Although Finale is no longer available for sale, there are a great many people who still use Finale, and presumably will for some time to come, whether as their only notation software or alongside other notation software.
Essential to any modern notation software are its fonts, and Finale uses a lot of them. Prior to Finale 27 (the final major version of Finale), like other notation software programs at the time, Finale relied upon music fonts designed specifically for use in that application. With Finale 27 (and refined in subsequent updates) came support for Standard Music Font Layout, or SMuFL, the font specification initiated by Steinberg for use in Dorico and now developed by the W3C Music Notation Community Group.
Because SMuFL is an open standard, SMuFL fonts can be used in any application that supports the SMuFL specification. When MakeMusic decided to support SMuFL, they needed to redesign their music fonts to adhere to that spec. As a result, anyone running an installer for Finale 27 got new SMuFL fonts prepended with the “Finale” name based on the old music fonts, such as Finale Maestro (based on Maestro), Finale Engraver (based on Engraver), etc.
MakeMusic released all of their “Finale” SMuFL fonts (along with some complementary text fonts, see below) under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) agreement, which means that these fonts can be freely used, modified, and redistributed, subject to the terms of the agreement, so even if you don’t have Finale, you are allowed to legally obtain the fonts from someone who does.
Still, it’s not so straightforward: SMuFL fonts typically contain two parts: The font itself (the .otf file), which is installed in your operating system’s usual font directory; and a JSON file, containing font-specific metadata, including, according to the spec, “recommendations for how to draw the elements of music notation not provided directly by the font itself (such as staff lines, barlines, hairpins, etc.) in a manner complementary to the design of the font, and important glyph-specific metrics, such as the precise coordinates at which a stem should connect to a notehead.”
Finding the correct directory to install this complementary file can be a challenge for the less-technically savvy user. This is why most SMuFL fonts are distributed via installer packages to install the font file and the metadata file in the correct directories on the user’s computer.
If you install a complete software application, such as Dorico of Finale, the fonts will be installed as part of the overall routine of installing the application. But what if you just want the fonts — especially now that you can’t obtain a new copy of Finale anymore?
Thankfully, MakeMusic has made all of its Finale fonts available for anyone to download, for free, independently of Finale itself. This includes not just the “Finale” SMuFL fonts introduced in Finale 27, but the older fonts as well, such as the Maestro, Engraver, and Jazz fonts (and their various constituent fonts, i.e., Maestro Wide, Maestro Percussion, Engraver Font Extras, etc.); Petrucci; Broadway Copyist; and even specialty fonts like Seville and Tamburo.
Even though a standard Finale installation should install all of these fonts, if for some reason those fonts have gone missing on your computer, or, if you have a document that uses these fonts outside of Finale (it has been known to happen), you can obtain these fonts directly from MakeMusic, install them on your computer, and ensure that your document appears as expected. This is especially helpful for former Finale customers transitioning to using another software.
Get the fonts — both SMuFL and non-SMuFL
Follow this link to the official MakeMusic page containing the installers for Mac and Windows.
The following SMuFL fonts are included:
- Finale Ash
- Finale Broadway
- Finale Engraver
- Finale Jazz
- Finale Maestro
- Finale Legacy (Petrucci)
The following complementary text fonts are also included:
- Finale Ash Text
- Finale Broadway Text
- Finale Broadway Legacy Text
- Finale Jazz Text
- Finale Jazz Text Lowercase
- Finale Lyrics
- Finale Maestro Text
All of the above fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) agreement, which means that these fonts can be freely used, modified, and redistributed, subject to the terms of the agreement. The corresponding JSON metadata files are also installed in the correct location, along with the fonts themselves.
In addition, the following non-SMuFL fonts are included in the installers:
- Broadway Copyist (and Broadway Percussion, Broadway Text, and Broadway Text Extended)
- Engraver (and Engraver Font Extras, Engraver Text H/NCS/T, and Engraver Time)
- Finale AlphaNotes
- Finale Copyist Text (and Finale Copyist Text Extended)
- Finale Mallets
- Finale Numerics
- Finale Percussion
- Jazz (and Jazz Chords, Jazz Percussion, Jazz Text, and Jazz Text Extended)
- Maestro (and Maestro Percussion, Maestro Wide and Maestro Times)
- Petrucci
- Seville
- Tamburo
Yes, it is slightly confusing that the names of a few of these also begin with “Finale”, but they are not SMuFL fonts.
The fonts included with this non-SMuFL subset are not released under the SIL OFL, so technically you are not permitted to redistribute them. However, practically speaking, as these fonts are of minimal value outside of Finale (and since MakeMusic is offering them free of charge) it may not be the most egregious offense to do so. Still, it is best to direct anyone seeking these fonts to get them directly from the official site, if for no other reason than to know that they are the correct authorized versions of the fonts.
More importantly, if you wish to modify any of the Finale fonts, only the ones released under the SIL OFL permit that particular use.
Use Finale SMuFL fonts in Dorico
Recent versions of Dorico bundle the following Finale SMuFL fonts with Dorico: Finale Ash, Finale Broadway, Finale Jazz, and Finale Maestro, along with their complementary text fonts. So, if you want to use those fonts and already have Dorico installed, you don’t need the MakeMusic font installer — you have these fonts already.
However, if you would like to use Finale Engraver or Finale Legacy in Dorico, and have never installed Finale 27, then you should get the installer.
To switch to another SMuFL font in Dorico, simply choose Library > Music Fonts… and select your desired font from the list.
Unless you have specific preferences, it is usually a good idea to choose at least Use font’s recommended engraving options, which will pull information from the aforementioned JSON metadata file. You may also wish to choose Update text fonts when changing music font, depending upon your preferences.
This makes it very easy to quickly update your file with the desired fonts, particularly if you are migrating from Finale to Dorico and desire to maintain a similar house style in your Dorico files that you had in Finale.
A tip of the hat to Ben Byram-Wigfield for helping get the word out about this!
Can these fonts be used in sibelius? And what of the Salzedo font or symbol collection that was created for Finale? And, can Finale still be downloaded and used going into the future?
SMuFL fonts are not suitable for use in Sibelius. However, we have created Norfolk and Pori, which are Sibelius-specific ports of Bravura and Petaluma, the two “flagship” Dorico SMuFL fonts. Norfolk and Pori are supported natively in Sibelius but must be installed separately.
Some users are able to use some of the older non-SMuFL Finale fonts in Sibelius, since some of the codepoints are shared, but this is unsupported and generally requires advanced customization on the user’s part.
I cannot speak to the Salzedo font or Bill Duncan’s other fonts.
Finale can be downloaded and used, but only by users who had a valid Finale license prior to August 26, 2024. It will be supported by MakeMusic until August 25, 2025, and authorizations will remain active “for the foreseeable future” thereafter, but it is not possible to newly acquire the product.
Thank you for explaining. Still, if I can use the fonts in a free software, it gives me a future post-sibelius.
Although installing the Finale fonts into Font Book.app (Mac) makes them available to all applications, there is no guarantee that they will work. An app must support the use first.
As Phillip has posted, Sibelius does not support SMuFL though they did announce recently that’s in the works. MuseScore can only use built in free fonts at the present—will this change with v.5? Maybe… Then there is the issue of sharing scores where both parties need to have the same fonts installed or there will be more work on the receiving end.
In addition, many fonts have licensing requirements that must be met (such as being purchased) before you can use them in anything.
One oddity is that the MakeMusic installer adds SMuFL metadata (“JSON”) files to your disk for the Text fonts that contain no (or very few) music symbols. You can delete these, so that they don’t pollute Dorico’s Music Fonts menu.
“Finale Jazz Text” is a text font that complements Finale Jazz, whereas Bravura Text is a version of Bravura designed for use in text environments.
The big question now is: who will maintain the Finale fonts, fixing any problems, adding glyphs and keeping up with SMuFL standard updates…?
Ben, thanks for making those points about the Text fonts. I had considered putting those subtleties into the article, so I’m glad you raised it.
Regarding who will maintain the Finale SMuFL fonts, if they could fall under the auspices of the W3C group, perhaps some order could be maintained regarding how and when they are updated, while taking advantage of any community contributions. It is also possible that they served this moment in time well and don’t need to be updated, as newer (and better?) SMuFL fonts continue to become available elsewhere.
Hey Ben,
Good catch! I’d forgotten about that.
As to who will maintain, I would expect the W3C group since Daniel rules that part of the roost but, at this point, no one knows and it’s unlikely to be an issue till after August 2025. Til something happens, I suspect that we’re characters in a Tennessee Williams play, depending “on the kindness of strangers.”