type, using a built-in shuffler that both ensures variety and avoids repetition. This adds to the overall organic, spontaneous, and authentic feel of the handwritten style — a perfect match for the improvised style of MTF-Improviso.
MTF-Ross
MTF-Ross is a music font derived from specimens found in Ted Ross’s book The Art of Music Engraving and Processing.
MTF-Ross is bundled with Lora, a well-balanced contemporary serif font with roots in calligraphy. It is a text typeface with moderate contrast well suited for body text. Its brushed curves complement the weathered appearance of MTF-Ross while still maintaining optimal legibility, and its relative width suits the music well.
Shop the fonts
You’ll find all of the Music Type Foundry fonts exclusively at our Notation Central marketplace.
To help customers navigate the growing selection of music fonts, we’ve introduced some additional filters so you can find what you’re looking for. Filter by font type (SMuFL, Sibelius, or Specialty), font style (engraved or handwritten) and platform to narrow down your choices.
Price and availability
Each MTF font is sold separately for $79.99 each.
However, to celebrate the release of the new fonts, we are offering each MTF font at Notation Central as part of the larger Black Friday sale that we’ll be running on Notation Central beginning later in November. That sale hasn’t been officially announced yet, and it isn’t live yet for the rest of the store, but if you enter in the code BF20 at checkout, you’ll find that it works now to give you 20% off any of the MTF fonts. See, reading Scoring Notes is worthwhile!
In addition, there is an ongoing discount of 25% off where customers can create an ad-hoc bundle by purchasing two or more MTF fonts at once and applying the code MTF25 at checkout. This discount can be stacked with the Black Friday sale, making it possible to obtain each MTF font for the duration of the Black Friday period just for $43.99 each.
Free update for existing customers
If you’ve already purchased version 3 of MTF-Arnold, MTF-Beethoven, MTF-Cadence, MTF-Haydn, or MTF-Scorlatti, today’s 3.100 update is free of charge to you. Simply log into your Notation Central account and download the updated installer(s) from the Downloads area of your account.