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Topic: Elizabethan music font (Read 4193 times) previous topic - next topic

Elizabethan music font

I'm trying to find out whether I can replace the standard Noteworthy music output with a specific font-based version (NB music, not lyrics).

That is, I'd dearly like to be able to output a page of sheet music using something like Jeff Lee's musica font for the music output (I can already replace the lyric font with his JSL Ancient), so that I end up with a sheet that approximates an Elizabethan broadsheet.

Has anything changed since the last discussion on this?

(Last ref I could fiind was in 2002, here's the ref: https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2597)

I suspect this won't be as easy as I hoped it might be, given mention of how NWC puts its music output together, but one can always hope...it would be a lot quicker than hand-transcribing everything....

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #1 –
The "Robert A." of that other message thread is still around. Greetings! I don't work for NWC, but I do know something about fonts.

NWC (v. 1 or v. 2) sheet music is composed of "drawing objects" and "font objects," as I call them. Drawing objects are things such as staff lines, measure bars, note stems, beams, ties, and slurs. Font objects are things such as note heads, note flags, clefs, accidentals, time signatures, dynamics (mp, ff, etc.), signos, and a few other special music symbols.

For example, a stand-alone 1/16 note consists of a note head (font object), a double-flag (font object, as a unit), and a stem connecting them (drawing object).

Yes, it IS possible to replace NWC's own font objects with symbols that are drawn differently. This was already done with the "NWJazz" font, which can be found at the Scriptorium. But you cannot use this method to replace drawing objects.

You cannot simply replace NWC's own font with another (different fonts are used for NWC1 and NWC2). The replacement must have the same kinds of characters in the same character code locations. Also, the metrics must be the same, or the font objects will not align with their surroundings.

If the license for your Elizabethan-style font allows you to make a derivative font, and if you have the software and knowledge, here is what you would do: Open the relevant NWC font in your font editor, so you can see which symbols are where. Make note of the metrics (width and height occupied by each symbol). Replace the symbols with your own, at the correct metrics. Save the new font with a different name - it must have the same number of characters in the font name as the NWC font you are replacing.

When you own font is satisfactory, install it in Windows in the usual fashion. It cannot be used in the NWC music editor unless you hack the program (not recommended), but you can make it appear in printed files or metafiles by using a hex editor to replace reference to the NWC font with reference to your own font.

Sounds complicated? Yes, IS complicated. But it has been done, so it is not impossible. The difficulty is not particular to NWC. You would have the same difficulty with any music program that uses its own font or fonts, unless someone created a replacement font intended as a program-specific substitute. For a program such as Finale, which is perhaps the commercial publishing standard, there may well be drop-in replacement fonts available. But NWC is not intended as a Finale-killer, so the same capability in NWC is more exotic.

Incidentally, font editing is a learned skill, and it requires non-free software.

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #2 –
Thank you very much for the very clear explanation.

Given that the Elizabethan music font I have access to consists of not only the note head itself, but also the stem and individual staff lines, I suspect that even this is not going to give me the capability of substituting one for the other.

Ah well, at least I can output the music with NWC and then figure out how to typeset it by hand using the NWC as a reference. That puts me way ahead of where I was a month ago!

Though the flip-side is that I now have a *lot* more music begging to be set as broadsheets than I did....

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #3 –
maybe im just crazy.  maybe i made you up.

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #4 –
yes sheet music is cool I play in a high school band and in the top band in top chair i'm only in 9th grade and the youngest i play flute, clairnet, oboe, french horn, trombone, tuba and percussion

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #5 –
Let's put this on the wish list: a selection of fonts for the music, just as we have a selection for texts. I am pretty sure that shape-note, Gregorian, and other specialized fonts for notes etc. would bring blessings from some users on the heads of the NWC people (in addition to the blessings they receive for providing us with an inexpensive good music program to begin with).

BTW: There are a number of fonts out there with all sorts of musical stuff (slurs, mordants, etc etc) that can be entered as text. These must be located by putting the font on a character map. The various signs as displayed in the character map are so small that just locating them is a pain in the patootie; once they are located, there is no further problem (I use CharacterMap Pro, which displays an enlarged version of the sign after you find it in the map). Does anyone have a solution to this?

Stephen

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #7 –
hi guys, can i play too?
 

Re: Elizabethan music font

Reply #8 –
Sure. Choose an instrument.