Colouring staves
I don't know if this is already possible, but what I want to do is add a coloured background to different staves to highlight certain instruments or groups of instrument. I am working on an orchestral score with 32 instruments and it would make it much easier to navigate if I could colour, say the French horns in blue and the trombones in pink, so that their staves jump out at me. What I want is a pale colour that fills the stave but is in the background which would mean that I could still see the notes. Then when I am zoomed out with all 32 instruments displayed I can see, let's say the oboes, trombones and first violins, as colours even though the labels are too small to read.
I hope this makes sense. Any advice would be gratefully received.
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Comments
Right-click on a staff / Staff/Part Properties / Click "Staff line Color" and select the desired color.
In reply to Right-click on a staff /… by cadiz1
Thanks! Not exactly what I imagined but it's a great work around. :-)
In reply to Thanks! Not exactly what I… by williamspdw14
It's not a workaround. It's been a native feature of MuseScore in all versions. What else could you imagine?
Maybe you could make some pale png images and add them to the score behind the staves.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/working-images
or simply some lines from the lines palette.
These lines are 9.00sp in height and set behind the score.
Use Inkscape to create small images with the desired color.
![ScreenShot 342.png]( "ScreenShot 342.png")
In Musescore, add a horizontal frame before the first measure of each page.
Transfer the color images to the horizontal frame,
Set the aspect ratio to "unlock" and the stacking order to "1". You must do this on every page. Do this at the very end when you have finished the score. Otherwise you will always have to correct the position of the colors.
It will look like this (Musescore 3.7, paper size A6):
In reply to Use Inkscape to create small… by HildeK
The lines option is much easier, (no placeholder frames), and does not need to be done at the end of the score. The lines are fully adjustable horizontally and vertically.
In reply to The lines option is much… by yonah_ag
But it reacts to Ctrl+R.
EDIT: But it does not respond to switching from Disable/Enable vertical justificaton, which my solution does.
In reply to But it reacts to Ctrl+R. by HildeK
Vertical justification is something that you normally establish for the score then leave it alone. Anyway, the OP now has a choice of options to play with.
In reply to Vertical justification is… by yonah_ag
Yes, and it's important that he does it at the very end, because the coloring is always selected first and then it causes considerable problems when writing further notes.
In reply to Yes, and it's important that… by HildeK
Select all similar and make invisible gets them out of the way.
In reply to Select all similar and make… by yonah_ag
Ok, but not with my proposed solution. So yours is better ... :-)