Best practices for exporting examples and scores for Adobe InDesign

If you have a bunch of work already done in version 2, finish this project there and then upgrade to version 3. It will likely make you next project go better, but will likely turn an existing project into a nightmare due to changes in layout that will happen when you open the scores in version 3.

I've never used InDesign, but I can tell you a possible advantage to MuseScore 3 would be the new "Copy with Link to Score" command in the image capture tool, which allows you to paste your image into external program with a link back to the original, thus facilitating further edits. Simply clicking or otherwise activating the link in the example will automatically open the score in MuseScore. This works with LibreOffice, and should in theory work with any program capable of accepting HTML pastes, but I don't know if InDesign would work or not, and in any case that might not be relevant for you at this point.

On the subject of quality, you can't go better than SVG.

I just got an email asking me to comment on this stream because of my experience with InDesign. Mark Sabatella's point about being able to automatically update images in MS3 using "Copy with Link to Score" sounds really interesting. I didn't know that existed.

Here are some practical tips for using images or PDF files that have been created in MuseScore in an InDesign layout.

What file format should you use? I suppose you could use SVG format if this is going to appear in many different media (Print, Web, Video, etc) and many different sizes; but, me, I just export my files as PDFs. They work very well. As you seem to know already, PDF files can be linked into InDesign files just as if they were regular images.

You will need to think about what fonts you want to use so that your InDesign text and the text (if any) used in the MuseScore file match—both the typeface and the font size. Not forgetting that when you change the Staff Space in Page Settings (in MuseScore), it effects the size of the fonts, too. This can be a bit confusing because when you set the font size in the Style section, the sizes are given in points, when, actually, the font size changes when you change the Staff Space. So, an 11pt font may not actually be 11 points when it is printed!

I have found that it is best to leave any non-musical comments out of the MuseScore file and add them later as text-boxes in InDesign. This assures that the Paragraph and Character Styles will match the rest of the text. Also, it is easier to place these text boxes exactly where you want them in InDesign than it is in MuseScore.

If you find that you need to leave more space between systems to make space for comments, a nice trick in InDesign is to simply make two image boxes for the same MuseScore image/pdf, so it appears twice. Then you can bring up the bottom of one image box to the point where you want a larger space between systems, and lower the top of the second image box so that it takes up where the first one ended. Then you can arrange the two image boxes with as much space between as you like (see screenshots below). This applies equally if you have to put a page break in the middle of a single linked image/PDF unit.

Here is a Bach chorale with the PDF file linked into an Image Box in InDesign:

Here is the same score with the two systems in separate image boxes and a space for comments in between:

Another thing to consider when formatting the MuseScore files is what the proportions of the final book are going to be. I have found that it is sometimes easiest to eliminate the margins in a MuseScore file if it is going to be inserted into InDesign. The thing is that the InDesign file will already have margins, so margins that are included in the image or PDF file that come into InDesign will have to be eliminated using the same technique of sliding the image box edges in. Here is the hazard, when you have to fiddle around with the images to get them to fit into image boxes in InDesign, it is a bit tricky to get them to line up exactly the same on each page. Also, there is some danger that the magnification of different images can change in minute ways. Your conscious eye might not catch the differences, but the pages will look just a tiny bit sloppy. You want all tops and edges, especially the left edges, of the scores to line up exactly the same way and all the staves, notes, and text to be of uniform size.

I am sure there is a lot more to say about this, but I think that pretty much covers the important points. I hope I didn't make this sound like it is a difficult thing to do. Actually, using MuseScore images in InDesign is pretty easy and it's one of the (many) things I love about MuseScore.

Cheers, Jake Sterling

On the subject of downloading vectorized images from MuseScore, unless you are going to be enlarging these images a great deal, I don't think you need to worry about this. Really, even the PNG images that MuseScore puts out will print very well. The resolution of the PNG images is 300px per inch (118px per centimeter). That is perfectly good for professional printing. (The only time you need higher resolution than that would be for very, very fine art books and prints—coffee table books.)

By the way, are you planning to also make this book available in electronic format, too?