I’m happy to present a new font called MusGlyphs. MusGlyphs derives all its glyphs from Bravura and Academico, modifying them to allow the user to type in intuitive key combinations to create these glyphs within text: aligned, correctly sized, and spaced together nicely.
Here’s a brief backstory of how MusGlyphs was created.
A few weeks ago, a user on the Dorico forum was needing to add a time signature as a text item and mentioned in passing that it seemed more difficult than it ought to be to do something so simple. That’s true of adding most (all?) music glyphs as text items. While the glyphs are readily available, they typically have to be copy-pasted from a character map, or input using Unicode, which is far from intuitive. Often they also need to be resized and their baselines altered significantly to make them look like they match the Roman text around them.
It’s easy enough to map basic symbols to single letters, of course. “q” is a quarter note, “h” is a half note. But that’s clearly not the complete solution. I was fairly new to fonts, but a little digging revealed that ligatures were the answer. A ligature is essentially a substitution: type a combination of keystrokes, and an entirely different character is displayed. The most common ligature is the “fi”:
If you’re using a program that supports ligatures (hint: you need to have them turned on, too!), and if you’re using a font that includes this ligature, when you type “f” followed by “i,” you get a new glyph. It hasn’t simply squished the two characters together, although it appears that way; it’s actually a completely different glyph that the program displays in place of the “fi.”
Of course you can see the potential here: if you want to type “4/4” and have the time signature displayed as it would appear in the score, you simply need to create that time signature as a unique glyph within the font, then assign the key combination “4/4” to trigger it.
Try it! In the box below, type 4/4, or B4#, or tr#, or, for loads of fun, |:LLLL%%LLL:|
That’s really all there is to tell. MusGlyphs is a bit unorthodox, since I wanted to avoid some OpenType functionality that was more powerful but may not be available in some programs. Every glyph, including every time signature, is either a direct mapping of a letter or a unique ligature triggered by what I hope are intuitive key combinations. It should be useful to music educators, scholars, and any users that want to quickly add various musical symbols as text.
Here’s MusGlyphs in action, typed using just a handful of characters.
All the most common glyphs are represented, I think: time signatures, key signatures, chord symbols, clefs, notes, rests, and more. You can find all the info you need on the character map. The intention is that, while a user might need to check the map for reference the first time, the key combinations are quickly learned and intuitive.
MusGlyphs is available at Notation Central. It was created and is made available under the SIL Open Font License, and as such it is available at no charge; however, a suggested contribution of $10 or whatever you care to contribute towards this project is greatly appreciated.
I hope you find MusGlyphs useful. If you find any errors or have requests for symbols to be added that would helpful for other users, please let me know.
Dan Kreider on the Scoring Notes podcast
On the Scoring Notes podcast, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk with Dan about his role as the founder of Hymnworks, a service that has produced tens of thousands of copies of custom hymnals. Not only is Dan an expert engraver, he’s also one of the top music notation software specialists, having worked extensively in Finale and Dorico.
Andrew
THANK YOU! At last a way to enter musical symbols in my text without it going haywire and messing up my line spacing and creating terrible open spaces that really, well… just look bad! It is super easy to use, effective, and really amazing how it transformed my text.
Waldbaer
This is just extremely useful, thanks a thousand times!
Tony Ward
This is utterly, Wow-out-loud-so-that-my-wife-looks-at-me-funny brilliant. Bravissimo.
Jan Steele
Just downloaded. Where do I put the file in my computer?
Dan Kreider
I’d let your operating system decide that. Simply install the font as you would any normal text font, and Windows or Mac will put it in the right place.
Jan Steele
Got it thanks!
falk
Very nice! Do you think there is a future glyph version based on port font?
falk
port = pori
Dan Kreider
Pori? Unfortunately not. But I am working on a Roman version (using Academico, with full support for Roman characters) and a sans version, typeface TBD.
Falk Rene Beigang
Another question: MusGlyph not shown in Apple Pages Fonts, only in Word!
Dan Kreider
That’s correct. It’s because Apple OS does not recognize MusGlyphs as a Latin script, so it appears in its own section in the list.
You should be able to select it in Format > Fonts > Show Fonts even if you don’t see it in the drop down menu.
Jan Martin Smørdal
This is fantastic, thanks so much. Will download and donate immediately.
2 questions:
– Is it possible/Will it be possible to write more complex rhythmic modulations, e.g. parts of a quintuplet equals swing/3:2
– Can Musglyphs also create this tiny circle instead of n as niente in dynamics? Or maybe a downscaled dim will do?
Again, thanks a bunch for this work!
Dan Kreider
The next version will include comprehensive (I think) support for metric modulations, such as this: https://forums.steinberg.net/t/musglyphs-bravura-for-writing-in-time-signatures-and-other-glyphs/707172/104
I will add the niente circle to the next update as well, thanks.
Marek Tabisz
I’ve not noticed alto clef with key signatures. There are only F and G clefs. I’s impossible to write for instance A4#). Or maybe I am missing something. Anyway great project!
Dan Kreider
That’s correct, key signatures are presently available only with treble and bass clefs.
Kay
This is fantastic and helps a lot. Many thanks!!!
Just wonder if there will be an Alto clef and Tenor clef with key signatures in the future’s update. It would be super helpful.
mirabilos
This is very interesting for a start (it doesn’t seem to be possible to place notes on note lines, but I guess that’d be much more complex, though an interesting addition for some easy ad-hōc inline writing that can then be expanded by embedding e.g. SVGs produced by MuseScore or even the webplayer for playback).
As a T/CT singer, I note the most glaring omission is the G8vb clef ;-)
Is there a way to be notified of new releases of this font, without going through the whole order form again and manually checking if the version number changed?
Dan Kreider
You mean the treble clef with the little 8 underneath? I can add that.
When you download the font through Notation Central, you’ll be automatically notified of all future releases when they’re available.
Yes, adding notes on the staff is quite daunting. Basic notes aren’t difficult, but things like beamed 8ths quickly get very complex. I’d rather direct users to dedicated notation software for that. Dorico has a new graphic slices feature that allows you to crop and export excerpts as various formats.
Malcolm
I really like the look of this but when it comes to time signatures, is 11/4 (for example) really not possible? Or have I misunderstood? If not, a full range of time signature options would be very useful.
Dan Kreider
Hi Malcom, any time signature is possible… if I add it. Each option has to be manually created as a ligature. So there will never be an unlimited number of possibilities (I’ll probably never add support for irrational time signatures), but I can add options that users will commonly need. I’ll add 11/4 and 12/4 for the next update.
Malcolm
What a great response…thank you!
Kino
Hi Dan, I just purchased the MusGlyph font, installed it on my Mac.
Unfortunately, it does not work as advertised.
When I type a text like “4/4” in Microsoft Word, and then select the text and choose “MusGlyph” as font, it merely gets a bit bolder, but the / is still there and it looks nowhere near as beautiful as I see in your video. Bummer! Any solution?
David Louis
Same for me !
Dan Kreider
As the documentation states, you need to turn on ligatures in Word. Then it’ll work as expected.
David Louis
Thank you for your answer but but I have chosen MusGlyphs font but in my version of word (windows) OpenType features is grayed out
Dan Kreider
Version of Word are you running? I believe 2008 was the first year that Word supported ligatures.
David Louis
The last one (Office 365)
David Louis
The solution is here :
https://www.vletter.com/help/font-faq/enable-ligatures-in-microsoft-word.html
Richard Hubbard
Excellent! Where have you been all my life?! This will transform my lecture notes for students. A really useful resource, and well worth the requested donation. I look forward to future updates (e.g. 15/8)
As a percussionist, I’d welcome the addition of a series of percussion symbols (maybe that needs a separate font).
Thank you so much for creating this.
Dan Kreider
Hi Richard, thanks for the kind words. Could you please email me a list of what you feel are the most important percussion-related glyphs? I don’t know that it can be comprehensive—I want to keep the font from getting too bloated—but I think we can add some.
Lucy Innes
Many thanks for this! I’ve been frustrated by this issue for years. Thank you. I’m just about to buy it!
Nancy Piver
MusGlyphs will be a great help when I write a page of learning tips for my arrangements. The first thing I wanted, though, I didn’t find in the list of glyphs: a Rehearsal Mark in a little square (I typed RM A, to no avail). Did I miss finding it? Thank you.
Dan Kreider
Hi Nancy, at present there are no enclosed letters.
mirabilos
For enclosing I highly recommend to follow the Unicode standard instead of using ASCII shortcuts as ligature substitutions.
U+20DD ⃝ COMBINING ENCLOSING CIRCLE
U+20DE ⃞ COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE
U+20DF ⃟ COMBINING ENCLOSING DIAMOND
U+20E0 ⃠ COMBINING ENCLOSING CIRCLE BACKSLASH
U+20E2 ⃢ COMBINING ENCLOSING SCREEN
U+20E3 ⃣ COMBINING ENCLOSING KEYCAP
U+20E4 ⃤ COMBINING ENCLOSING UPWARD POINTING TRIANGLE
Nancy Piver
Thanks for the suggestion. The Unicode standard? Alas, I don’t understand what you mean. Kindly explain.
Dan Kreider
Hi Nancy, I’m planning to add enclosed letters in the next update.
David Louis
It works ! :)
I have a question. How can I write compound rhythm like this example :
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xbeEL8WvP-c/maxresdefault.jpg
Thank you
Dan Kreider
You can do most of those, except for ssess. Email me at dan dot kreider at gmail dot com, and I’ll send you a beta that includes that.
Steff
It is a fantastic idea to have the abilty of putting music symbols into a word-based textfile, especially when you work on a theory book or analysing tunes! Thank you very much for that.
I have one little question: In the screen animation file above I can see that there are several text parts (the time signatures) selected at the same time – I was always wondering how this can be done … I think it is more a questtion on how to use word, but maybe someone can mention, how to do it … ;-)
Thanks
Dan Kreider
Hmm… that’s a question for Philip!
Philip Rothman
On Mac, hold down Command while drag-selecting the text; on Windows, it’s Ctrl. See this post.
Matthew Hindson
Dan, this is insanely good. As someone who has designed fonts, you just put (most of) what I have done in this area out of business. And I am very happy about that. I will just direct them to your font instead.
One question: how about being able to use full words rather than abbreviations. e.g. “treble” rather than/ in addition to “tre”. “upbow” / “ub”. Fewer shortcuts needed to remember?
Also I would advocate for “dim” for the diminuendo hairpin.
And add Tenor and Percussion clefs in there too.
Dan Kreider
Hi Matthew, thank you for the kind words! As it happens, I do have a version just about ready to release: MusGlyphs-Roman, which does exactly what you’re requesting.
I’ll check with Philip to see if we can get it updated on the product page this week.
Dan Kreider
EDIT: I misread your comment, sorry.
“Tre” returns treble clef, so I assumed the user wouldn’t need to continue! I can add upbow. “Dim” is a dedicated “dim” chord suffix already though.
I’ll add tenor and percussion.
George Mohammed
Haven’t listened to the whole podcast, so sorry if this is answered in it.
Is it possible to enter articulations on notes, like staccato and accent marks, etc.?
Dan Kreider
Hi George, no worries; there’s no podcast discussing this!
No, presently there’s no option for placing articulations on notes. That’s a good idea; I’ll think about.
George Mohammed
Thanks, Dan. I imagine this would be quite difficult or laborious to implement. I was recently working on some music worksheets where something like this would have been useful.
Richard
Hi there, it looks great and is vastly superior to any other font that includes musical notation. I cannot believe it took until 2021 for someone to address this. So – THANK YOU, Dan!
Here are some thoughts that I had about ways to improve MusGlyph or for a different musical notation font if you see enough success with MusGlyph to branch out:
– Monospaced font (where each letter, character and space bar entry is the same width/horizontal size): As a guitarist and guitar teacher I typically use Courier (because it is Monospaced) for chord/lyric charts with small bits of TAB. It is a bit of a dated practice for guitarists to use a word processor for creating lead sheets and guitar tabs, but there are many who still do, and many more who would take the practice back up if there were a Monospaced font with music notation such as MusGlyph. It really is important to have music notes, chord symbols, and lyrics etc. all lining up perfectly.
– Is it possible to import MusGlyph or the future MonoMusGlyph for use on google docs? Perhaps as an Add-on?
Dan Kreider
Hi Richard, at present I don’t have any plans for a monospaced variant. And unfortunately getting a font approved for use in Google is insanely complicated. And often the answer is “no.” Sorry!
Mike
H! Thank you so much for an amazing work! Are planning to add beamed 32nds in the future? :)
Dan Kreider
I hadn’t planned on it, but I could if the need was there.
Mike
It would be awesome if you could (and possibly the 64ths as well). This and complex beaming are extremely useful when doing editorial comments for my scholarly editions.
Dan Kreider
Mike, would you mind writing down a list of the combinations are most commonly needed?
Mike
Sure! Here are the most extensively used by me:
– dotted 16th and 32nd
-32nd and dotted 16th
– four 32nds
– 32nd, 16th and 32nd
– 16th and two 32nds
– 16th and four 32nds
– dotted 16th and three 32nd
-the triplet
And the same goes with 32nds and 64ths, i.e. dotted 32nd and 64th etc.
Dan Kreider
Thanks Mike, I’ll consider that for the next update.
Marcin D.
Hello Dan,
Would you consider adding note glyphs with tremolo markings in one of the future updates? If it’s not too much of a problem, of course. :)
Best,
Marcin
Michael Norris
OMG, this is so much better than the old Hindson font I was using. Thank you a million times!
Heine Svendsen
I’ve informed my customers about your fonts, and linked to http://www.notationcentral.com
One of my news letter readers has made his own font, but he would rather use yours.
He downloaded you font MusGlyph to try it out, but there’s something he misses: he would like to be able to write noteheads for the tones like c, d, e etc. including the notation lines.
He has made his own font to have this feature, but your font has so much more that he would like to have (but don’t have the time to do himself)
So would if be possible for MusGlyph to write real notation in a wordprocessor?
Not complete songs, of course, but maybe just two bars?
Dan Kreider
Unfortunately not. I decided early on that was a road I didn’t want to go down. Sorry!
Annette Folsach
I downloaded the font, but it doesn’t show in Word – what can I do?
Dan Kreider
You need to install the font to use it.
Nancy Piver
Annette, included in the MusGlyphs folder is a folder called MusGlyphsDocumentation; the PDF MusGlyphs documentation says that in Windows you right-click on the font files and select “Install.” Keep the PDF handy, as it shows how to create the text and musical symbols you want.
夏末
THANKS！How to type this：a flat b up/below the mordent ; a sharp # up/below the mordent?
Dan Kreider
It’s turnb, turn-b, turn#, and turn-#.
Dan Kreider
Oops, *mordent. There’s no option for this, sorry.
Stefanos Theodoridis
Dear Mr. Kreider,
I just bought and donwloaded MusGlyphs! Great work you have done!
However, when entering a symbol (such as a flat) into, say, a Times New Roman text, that creates extra space above and below the line that includes the symbol (which is what happens with every other symbol I’ve downloaded from the internet).
Is there a solution to this?
Many thanks!
Kind regards,
Stefanos Theodoridis
Steve Innis
Hi Dan, Can you tell me how to install MusGlyphs in a Chromebook? I am beginning to think it’s not possible, but this solution seems to perfect to give up on!
Steve
Dan
Hi Steve, can you not install text fonts on a Chromebook? I would assume you can. If so, this works the same way. Simply install it as a regular text font and it should work.
Carl Lance
Absolutely excited about your MusFrets and MusGlyphs fonts!
Have a suggestion for MusGlyphs (or MusFrets) that would allow for guitar strumming patterns.
They are alternate noteheads where the head is a rhythmic slash or an X for a muted strum. Simple patterns will have a basic whole, quarter or eight note, more complex can have beamed and tied notes of almost any kind. Ideally they could be used inside staff notation, though I suspect this would be more challenging to add.
Similarly it would be nice to include Chord names inside staff notation, but I suspect that would also be challenging.
Peter Maertens
Hi Dan, Thanks for MusGlyphs. Is it possible to completely beam these 6/8 rhythms?
1) eight note, eight rest and eight note – I only get this seperated
2) eight note, two sixteenth notes, eight note – the last eight note is seperated
3) four sixteenth notes and an eight note – the eight note is separated
Thanks for your help.