Optical recognition

• Jun 14, 2011 - 00:58

Is there a program that will scan printed scores into the MuseScore format, allowing individual parts to be printed?


Comments

There are plenty of them claiming to do so. They are called OMR and output MusicXML. MuseScore can import MusicXML. Depending on the scan quality and the complexity of the piece, it's often faster to enter it from scratch in MuseScore.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Okay I can open the pdf in the master branch even though it is hard to read. I found the PDF transcribing assistant but it does not do anything on process.
I set the paper color to transparent But how do I make the score transparent so that i can see the pdf behind the score?

In reply to by mike320

example.png
Here is what I meant: The pdf is in the background (opaque) and on top of it is the musescore staff.
I can do all of this in the master branch:
1. Load pdf
2. Put it behind the staff
3. Scale staff, measure and space

I am only missing the transparency. Is this possible? Or can this easily be added?

Attachment Size
example.png 128.21 KB

In reply to by JaimeWJr

I have tried to scan in a normal trumpet part from a printed piece of music with both Finale and Audiveris to no avail. Neither program was able to make anything usable, and I agree that it would be faster to put the music into MuseScore from scratch than to try to clean up the mess that resulted from the scan.

If it worked, it would be amazing. A piece of more expensive, professional level OMR software might produce a better result, but I suspect the technology just isn't there yet.

In reply to by hbitteur

The OCR software I use is called Sharpeye which does an amazing job, very often with very little cleaning up needed, depending on the quality of the original of course.

Sadly there is no Linux version :(

It interfaces neatly with MuseScore via the MusicXML format.

In my erstwhile Finale days I was using it in preference to Finale's OCR import - which in a word is pathetic!

I'm not sure whether it is still in development though - there hasn't been a new version for a couple of years now.

In reply to by xavierjazz

I found it HERE for $149 as well (down from $169). It does seem to have a trial version if you click the download link, but I'm swamped right now and don't have time to investigate. $149 seems steep, but then again, if it really does what it says it does, it's worth every penny.

I see the latest version is SharpEye v.2.68, released on March 27, 2010, so it hasn't quite been two years since it's been updated, but it has been a year and a half.

In reply to by newsome

In my experience, it's very hard to have good results with Sharpeye or Photoscore. Don't expect them to work out of the box with PDF you'll find online. If you have the paper version and can scan it correctly and it's not too complex music, you may have better results...

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

Well I started out with the trial version and was impressed enough to fork out 50 quid to register it.

It's a one time cost - all updates to version 2 are free.

None of these things are perfect - they depend very much on the quality of the original scan - in Sharpeye's case 300dpi black and white is what gives the best results.

Sharpeye has worked well for me within these confines however.

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