Some minor updates to the Norfolk suite of fonts have been released today. Available for free from the Resources page on our NYC Music Services web site, the Norfolk family of fonts is a derivative of the beautiful Bravura font that we have expressly reconfigured to work within Sibelius. Bravura is designed by Daniel Spreadbury at Steinberg and is the default font of Dorico, its scoring application.
The updates are modest in scope but correct a few issues:
- In Norfolk Special Std, the final barline symbol now displays at the proper vertical position when used as a replacement for Opus Special Std (thanks to Hugo Bell for noticing this)
- In Norfolk Std, the space character now has the same width as Opus Std
- In Norfolk Text Std, the metrics for flat, natural, sharp, double-flat, and double-sharp have been adjusted to match those of Opus Text Std, to make line spacing and the appearance of boxed text consistent in cases where Norfolk Text Std has been substituted for Opus Text Std (thanks to Abraham Lee for his help making these changes)
Keep in mind that if you have made any adjustments in your Sibelius file to work around the issues described in the above list, you may have to make another adjustment in your score to “re-correct” the problem after installing the updated fonts. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run!
If you are a registered user of the Norfolk fonts, you will have already received an e-mail notifying you of the update, along with a private link from which to download the update; you do not need to re-register. If you haven’t yet downloaded the fonts, head on over to the Resources page on our NYC Music Services web site to get them.
Since embarking on the Norfolk project nearly four years ago, the fonts have been officially downloaded more than 3,000 times. I have used them in many projects and publications, and enjoy its legibility and warm appearance. The fact that it is free and open-source has led to notable improvements by members of the community and has made it easy to share files with others.
It’s nice to see the results of project that began over a casual lunch conversation with Matthew Maslanka take hold so widely. And, of course, many thanks to Daniel Spreadbury for creating such a nice-looking font. I’m sure it wasn’t his intention that it become used in Sibelius (porting a SMuFL font to each of Sibelius’s constituent fonts is not exactly a simple process), but this is among his many contributions to the broader field of computer-engraved music and it is deeply appreciated.
If you’re using the fonts, I’d really like to hear about it if you have a moment. Please leave a comment and tell us how you’re using it, and for what projects.
Bernie Cossentino
A few months ago, I transcribed some string arrangements whereby the Norfolk font was used to create the recording session charts. Those same session charts were used for the artist’s live performances as well. The difference between these and the stock Sibelius fonts are obvious, favouring Norfolk.
Recently, I’ve been using the fonts for a client’s piano arrangements. I substituted his template’s standard Sibelius fonts with those of Norfolk. The resulting transcriptions look great, balanced and easy to read. My client’s more than happy, and so am I :)
Thanks to all involved with Norfolk’s continued refinement!
Paolo
Nice touches! Fine improvements to an already great set of fonts!