MusGlyphs has been updated to version 2.1. MusGlyphs is the font by Dan Kreider that makes it easier to type a wide variety of musical symbols directly into a word processor, combined with text fonts, without needing to adjust baselines or point sizes.
Among the notable improvements in this version is the addition of MusGlyphs Text, a version of MusGlyphs with regular and bold variants that allows the user to type ordinary text and musical symbols without needing to switch between two different fonts.
MusGlyphs Text
To accomplish this, you write text normally, and use the @ symbol to trigger the same musical symbols you’d find in MusGlyphs.
MusGlyphs Text and MusGlyphs are derived from Academico and Bravura. Academico is the open-source stand-in font for Century Schoolbook, originally created by Daniel Spreadbury at Steinberg. Academico and Bravura are respectively the default text and music fonts Dorico as well as in many of the Scoring Express templates for Sibelius (Bravura as Norfolk), so MusGlyphs works nicely in music notation software as well as any word processor or design software.
Generally speaking, if you find yourself typing long strings of text with the occasional music symbol thrown in, MusGlyphs Text will be a more satisfying experience compared to the standard MusGlyphs font, since you won’t need to repeatedly toggle between two different fonts in a single line of text.
On the other hand, if you use MusGlyphs mostly (or entirely) to display music symbols apart from regular text, the standard version of MusGlyphs will be easier, since the @ trigger will not be needed.
Try it! In the box below, type @e.s rhythm in @c/ in E@b
MusGlyphs 2.1 improvements
The addition of the MusGlyphs Text version isn’t the only noteworthy item in this update. MusGlyphs has added lots of new features.
Among them are the addition of enclosures (rehearsal marks), making it easy to enter numbers from 1 through 100 and capital letters from A-Z, in both circle and square enclosures.
Circles are added by typing parentheses such as (1) or (A) and squares are added with square brackets such as [1] or [A].
What’s more, the user can type b after the enclosure to make it white text on black background.
String indicators from 1-9 are now supported with the letter O suffix after a number.
Other goodies round out this update:
- time signatures 1/1–8/1
- straight flags for 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th notes (with underscore): e_, s_, 32nd_, 64th_
- beamed eess, ssee, and ssess
- beamed ee.s, e.sss, sse.s, and essss
- tenor for tenor clef
- perc for percussion clef
- @| for large single barline (useful for staff-less notation)
All of the above additions are reflected in MusGlyphs Text, as well. It should be noted that certain musical symbols in MusGlyphs Text do not require the use of @ and may be entered identically to the way they are entered in MusGlyphs. These are:
- Chord symbol suffixes (the ; [semicolon] trigger applies)
- Small and tall parentheses
- Multirests
- Barline, double barline, start and end repeats, tall barline
- Enclosures (rehearsal marks) and string indicators
- Scale degrees (the ^ [caret] trigger applies)
Further, in MusGlyphs Text, to show the @, ; [semicolon], and ^ [caret] in normal text format, use the @ trigger in front of these characters.
Finally, In MusGlyphs Text, the [space] returns a space of standard width. To get the half-width space as used in MusGlyphs, use the @ trigger in front of the space.
Full documentation is included with MusGlyphs.
Get the update
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.
If you have already registered and downloaded a previous version of MusGlyphs, you will already have received an update notification via email. You can obtain your downloads and updates by logging into your account at Notation Central, or by going to the Retrieve Files page and entering your e-mail address to obtain the download link.
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.
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
Andrew
Would there be an update that includes numbers greater than 100 for the enclosures (rehearsal marks)?