TUTORIAL: How to use ANY font for Instrument Names (and Chords) and still have a cool Flat sign

• created 4 months ago • last updated 4 months ago

This tutorial is for an outdated version of our software. Update the information

You probably noticed that if you use a different font than Edwin (and a few others) for instrument names and chords, you will have an ugly flat sign. In Linux I guess it's from Noto font, in Windows I don't know where it comes from but it's even uglier than Noto's flat sign as it adds an annoyng space.

So after many trials and errors I found a way to just use any font and still have a cool Flat sign.

The field where you can edit the instrument name, supports a little HTML.
So all you have to do is to write the instrument name in this manner:

Clarinet in B♭

You must use two font tags, because if you use a single one as it used to be the norm in old HTML (this tag is no longer used in HTML5), for some reason it doesn't work (I mean: ♭ - this won't work) - Obviously you can chenge the size according to your taste, or not use at all the size tag as in the picture below.

Let's use the SUP tag to put the flat sign in superscript. For this, you must use BRAVURA font as Edwin and other fonts put the flat sign too high:

This is the code:
Clarinet in B♭

This works also for CHORDS, you must write the chord with the tag in a note editor and then paste it where the chords goes (after pressing CTRL+K).

Incitentally: The NOTO family font (by Google) has also a font called "Noto Music", but in this case the flat sign is much better (This Font is Free on Google Fonts)

ALL THESE EXAMPLES WITH THE LATEST (At the time of writing of course) 4.2 VERSION FOR LINUX, But I guess it should work for Windows and Mac too.

These screenshots where just examples, that's why I didn't modify the short name too, but of course it works exactly the same way.