Font calls fail

• Jan 27, 2016 - 02:40

Hi,

Something with font control is going wrong.

When I recently modified the Chord Symbol setting from the default font, the chord text at first briefly showed the new, desired font but then switched to a weird, broken font as soon as I deselected that character.

Image of problem font

I tried to restore the setting to call the original MuseJazz font but nothing changed.

I rebooted my system and still the font appears wrong.

The font I wanted to use is Arial Black, a standard windows font. Weirdly enough, when I look at other MuseScore parts that I modified to use Arial Black, they are still working properly. So, we can rule out, I hope, the idea that my font may be corrupted.

I am using the Portable 2.0.2 version on a Win7Pro system, if that has any bearing.

Help?

Thank you!


Comments

the font for chord symbols is, for some styles at least, coded into the chord style, changing it via Style→Text→Chord symbols, just doesn't work.

But in order to fully investigate, we'd need to have a look at your score, can you attach it here to a reply?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Hi Jojo!

Thank you for your willingness to try to work this problem out!

I have uploaded the problem chart ( https://musescore.com/user/7179941/scores/1679911 ) labeled "Chord Symbol font problem"

I think this font problem might be larger than what you describe because the word FINE at the bottom of the chart (formatted using System Text) has the same problem as the Chord Symbol. In addition, I created a different chart last week in which I was successful in changing the Chord Symbol font to Arial Black. So, this font problem reaches beyond just chords and / or it is inconsistently glitchy.

One other font problem I just noticed - the words "Lead Sheet" show up properly on my system as Switzerland Condensed (which is what I want) but I see that those words appear as a full width font on the uploaded sample. That is very odd in itself.

I need to mention that I am a newbie to the program so I might be doing something wrong. Be great if this is just a "Duh" issue. However, in preparing the chart for your review, I decided to try one more time to change the font. I tried, without positive results, over twenty fonts - mostly fonts that had to have come with MuseScore such as MuseJazz.

So, I hope your wiser eyes will detect the error and come up with a solution.

Thank you!

Both the Chord Symbol and the System Text text styles are set to MuseJazz, and that is how they are displaying, both on my machine and in your screenshot. What were you expecting them to display as? How did you tell MuseScore you wanted them changed to something other than MuseJazz? For chord symbols, text style is the only way to change font, but it doesn't look like you did that. For the system text, you might have used text style or text properties or the text toolbar at the bottom of the screen, but again, it doesn't look like you did any of those. It's set to MuseJazz in all three place, and that is exactly how it displays.

Had you changed the text style or text properties or used the text toolbar for the system text, it would have worked. But for the chord symbols, as mentioned above, selecting the "Jazz" style for chord symbols - which you did via Style / General / Chord Symbols (or maybe you used one of the Jazz templates) overrules that. The Jazz chord symbol style is specially designed to work with MuseJazz and cannot work with any other font - other fonts won't have all the special characters used in this style.

Note also that musescore.com doesn't have all the same fonts you do, so using fonts other than those provided with MuseScore will not necessarily work as expected on any computer but your own.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hello Marc,

I appreciate your detailed reply. Thank you!

"Note also that musescore.com doesn't have all the same fonts you do, so using fonts other than those provided with MuseScore will not necessarily work as expected on any computer but your own."

Good to know that my presumption was correct. Which is why I chose a OS-independent font like Arial Black. Everybody out there has that font on their machine by default so I figured my formatting would survive transference to any other machine. Until this issue arose, it did.

"What were you expecting them to display as?"

I originally tried Arial Black and that is when the problem manifested itself. (Note: Before posting that sample chart I returned the Chord Symbol setting to that original, pre-my-attempt-to-use-a-different-font font.)

"How did you tell MuseScore you wanted them changed to something other than MuseJazz? For chord symbols, text style is the only way to change font, but it doesn't look like
you did that."

I used the Style - Text - Chord Symbol - chose different font - Apply - OK sequence.

I had no idea there could be another method of font choice.

"for the chord symbols, as mentioned above, selecting the "Jazz" style for chord symbols - which you did via Style / General / Chord Symbols (or maybe you used one of the Jazz
templates) overrules that"

Actually, I did not consciously do that. I chose the Jazz Lead Sheet as a template. I presume, that "Jazz" is the default setting. I had no idea that a default setting like that would have such powerful global control that could not be overridden by a more localized command.

At any rate, I have gone into that sequence you just described and clicked Standard, went back through Style - Text - Chord Symbol - chose Arial Black font - Apply - OK sequence.

Now Arial Black displays properly. YEAY! I then did the same for the System Text and now have Arial displaying properly. Double Yeay!

Which is great since I am finally getting the proper font.

At any rate, your comment below raises a discrepancy that might bear looking into.

"Both the Chord Symbol and the System Text text styles are set to MuseJazz, and that is how they are displaying, both on my machine and in your screenshot. "

I would love to see a screen shot of what you are observing because in my sample score, the Title, Chord Symbol, and System Text are all set to MuseJazz and they are clearly *not* displaying as the same font. Same goes for the screen shot I included in my original posting about this issue.

As far as I understand it, "Rumelaj" (the Title) is how the MuseJazz should look, a hand-drawn-looking font. The other two text streams look like an ugly variant of the Helvetica/Swiss/Arial/Zurich family.

Something is wrong there.

In addition, if you compare the screen shot in my original posting to the chart I uploaded, you theoretically should be seeing a difference how "Lead Sheet" displays. In my screen shot, that correctly displays in SwitzerlandCondensed but the MuseScore site's representation of that font displays as a full-width, non-compressed font in the Swiss/Helvetica/Arial/Zurich family.

Regardless, of how these additional points play out, my most pressing problem has been resolved, thanks to your reply!! Merci, hvala, and thank you.

In reply to by I am Terran

In the score you posted, the text style for chord symbols and system text has *not* been set to Arial Black. Only instrument names, subtitle, and footer were changed - to either Arial Narrow or SwitzerlandCondensed (neither of which exist on my Linux system, BTW, so the system substitutes something it thinks is similar).

Perhaps you meant to make that change for other text styles but hit Cancel instead of OK? Or uploaded the wrong version of the score? Anyhow, if you try it again, it should work. Except, again, for chord symbols, since you are using the Jazz style which requires MuseJazz.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hello Marc,

"In the score you posted, the text style for chord symbols and system text has *not* been set to Arial Black. "

Correct and I made mention of that fact in my various replies. I reset those indications to musejazz when sending the file for review because it had zero effect on how the font was displaying and I thought it would be important to the issue.

"Arial Narrow or SwitzerlandCondensed (neither of which exist on my Linux system, BTW, so the system substitutes something it thinks is similar)."

Ahk - I was of the belief that ALL OSs supply the entire Arial family. (Which is a knock-off of Helvetica.) SwitzerlandCondensed, being a knock-off of Helvetica, I figured would devolve into a condensed version of Arial. I suppose that at least staying in the Arial family, as it apparently did, is a reasonable result. I suppose, if someone were to have a wish list for MuseScore improvements, one could hope for a font-carrying package or for an error message requesting "what to do" when importing the score onto a OS that lacks a specific font. At least then one could choose a closer match (like a condensed face, in this case) than simply stay in the font family.

At any rate, the entire issue resolved around the fact that I did not know how global that Style/General/"Jazz" button is. When I switched that setting to "Standard" the desired fonts were all of a sudden accessible. End of problem.

So, again, thanks for steering me to the solution! It was a "Duh" newbie situation, I suppose one could say.

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