Right click within the staff (Ctrl-Click on Mac)
Choose Staff/Part properties from the popup menu.
Open Advanced properties with the button which is located bottom-right of the top section of the Staff/Part properties window.
There you can choose between 8 different fonts for tablature
I've created four tablature fonts,. And I need the option of using them in MuseScore before I can fully adopt it as my main score writer.
So naturally I wonder: Why are we limited to eight baked-in fonts for tablature fret numbers?
We have StaffProperties>AdvancedStyleProterites>FretMarks>Font
Would it be within the realm for MuseScore to allow a Tablature staff's FretMarks>Font to be any system (or user) library font? We have that kind of font freedom in many places.
As an esteemed colleague says, "If we had some eggs we could have eggs and ham, if we had some ham."
This sounds really interesting. Could you share a picture of some samples? The menu option makes sense and there could be a default fallback font when a user does not have a particular font installed.
>> This sounds really interesting. Could you share a picture of some samples?
Some of my fonts contain proprietary concepts and encoding so first I need to decide what I want to reveal publicly.
However one font is quite simple.
I prefer san serif fonts in tablature and was stuck with Helvetica—because, in the notation apps I used, only Helvetica properly aligned itself vertically to the staff, and there was no way to tweak it's y placement overall, as we can in MuseScore. So along with addressing the y placement issue:
• I created my own set of "sans" numbers for tablature.
• I opened up the 3 because there's a tendency for a 3 on a tablature line to look like an 8.
• I raised the waist of the 8 so it shows partly above the line.
• I set glyph side bearings so double digit numbers would sit closer, side by side, without pair kerning nor the need to rely on the app to support auto kerning. As you can see, the numbers 10, 11, 12 etc. take up far less space (which was an important criteria) and regarding legibility there's no question that 10 (ten) is not 1 0 (one and zero).
I also created a handwritten tab number font, but mostly for promotional imagery, and later found it worked well in Chord Symbols, especially at small sizes:
Overall that test font looks like this:
Interestingly, all these font images look heavy posted here on the forum. Maybe that's a PNG thing.
Suffice it to say they need a little tweaking, but they are not as gloppy or bold as they appear here.
This looks good, very clear, and I like how you've tackled 2 digit fret numbers.
I much prefer a sans-serif font for TAB but find that the built-in ones are too light, (with no semi-bold, let alone bold option), especially compared with notation which appears darker because of the noteheads. I had hoped to use Segoe Semi-bold on Windows 10 but soon found that external fonts are not supported.
In MS I disallow the tab lines from showing through the numbers so the problem with 3 looking like 8 is avoided. I also make most non-fret elements grey rather than black in an attempt to make the fret numbers more prominent.
>> yonah_ag wrote >>This looks good, very clear, and I like how you've tackled 2 digit fret numbers.
> Thanks. The side bearing settings allow me to work with narrow measures while preserving legality of >9 frets. Really helps in a score like Barrios Mangore's La Catedral, Prelude:
>> I find that the built-in [tablature fonts] are too light
> I created a single weight fontFace, but when I get back into FontLab (after a large system update here) I'll check to see if it creates reasonable bold and light variants; if they are good enough I could manually tweak the details. Otherwise it again would be all by hand.
>> In MS I disallow the tab lines from showing through the numbers so the problem with 3 looking like 8 is avoided.
> Good point.
>>I also make most non-fret elements grey rather than black in an attempt to make the fret numbers more prominent.
I like that idea! There's a style to set the color of staff lines.
The issue with this is always that this would mean your score could not be shared with others who don't have that font (eg, on musescore.com). So in general, this is not something anyone has really been to keen to support.
But it should be noted, if you don't care about sharing your score, and it's your own custom font, you could simply name it the same as one of the built in fonts, then install it normally, MuseScore will see it in preference to the built in version.
Perhaps there could be a fallback internal font for missing external fonts and this could be defined in the score setup as "Free Serif" or "Free Sans". This would allow normal sharing. Something similar already works for custom soundfonts that users have installed. The score can still be shared but simply plays back without the custom sounds.
Marc Sabatella wrote>> this would mean your score could not be shared with others (eg, on musescore.com) who don't have that font
> Understood. Although I expect to share scores on MuseScore.com, the vast majority of my score are purely for in-house use, so sharing source scores is not a concerning factor. And if I ever wanted to I could also share or license my fonts.
Marc Sabatella wrote>> ... you could simply name your custom font the same as one of the built in fonts, then install it normally, MuseScore will see it in preference to the built in version.
> You mean to employ a font managing trick? If so, I really appreciate the advice, but I really prefer not to extend workarounds to the system level.
I admire and understand that MuseScore has vested goal in encouraging people to share their scores. A brilliant model. And of course that means MuseScore needs to ensure compatibility, for instance by limiting the choices of fonts—largely throughout the app—to the fonts MuseScore bakes in at compile. As you say, because there's no guarantee that others have the same fonts installed on their system.
That's definitely good for sharing, but it also shuts down a many options for those wanting to customize their scores without the intent or need for sharing.
Could there be a happy medium?
Perhaps a "Sharing-safe Font Compatibility" checkbox, on by default. Then when I toggle that off I have access to all my system font, including the fonts I've created. And museScore could offer font substitution whenever a font is not found, or fall back on its default font.
A little more freedom would go a long way in supporting and fostering more creativity and innovation!
I wish to change the font in tablature because the default font is too light for me to see when printed. The problem I'm running into is that all the fonts, with the exception of the default font, display the 10th fret as an "x" instead of "10".
Presently (in 3.5.2) the slash-strum notehead symbol is far too small—because it's simply a regular slash char from the currently selected built-in tablature text font.
I could fix this in a heartbeat‚by editing the / glyph in custom my custom tablature font—but presently there's no point because, in MuseScore, I can't access system installed fonts without:
a) compiling it in each update
b) performing a font hack on my system
And niether of the those options are appealing to me.
Please come up with a compatibility solution like the simple fallback suggestions in this thread.
We can set Staff Text and to any fontFace ... why not tablature too?
Comments
There is, in the extended staff properties
In reply to There is, in the extended… by Jojo-Schmitz
Could you please supply the menu command?
In reply to Could you please supply the… by Wolfgang Henderkes
Right click within the staff (Ctrl-Click on Mac)
Choose Staff/Part properties from the popup menu.
Open Advanced properties with the button which is located bottom-right of the top section of the Staff/Part properties window.
There you can choose between 8 different fonts for tablature
In reply to Right click within the staff… by jeetee
Thanks.
In reply to Right click within the staff… by jeetee
I've created four tablature fonts,. And I need the option of using them in MuseScore before I can fully adopt it as my main score writer.
So naturally I wonder: Why are we limited to eight baked-in fonts for tablature fret numbers?
We have StaffProperties>AdvancedStyleProterites>FretMarks>Font
Would it be within the realm for MuseScore to allow a Tablature staff's FretMarks>Font to be any system (or user) library font? We have that kind of font freedom in many places.
As an esteemed colleague says, "If we had some eggs we could have eggs and ham, if we had some ham."
scorster
In reply to I've written four tablature… by scorster
This sounds really interesting. Could you share a picture of some samples? The menu option makes sense and there could be a default fallback font when a user does not have a particular font installed.
In reply to This sounds really… by yonah_ag
>> This sounds really interesting. Could you share a picture of some samples?
Some of my fonts contain proprietary concepts and encoding so first I need to decide what I want to reveal publicly.
However one font is quite simple.
I prefer san serif fonts in tablature and was stuck with Helvetica—because, in the notation apps I used, only Helvetica properly aligned itself vertically to the staff, and there was no way to tweak it's y placement overall, as we can in MuseScore. So along with addressing the y placement issue:
• I created my own set of "sans" numbers for tablature.
• I opened up the 3 because there's a tendency for a 3 on a tablature line to look like an 8.
• I raised the waist of the 8 so it shows partly above the line.
• I set glyph side bearings so double digit numbers would sit closer, side by side, without pair kerning nor the need to rely on the app to support auto kerning. As you can see, the numbers 10, 11, 12 etc. take up far less space (which was an important criteria) and regarding legibility there's no question that 10 (ten) is not 1 0 (one and zero).
I also created a handwritten tab number font, but mostly for promotional imagery, and later found it worked well in Chord Symbols, especially at small sizes:
Overall that test font looks like this:
Interestingly, all these font images look heavy posted here on the forum. Maybe that's a PNG thing.
Suffice it to say they need a little tweaking, but they are not as gloppy or bold as they appear here.
scorster
In reply to >> This sounds really… by scorster
This looks good, very clear, and I like how you've tackled 2 digit fret numbers.
I much prefer a sans-serif font for TAB but find that the built-in ones are too light, (with no semi-bold, let alone bold option), especially compared with notation which appears darker because of the noteheads. I had hoped to use Segoe Semi-bold on Windows 10 but soon found that external fonts are not supported.
In MS I disallow the tab lines from showing through the numbers so the problem with 3 looking like 8 is avoided. I also make most non-fret elements grey rather than black in an attempt to make the fret numbers more prominent.
In reply to This looks good, very clear,… by yonah_ag
>> yonah_ag wrote >>This looks good, very clear, and I like how you've tackled 2 digit fret numbers.
> Thanks. The side bearing settings allow me to work with narrow measures while preserving legality of >9 frets. Really helps in a score like Barrios Mangore's La Catedral, Prelude:
>> I find that the built-in [tablature fonts] are too light
> I created a single weight fontFace, but when I get back into FontLab (after a large system update here) I'll check to see if it creates reasonable bold and light variants; if they are good enough I could manually tweak the details. Otherwise it again would be all by hand.
>> In MS I disallow the tab lines from showing through the numbers so the problem with 3 looking like 8 is avoided.
> Good point.
>>I also make most non-fret elements grey rather than black in an attempt to make the fret numbers more prominent.
I like that idea! There's a style to set the color of staff lines.
Wonderful if you can post an example.
scorster
In reply to >> yonah_ag wrote >>This… by scorster
Here's a recent example:
https://musescore.com/user/28842914/scores/6433717
The stave,stems, beams, rests, time sig, etc. are all various shades of grey.
In reply to I've written four tablature… by scorster
All such fonts need to be built into the program, external fonts won't work
In reply to All such fonts need to be… by Jojo-Schmitz
Couldn't MS be enhanced to support external fonts?
In reply to Couldn't MS be enhanced to… by yonah_ag
The issue with this is always that this would mean your score could not be shared with others who don't have that font (eg, on musescore.com). So in general, this is not something anyone has really been to keen to support.
But it should be noted, if you don't care about sharing your score, and it's your own custom font, you could simply name it the same as one of the built in fonts, then install it normally, MuseScore will see it in preference to the built in version.
In reply to The issue with this is… by Marc Sabatella
Perhaps there could be a fallback internal font for missing external fonts and this could be defined in the score setup as "Free Serif" or "Free Sans". This would allow normal sharing. Something similar already works for custom soundfonts that users have installed. The score can still be shared but simply plays back without the custom sounds.
In reply to Perhaps there could be a… by yonah_ag
+ 1
In reply to The issue with this is… by Marc Sabatella
Marc Sabatella wrote>> this would mean your score could not be shared with others (eg, on musescore.com) who don't have that font
> Understood. Although I expect to share scores on MuseScore.com, the vast majority of my score are purely for in-house use, so sharing source scores is not a concerning factor. And if I ever wanted to I could also share or license my fonts.
Marc Sabatella wrote>> ... you could simply name your custom font the same as one of the built in fonts, then install it normally, MuseScore will see it in preference to the built in version.
> You mean to employ a font managing trick? If so, I really appreciate the advice, but I really prefer not to extend workarounds to the system level.
I admire and understand that MuseScore has vested goal in encouraging people to share their scores. A brilliant model. And of course that means MuseScore needs to ensure compatibility, for instance by limiting the choices of fonts—largely throughout the app—to the fonts MuseScore bakes in at compile. As you say, because there's no guarantee that others have the same fonts installed on their system.
That's definitely good for sharing, but it also shuts down a many options for those wanting to customize their scores without the intent or need for sharing.
Could there be a happy medium?
Perhaps a "Sharing-safe Font Compatibility" checkbox, on by default. Then when I toggle that off I have access to all my system font, including the fonts I've created. And museScore could offer font substitution whenever a font is not found, or fall back on its default font.
A little more freedom would go a long way in supporting and fostering more creativity and innovation!
scorster
In reply to Marc Sabatella wrote>> this… by scorster
"A little more freedom would go a long way in supporting and fostering more creativity and innovation!"
Yes, I think so too.
I wish to change the font in tablature because the default font is too light for me to see when printed. The problem I'm running into is that all the fonts, with the exception of the default font, display the 10th fret as an "x" instead of "10".
In reply to I wish to change the font in… by rwstoney1
Bold TAB has been requested a while back but not yet available.
https://musescore.org/en/node/268399
Here's another reason why I need MuseScore to allow me to set the Tablature font to any font in my system as the.
Presently (in 3.5.2) the slash-strum notehead symbol is far too small—because it's simply a regular slash char from the currently selected built-in tablature text font.
I could fix this in a heartbeat‚by editing the / glyph in custom my custom tablature font—but presently there's no point because, in MuseScore, I can't access system installed fonts without:
a) compiling it in each update
b) performing a font hack on my system
And niether of the those options are appealing to me.
Please come up with a compatibility solution like the simple fallback suggestions in this thread.
We can set Staff Text and to any fontFace ... why not tablature too?
scorster