Text font

• Sep 25, 2015 - 22:00

Hello,

The system default font for all kind of text is: FreeSerif
and I need to change it every time, in evry score (Title, Composer, Lyrics, etc.)

I would like to change it permanently to the font: Times New Roman

How can I do it ?

Thanks in advanced,

Ofra

Comments

• Sep 25, 2015 - 22:06

Of all the fonts you might want to use instead of FreeSerif, I would not have predicted Times New Roman. ;-) But here's the process:

1) Change the relevant text styles
2) Save the style sheet (Style -> Save Style…)
3) Set that as the new default style in the Freelinking: Unknown plugin indicator

That's assuming it's important enough to you to change the default style at all. I think there are very few people in the world who would notice any difference at all between FreeSerif and Times New Roman.

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• Sep 25, 2015 - 22:22

Also, be aware that Times New Roman is specific to certain operating systems and not available on others. So if you rely on that font, your score will look different if others try opening your score on their computers - perhaps *very* much so if the differences are enough to cause different number of measures to fit per system (could happen with lyrics or chord symbols especially). That is part of why FreeSerif is provided - to help reduce the likelihood of such surprises.

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• Oct 12, 2015 - 17:45

@jotape1960: Font licensing is every bit as bureaucratic software licensing and music licensing. Times New Roman is a proprietary font; you have to pay for it to include it in software. Clearly free operating systems like Linux can't afford to do this, so they use free alternatives like Free Serif or Liberation Serif which look similar to Times New Roman and have exactly the same size characters so that the same number fit on a page.

It is actually possible (and legal) to install Times New Roman on Linux machines for free, but it requires downloading a font pack from Microsoft and accepting licensing terms that make it impossible for it to be included by default on Linux.

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• Oct 12, 2015 - 19:05

Century Schoolbook is another proprietary font, but there are free alternatives. You're welcome to use whatever font you like on your own system, just be aware that if you share your MuseScore file online then then other people won't see it the way you intended.

However, if you share your score as a PDF then the font is (usually) embedded within the PDF so it will look the same to everyone. Of course, you can't listen to PDFs.

I don't think MuseScore can embed fonts in MSCZ files. Maybe at some point it will be able to, but it would be up to you to check that this was permitted by the font's license.

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• Sep 26, 2015 - 00:33

Hello again !

I must explain:
Indeed - both two fonts are similar in English, but in Hebrew FreeSerif font is just not nice.
What about FreeSans font ? is it more common in operation systems ?
I found it nice in both languages.
I tried to save the new style of text, and I think it works !

And if I talk about language - just to inform you that there are problems with writing Hebrew, especialy the lyrics under the notes. I’m sure it is the right-left / left-right problem. Hope you will solve it.

Thank you very much,
Ofra

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• Oct 12, 2015 - 18:53

Hello,
Something is not clear to me :
I’m working on Windows 7, and not on Linux.

The Times New Roman font apears in the MuseScore softwar, like many other fonts.

My only request is to make this font to be the default of the system, instead of FreeSerif font which appears everywhere, and looks very bad in Hebrew.

Thanks,
Ofra

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• Oct 12, 2015 - 19:30

You have to create an STYLE file, which will tell MuseScore which thing you want to use to what purpose.

To create your personal STYLE file, you have to select the options you want on the "STYLE" Menu (superior bar panel).

First, you have to go to the "GENERAL" option (on the "Style" menu). There are a lot of options you can change there.

Second, you have to go to the "TEXT" option (same "Style" menu). You can choose the font you want to tittle, subtittle, composer, lyricist, staves text, lyrics text, etc. etc. etc.

When you get your personal "Style" then you have to save it on the folder where MuseScore looks for it. To do that, you just have to save your Style on your Style File (you have to choose a name for your personal style file). It is the "SAVE STYLE" option of the "Style" menu.

Then, each time you open MuseScore, all the new scores you do will have your personal style (with your favourite fonts).

That's all folks!!!

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• Oct 13, 2015 - 12:30

Finally - it’s done successfully !

What wasn’t clear to me is the need to load the “style” file that I created, each time I start a new sheetmusic. (It doesn’t apear automaticly).

Thanks, Ofra

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