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Introduction
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PDFtoMusic is a groundbreaking and unique program
that
converts Adobe
PDF music sheets into editable music scores.
From an Adobe
PDF file created
by any music
notation program, PDFtoMusic can play
the piece, sing the lyrics and export
this piece to miscellaneous file formats: MIDI,
Myr,
BMP,
WAV,
AIFF and MusicXML
for the
Pro version.
What can I use it for?
How does PDFtoMusic work?
What are the differences between the
"Pro"
and "Standard" version?
What
can I use it
for?
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Usages for PDFtoMusic are numerous. First, on the
Internet, many
dedicated sites provide large
collections of free musical PDF files.
PDFtoMusic will let you play them, or convert them
into a music file
format that you'll be able to modify by using your
usual music notation
software.
Thus, PDFtoMusic gives you access to a wide library
of public domain
score sheets that you can play or edit.
Also, there are many music notation programs, and
only a few manage
compatible exchange file formats. PDFtoMusic solves
this issue. You
just have, from your program, to generate a
PDF file (see next chapter), read it with
PDFtoMusic and convert it
into format that can be read by another application,
for instance, Myr
or MIDI format (or MusicXML for the Pro version).
PDFtoMusic becomes then a bridge between your
miscellaneous music
programs.
For instance: your choir master only uses "Music
Architect 2000", that
can only save files in its own, proprietary format.
You just have to
ask him for a PDF file for the score, and by using
PDFtoMusic, you'll
get a score that can be edited in Harmony Assistant.
If you own the Pro version of PDFtoMusic, you can
also export into
MusicXML exchange format, from Recordare.
The Music XML
file format is currently supported by a number of
notation
applications, including Finale and Sibelius.
How does
PDFtoMusic work?
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PDFtoMusic analyzes the content of Adobe PDF files.
It collects all the
graphical information that it can process: fonts,
lines, miscellaneous
graphic objects. From these graphical items,
PDFtoMusic will infer the
music score to be played.
Note : some PDF files (albeit rare) embed only a
single picture for the
whole score, instead of a collection of simple
graphic objects.
This kind of PDF file has probably been generated
from a scanned paper
sheet. PDFtoMusic can't extract and process
elementary graphical items
in such cases, and reports that such a document
cannot be processed.
To convert a PDF file, select "File>Open" in
PDFtoMusic and select a
PDF file on your hard drive. PDFtoMusic will load
it, and start
automatically to process and display it.
If PDFtoMusic makes a mistake while processing the
document, you will
be able to fix
this mistake manually. It is described in the corrections
section of this
manual.
PDFtoMusic can export the result automatically each
time a PDF file
is processed, and open this result in the program of
your choice.
What are the
differences between the "Pro" and
"Standard" version?
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The "Pro version" includes options and features that
are not present in
the "Standard" version:
- Batch file export, to convert in only one
operation all PDF
files from a folder and its subfolders.
- "Expert" mode to manually override
individual default
processing settings in order to have more precise
control.
- Export in MusicXML format in order to
preserve the score sheet
layout when importing into one of the numerous
programs that support
this format.
How do I generate a PDF file from any software?
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PDFtoMusic is able to convert a PDF document with such a high level
of accuracy because it analyses the actual font characters which are
embedded in the PDF document.
When asking for generating a PDF document, you must ask for the character fonts to be embedded into the PDF document.
Generally, it's the default setting.
If PDFtoMusic detects a font that is not embedded in the document, an
alert will be displayed:
meaning that the rendering could be different from expected.
Here is how to create a PDF file, depending on your system kind:
To create PDF files from any music software (or any other application)
under Windows, you must install a small program beforehand.
This program can be either a freeware, like PDFCreator (recommended) or
PrimoPDF (not tested yet), a shareware, like PDF995, or a commercial
software package like the tools of the Adobe suite.
All these programs behave like a new printer for your computer.
When "printing" a document to it, a file name is asked, and the
printing result is actually saved in PDF format.
PDFCreator can be downloaded from here:
http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator/download (select
preferably the "MSI" installer).
Once downloaded and installed, when printing from any program, in the
printer selector that appears:
Select the "PDFCreator" printer then click "Print".
You'll then get a window for entering optional information about the
PDF file to be created (Title, date, author...), then a file selector
for specifying the name and location of this file.
The PDF file that matches what you asked for being printed is then
generated, and can be opened by PDFtoMusic.
You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or
process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.
`
With a Macintosh under Mac OS X, it's quite easy to generate a PDF file
from any program, by using the print dialog box. Once the file is
loaded into the software, select "File>Print". The printer selector
opens, and you can select here the page range to be printed.
In the bottom part of this box, you'll see a "PDF" or "Save as PDF"
button.
Click it, select a name for the file and save it. The Adobe PDF
document is created on your hard disk at the required location.
You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or
process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.
`
To create PDF files from any music software under Mac OS 9, you must
install a small program beforehand in the system "Extensions folder",
like Acrobat PDFWriter or PrintToPdf.
Select the Chooser from the Apple menu, and click on the program icon:
Then close the Chooser. (The AppleTalk setting is irrelevant in this case.)
All these programs behave like a new printer for your computer.
When "printing" a document to it, enter a file name, and the
printing result is actually saved in PDF format.
A PDF file of your score is then generated which can be opened by PDFtoMusic.
You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or
process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.
`
Generating a PDF file from any program under Linux needs to use a
special printer driver that saves the graphic commands into a file
instead of actually printing them on paper.
You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or
process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.
With KDE, the "kprinter" command (KDEPrint package) includes an option to generate a PDF file:
If this option is not included in your distribution, you'll probably
need to use cups-pdf.
To install it under Ubuntu,
please refer to this document:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/print-to-pdf-using-cups-pdf/
To install it under another distribution, please read:
http://www.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~vrbehr/cups-pdf/download.shtml
The General application menu is called "PDFtoMusic" on the Macintosh,
and "?" on the PC.
About...
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Display information about PDFtoMusic: its version and the sound
database
currently used for playing music. You'll also see whether the program
is registered or if you are using a trial version.
For
any question about PDFtoMusic, please provide this information to
technical support along with your questions about PDFtoMusic.
Documentation
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Opens this manual.
Internet
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Go to our Website
Connects to the Myriad website
Go to the discussion forum
This forum is a place where you can discuss with other
users, and where the authors of the program regularly weight in. It is
designed to host discussion about general topics. For specific issues,
it's recommended to send a problem report directly to the authors
through the following menu option.
Send us an e-mail
You'll send a report directly to the authors, in order to ask a
technical question.
WARNING: please be sure to provide a valid e-mail address, otherwise
you won't get an answer from us!
When sending an e-mail to the authors through this option, all the
necessary information about your hardware and software us automatically
included, so you don't have to repeat them in your message.
It is possible, and even recommended, to attach a file that will
illustrate your query.
Search for a score
You will search PDF files on the Internet using Kooplet.
Language
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Program language selection. This submenu allows you to select the
language of the user interface.
Currently supported languages are English and French.
Note: on Mac OS X, language change is temporary and is kept only during
the current session.
If you want to change language permanently, you can either: change the
Finder language through the "International" control panel, or select
the PDFtoMusic icon in the "Applications" subfolder, apply "Command+I",
then deactivate the languages you are not interested in.
Ordering
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You are connected to the our online store, from where you can order
our products.
Please consider that the playback quality of PDFtoMusic, as well as the
audio file export (WAV, AIFF, MP3) can be drastically improved by using
GOLD 2 sound base.
Input my registration code
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This option is active only if your copy of the program is not
registered yet. To do it, enter your personal details, as well as the
personal license number that you received after your purchase. This
operation has to be done only once.
Unregister the program
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This option is active only if your copy of the program is registered.
It wipes out the registration information. You have to do this when you
sell your computer, or if you are using a computer other than yours.
Note: this is important, because you are personaly responsible for
keeping the information related to your license confidential.
Open
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Opens the window for selecting a PDF file from your
hard disk. The file will be loaded and analyzed.
Icons show the computation progress. You can cancel
the operation at any point by either closing the
document window, or by hitting the Esc key. You are
then asked to confirm the cancellation process.
Open recent file
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In this menu, PDFtoMusic shows the 32 last loaded
PDF files. The last item in this menu erases this
list.
Search the Internet
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You will search PDF files on the Internet using Kooplet.
Close
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Closes the frontmost document. If you applied
changes to the document that have not been saved
yet, you are asked for a confirmation.
Save
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This submenu is active only if changes have been
applied to the frontmost document.
Changes you made to the PDF document are saved,
either in the PDF file itself, or in a separate file
(depending on your settings in "Settings >
Preferences", "Document" section)
Save as
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Saves the PDF document under another name, embedding
the changes you applied to it.
It enables you, for instance, to save a separate
version of the PDF document that includes your
amendments, while keeping the original version
unaltered.
It is the only way to store your amendments into a
PDF file when the setting for "Store Corrections to
PDF file" is unchecked in General Document
Preferences.
See this chapter
for more details.
Properties
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Provide various informations about the PDF
file : creator, date, embeded fonts, etc.
Open with editor
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The frontmost document is exported (in the file
format defined in PDFtoMusic preferences) and opened
with the related program.
Export
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Exports the frontmost document in any of the
available file formats.
You can select the page(s) to be exported, as well
as the parts.
Please refer to the file
format description chapter for more
information.
Batch process
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This option enables you to convert a whole batch of
files in a single operation. You just have to select
the source folder that contains the PDF files to be
processed, and a target folder where the result
files will be stored.
- An option enables you to define that generated
files will be stored in the source folder.
- A pop-up menu lets you select the export format
(Cf "File format"
chapter).
- An option enables PDFtoMusic to process also the
PDF files stored into subfolders of the source
folder.
- Another option prevents PDFtoMusic from processing
files which are already present in the target
folder. It is useful when you abort a batch
export then wish to resume it without restarting
from the beginning.
- An additional option recreates the source folder
tree into the targer folder.
You can cancel the operation at any point by either
closing the document window, or by hitting the Esc
key. You are then asked to confirm the cancellation
process.
Undo
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When a change (amendment) has been applied to the
document, you can
undo this operation. The 6 last operations can be
undone.
Select all
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Select all objects. Any change applied to a selected
object will be applied also to the other selected
objects.
Unselect all
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Unselect all.
Delete changes
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Deletes all the changes (amendments) that have been
applied to music
symbols and instruments of the document.
Note: changes that could have been applied to the
way fonts have to be
handled are not altered by this operation.
Play
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Plays the whole score or the currently selected
part.
Pause
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Stops music performance, that can be restarted at
this point later.
Stop
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Stops music performance. A new start will play the
score from the
beginning again.
Volume
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Enables to set up the sound overall volume
Tempo
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Enables to set up the tempo (performance speed) of
the music
Force played measures
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You will define the measures to play. This can be
single measures like "8,10,11,13,14,6" or group of
measures like "2-12" where measure 2 to 12 will be
played.
Measure or group of measure currently edited is show
on the document.
Virtual Singer
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Enables to decide whether you want the lyrics sung
by Virtual Singer or
played by an instrument.
Drawer
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This option is active only when the document is
longer that one page.
Activates/deactivates the drawer related to the
document. The drawer
shows the document pages as thumbnails. You can jump
to any page by selecting its thumbnail in the
drawer.
The number of errors found by PDFtoMusic on this
page is also displayed over the thumbnail
Note: you can ask for the drawer to be opened
automatically when a new document is loaded, by
selecting the matching option in the general
preferences, "Document" section.
Scroll mode
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When this mode is active, the miscellaneous systems
(staff groups) are not displayed on top of each
other, like in a real music sheet, by one besides
the other, as a virtual "ribbon".
Recognition results
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When this mode is active, PDFtoMusic displays the
symbols it recognized over the regular PDF drawing.
These miscellaneous symbols are displayed in color:
- notes and
rests :
dark blue
- clef, key
and time signature: light blue
etc.
Measures numbers
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Display measures numbers. If a measure is
never played, the number is displayed in grey. This
can occurs when a repeat symbol is incorrectly
written or wrongly analysed. You can fix this by
forcing the played measures list in Performance
menu.
Actual size
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Resets the document display scale to 100%
Double size
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Resets the document display scale to 200%
Full width
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Adjusts the document display scale so that its width
fits the window.
Full page
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Adjusts the document window size so that it occupies
as many space as possible on screen.
Zoom in
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Increases the document display scale.
Zoom out
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Decreases the document display scale.
As any other system based on computer recognition,
PDFtoMusic is not infallible, and can make some
mistakes, more or less impiortant depending on the
quality of the document. You can interevene on the
recognition result and apply amendments. These
changes can be saved so that they are preserved when
loading the document again.
PDFtoMusic offers two
ways of saving these amendments.
Instrument
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For each staff found in the document, PDFtoMusic
shows the related instrument. You can change this
instrument as well as its volume, panning position,
octave shift and semitone shift.
If the instrument is human voice, you can specify
the language that Virtual Singer will use for
singing the lyrics.
A check box activates globally the "surround"
effect. This effect increases the panning separation
of the miscellaneous instruments, for all the
documents.
Staves and systems
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PDFtoMusic includes specific algorithms that
"follow" staff lines from a system to another.
Indeed, in some scores, some staves can be omitted
in systems. This amendment mode enables you to
change the way staff lines are connected together.
A description is provided here.
Fonts
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A PDF document includes graphic objects (frames,
lines, etc) as well as characters extracted from a
font. Those characters can be either letters and
digits, or music symbols.
PDFtoMusic has some manual font recognition settings
that can help correct mistakes, which are described here.
Allow multi-voices staves
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If PDFtoMusic considers that one or several staves
in the document are made of several voices and you
are sure of the opposite, you can deactivate this
processing mode.
Allow enhanced chords
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Two notes horizontally very close to each other can
be considered as belonging to the same chord (there
are sometimes chords in which the notes are not
perfectly aligned). This option enables you to
deactivate this mode.
Allow tuplets
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In some scores, a digit appears near the note to
indicate the fingering. In some cases, PDFtoMusic
interprets this fingering text as tuplets (triplets,
etc). If there are no tuplets in the piece,
deactivate this option to prevent PDFtoMusic from
searching for tuplets in the score.
If you deactive this option, PDFtoMusic will no
longer search for tuplets in the score.
Allow fingering
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If PDFtoMusic recognizes tuplets as fingering
notation (this generally provides a bar duration
error), you can deactivate fingering seeking for the
whole document.
Allow key changes
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It can be sometimes difficult to tell accurately
whether the accidentals at the start of a bar are a
key change, or regular accidentals that has to be
applied to the following notes.
For instance:
If PDFtoMusic finds key changes on a document that
doesn't include any, deactivate this processing
mode.
Allow shared lyrics
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In some vocal pieces (for
instance, Barbershop scores), when several
performers sing the same lyrics, only one lyric
line is written:
When this mode is active, PDFtoMusic will assign the
lyric line to both staves.
Allow clefs vertical shift
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Is this mode disabled, clefs vertical position will
be ignored
Allow bracket to create groups
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Normally, staves groups are notated with braces. Is
this mode is active, bracket also create
groups.
Allow chords name
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In some cases, the lyrics line can be constituted by
chords names, for example when the singer sing "La
La La La". Invalid this option to ignore chords name
processing and add the texts to lyric line and not
chord line.
Allow rounded lines
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Some PDF draw note stems with
rounded lines :
When this mode is enabled, these lines will be
processed.
Allow thin beams
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Some PDF draw beams with thin
lines :
When this mode is enabled, these lines will be
processed.
Allow automatic break adjustment
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Some PDF include several lyric
lines related to the staff with incorrect break
symbols (repeats, jumps, endings). When this
mode is enabled, PDFtoMusic tries to create
breaks symbols in order to match the actual
number of repeats.
High resolution
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When a document is made of many tiny staves, some
inaccuracy errors can occur in the vertical
positioning of notes and rests.
Switching to high resolution increases the precision
(and the computation time). You can define that all
documents will be loaded in high resolution from the
general preferences.
This menu enables to set up the PDFtoMusic behaviour. Don't hesitate to
explore carefully the numerous options. It can prove to be very useful.
Preferences
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Opens the general preference window. You can adjust from here the way
the PDFtoMusic Pro interface will react. The miscellaneous options are
arranged in sections.
A complete description of each section is provided
here.
Toolbar
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Enables to customise the icons in the documents toolbar. This is
functionally identical to right-click the toolbar then select "Setup".
Expert mode
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It's the PDFtoMusic Pro calculation fine setup.
A complete description of each section is provided
here.
PDFtoMusic
displays Adobe PDF files as documents. Several documents can be loaded
simultaneously.
General points
Toolbar
Drawer
Saving files
General points
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While loading and processing a PDF file, analysis progress is shown
through icons. You can cancel the processing at any point by hitting
the "Esc" key or by closing the window.
Once the analysis is complete, the PDF drawing is displayed in a
document window.
Toolbar
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The toolbar in the upper part of this window enables you to
play music, navigate within the score, pause and restart playback and
adjust volume or tempo (playback speed).
Tip: to quickly start or stop playback, you can use the space bar.
If the document contains several pages, the following icons enable you
to
switch to the previous or next page. You can also use the vertical
scrollbar to move through the whole document.
The next icons change the display scale of the document.
The "info" icon displays information about the document. These details
are extracted from the PDF file: title, document author, creation date,
as well as the character fonts embedded in this document.
If the Adobe PDF document include lyrics, the "bird" icon is present.
Click this icon to activate the virtual singer before starting
playback. This default setting can be changed in Preferences,
"Document" section.
The "export" icon exports the music piece in the current format
specified in general preferences, "Export" section. But you can also
select another format from the file
selector, by typing in the matching extension. For instance, to export
in Wave format, end the filename with ".WAV".
You can cancel the export at any time by hitting the Esc key.
Right-clicking (or Shift + click) on the toolbar changes its appearance.
The "Setup..." option enables to customise the toolbar icon list
according to your needs.
Drawer
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If your document contains several pages, the last icon opens and closes
the drawer. A drawer is a secondary window, linked to the main one,
that shows a general preview of the document. Click a thumbnail to jump
directly to the selected page.
If errors have been found, a warning sign
is displayed, specifying the
number of errors detected on this page.
Saving files
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When amendments have been applied to the document, as for instance a
change in the instruments, volume, or music symbols recognition, you
can save these changes so that they will be preserved when loading the
file again later.
PDFtoMusic lets you choose beween two modes that can be set up from
general preferences.
1- Save changes in the Adobe PDF file itself
Data is preserved in the Adobe PDF file. A backup copy of this file is
performed. This doesn't affect the way this PDF file is displayed by
other programs.
The advantage to this mode is that, when you send the file to somebody
else, your changes are carried along.
2- Save changes in a separate file
The original Adobe PDF file is not modified, and the data are stored in
a separate file, created in the "Correction" subfolder of your user
file space.
Please note that, in this mode, you can still generate a PDF file in
which your amendments are embedded by using the "File > Save as..."
menu option.
This dialog box enables you to set up the PDFtoMusic behaviour. Don't
hesitate to
explore carefully the numerous options. It can prove to be very useful.
Starting
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Load documents automatically at startup
If ticked, when the application is started, documents that were open
during the last session are automatically reloaded. It's possible to
cancel the processing at any time, either by closing the window, or by
hitting the Esc key. You'll then be asked for confirming cancellation.
Open file selector ar startup
When ticked, if no document is loaded when the application starts, the
file selector will automatically open, so that you can select a file
to be loaded.
Document
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Store corrections in PDF file
When ticked, the amendments you could have applied to the PDF file are
stored within the file itself. When not ticked, they are saved into a
separate file, located in the "Corrections" folder of your user folder.
Note: see the chapter about the
miscellaneous file saving modes.
Make a backup copy of the original PDF file
If changes are stored in the PDF file itself, you can also ask for a
backup copy .bak.pdf to be created at the same level as the original
PDF file. It is even recommended.
Open drawer automatically
When ticked, the drawer will be automatically open if
the document contains more than one page.
Open full screen
When ticked the document window will extend over the
whole screen when loaded.
Activate Virtual Singer automatically
You can specify whether Virtual Singer is active or not
when a document is loaded.
Display recognition results
When ticked, the recognition results will be displayed
when the document is loaded.
Note: you can activate/deactivate this display through the "Display"
menu.
High precision
When ticked, all documents will be loaded in high
resolution.
Note: you can activate/deactivate this feature on a per-document basis
through the "Correction" menu.
Warn when embedded fonts are missing
Some PDF files do not embed the font drawing for the characters they
use. PDFtoMusic can warn you when such a case occurs.
Alerts
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Display processing errors into a text window
When PDFtoMusic detects an error when processing the document,
it will display a small icon over the document itself representing each
item you have ticked in the Alerts panel of general preferences.
In
parallel, PDFtoMusic can create a list of all errors encountered as
text in a special window (pink background). Right-clicking this window
opens a contextual menu for erasing, saving or printing the window
content.
The following items enable you to mask some errors (these errors
are still present but no longer displayed). Here are the descriptions
of the miscellaneous processing errors
Display "Impossible to apply beam"
PDFtoMusic recognized a character that looks like a
beam, but couldn't find any music symbol close enough.
Display "Impossible to apply ornament"
PDFtoMusic located a character that looks like a note ornament, but
couldn't find a note close enough.
Display "Broken slur"
PDFtoMusic recognized the shape of a slur (possibly a
tie), but either it could find the source note for this slur but not
the target note, or it could find the target note but not the source.
It therefore can't apply the slur.
Display "Impossible to find a measure for this symbol"
PDFtoMusic recognized a musical character in the
document, but could not relate it to any measure (bar) area. It can
happen for instance for some time signature indicators that are put as
a reminder at the beginning of a line.
Display 'Impossible to find the reference note on
tablature"
When the document shows tablatures for fretted instruments, PDFtoMusic
estimates the duration of notes written on the tablature by seeking for
the matching note in the regular staff. If PDFtoMusic can't find this
reference note, it generates this error.
Display "Incorrect measure duration"
When several staves are present in a single system (staff group),
PDFtoMusic checks that the duration of each bar is consistent. If
PDFtoMusic detects a difference in measure duration, this error is
generated. It can occur in the following situations:
. PDFtoMusic made a previous miscalculation either
when
extracting the symbol duration, or when locating chords within the
measure (especially when notes in chord are not on the same vertical
line)
. There is an error in the source score's notation. This
may depend
on a number of factors, including the overall accuracy of the source
program used to create the PDF.
In some cases, PDFtoMusic can consider two notes that are horizontally
close together to be in chord, instead of considering that they are
consecutive.
By
un-checking the various options in the "Correction" menu, you can
deactivate the display of specific types of errors that cause
"Incorrect measure duration" warnings.
MusicXML
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These are the options for creating MusicXML files.
Enable MusicXML format extensions
PDFtoMusic Pro is based on the MusicXML format. To import MusicXML
files that have been created by PDFtoMusic Pro, you must use Melody
Assistant version 7.3 or more, or Harmony Assistant version 9.3 or more.
Although very complete, MusicXML format in its version 1.1 doesn't
manage some objects that can be found on scores. In agreement with the
MusicXML team, we added specific commands to the MusicXML format.
If the software used for reading the XML files is compliant with the
standard, these additional commands won't be a problem. In the best
case, they will be processed, and in the worst, simply ignored.
Otherwise, disable this option to forbid any extension to the standard.
Create MusicXML even if no vector music data have been
extracted
PDFtoMusic reads the PDF document in search for a music score. If it
can't find any, for instance if you ask PDFtoMusic to process a
payslip, you will be warned through and alert box that no vector
musical data could be located.
This can also occur when a PDF document doesn't contain a score made
of elemental graphic object, but a scanned music sheet.
Activating this option forces PDFtoMusic to generate a MusicXML file
from these data, even if they are not considered as music data.
To date, only Harmony Assistant or Melody Assistant
enable to load such MusicXML documents.
Export measures filled with rest as empty measures
Enables not to export in the MusicXML files the rests that fill
completely the measure. These measures will be considered by the
software that imports the file as filled by a "logical" rest instead of
a "physical" one. In some cases, in can ease the edit process.
Use MusicXML 2.0 format
When this option is ticked, the export is made in MusicXML 2.0 format.
This format, more advanced, enables to keep more information about the
score appearance, but might not be supported by music notation programs.
Export
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The export settings don't affect batch processing, which uses its own
options.
When
loading a PDF file, PDFtoMusic analyzes it automatically. It can then
export it immediately in any of the available formats, and open this
resulting document in an external application. The following options
are available in the Export tab of the Preferences:
Export all opened files automatically
This check box activates/deactivates the automatic
export.
"to folder..."
If automatic export is activated, use this option to select the path to
the folder where the resulting documents will be stored.
The "Change" button enables you to select another (file) path.
"File format"
This pop-up menu lets you select the export format to be used (Cf
appendix about format
description)
Open automatically exported files
When this option is active, each exported document will
be opened automatically by the program of your choice (it supposes that
the selected software is capable of reading this kind of file).
The "Edit" button enables you to select the application that will be
used for opening each of the export file formats.
The "Delete" button lets you specify that you don't want this format to
be processed.
Batch processing
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When you ask PDFtoMusic to process a set of PDF documents
through the "Batch processing" option, some alerts can be displayed
during the processing. When this option is active, these alert boxes
will close automatically after a few seconds, so that the processing is
not stopped and can continue to its end.
Glyphs
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PDFtoMusic uses optical recognition algorithms on music fonts to
detemine the meaning of each symbol.
Store glyphs into a cache
When this option is ticked, symbols that have already been encountered
at least once will be processed more quickly.
However, activating this option can lead to a bigger memory consumption.
Erase font cache at exit
When this option is not
ticked, glyphs are preserved from one session to another.
Deactivating this option can lead to a bigger memory consumption.
Note: the glyph cache is located in the preference folder:
"Myriad Preferences/PDFtoMusic/GlyphesData". Please do not apply any
action to this folder while PDFtoMusic is running.
Expert settings allow the user to override the automated settings of
PDFtoMusic Pro up in order to improve
recognition of one or several documents.
You'll intervene directly on the internal algorithms of PDFtoMusic Pro.
By default, PDFtoMusic Pro is set to mean values, that work well for
most of the PDF files. But for some specific files, these settings can
lead to errors, that you can fix from here.
This needs a good knowledge about how PDFtoMusic Pro
processes PDF files. Please only change one value at a time, and apply
slight changes.
But don't panic, you can restore the default values at any time by
clicking the "Factory" button.
These settings are applied when the PDF document is loaded, so they
don't affect the documents already in memory.
The miscellaneous sections are provided in a precise order: the
sequence used by PDFtoMusic to analyze a document.
For instance, concatenation of characters to build words is performed
before analyzing words.
For each section, a complexity level is provided, from low to high.
Before applying changes to a section of high complexity level, please
reflect deeply...
Editing settings
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The first time you ask for expert mode
settings, you are asked for a confirmation.
Then you see this dialog box:
At the left of this window is the menu of
various expert mode options. Each section is described in detail later
in
this chapter. If a value from a section has changed from the default
value, a star icon is displayed before the section name.
On the right, sliders that enable to change a value. Double-clicking
the numeric value edits its value as a text. If the value is
different from default, the offset is displayed on the right.
At the bottom, several buttons:
• Default
Defines current expert settings as the default values for PDFtoMusic
Pro calculation. To be used with great
care.
• Factory
Resets expert settings to their original value for the current section
only, or for all sections.
• Load
Loads an expert setting definition file, previously saved through the
"Save" option. This affects all sections.
• Save
Save all expert settings in a definition file. This enables you to
create predefined sets of parameters.
• << and >>
Switches from one section to another, you can also click in the section
list.
Please note that if you change one or several expert settings, when
running PDFtoMusic Pro, an alert will be displayed to alert you that
you'll process PDF files with different parameters than the default.
In the same way, when you send an e-mail to the technical support
(Internet menu), all the parameters that have been changed are
attached, so that we can work on your files with the same settings as
yours.
Horiz. & vert. lines
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Complexity : high
Horizontal and vertical lines are an essential element, and the first
step in analysis.
They form staff lines, barlines and note stems that constitute the
document's backbone.
Line analysis is performed before staff seeking, so units are pixels.
If some staves appear to be missing after analysis, altering these
settings could help.
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A score excerpt
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What PDFtoMusic Pro
detects
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• Horizontal imprecision for line merging (in pixels)
When lines are actually made of several small lines end
to end, increasing this value will enable a more tolerant merging of
these lines.
• Vertical imprecision for line merging (in
pixels)
Some thick lines are actually made of several thick lines, drawn on top
of each other. Increasing this value will enable a more tolerant
merging of these lines.
• Minimum line size for dust removal (in pixels)
Small useless lines are sometimes found, which can be removed with this
setting.
Staves
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Complexity : high
Once horizontal lines have been detected, PDFtoMusic Pro will try
to determine staves: a set of more or less equidistant horizontal
lines, with end positions rather close.
Once staves have been extracted, the document general unit is known:
the "line space", i.e. the distance between two horizontal lines in the
same staff.
| |
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Detected horizontal
and vertical lines
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Detected staff lines
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• Horizontal imprecision for staff lines connection (in
pixels)
Maximum tolerance for merging two lines drawn end to end into
a single one.
• Vertical imprecision for staff lines (in pixels)
Maximum tolerance for merging two lines drawn on top of each other in a
single, thicker one.
• Maximum line thickness (in pixels)
Enables to remove too thick lines. If you see, on your document,
undetected staves with rather thick staff lines, increase this value.
• Maximum line space (ratio of the page height)
Lines which are too far apart in your document can be
removed with
this option. If staves with rather outspread staff lines go undetected,
as can occur in tablature, increase this value.
Be careful, too much tolerance will detect staves where there are none.
• Minimum horizontal size for staff lines (ratio of the
page width)
Lines
which are too short can be removed with this option. For instance, one
or two measures, or even a whole paragraph of underlined text might
be drawn as an embellishment, and do not match the actual content
of the score. Or, for instance, a whole paragraph of underlined
text
• Line space imprecision (in line spaces)
This value sets the
calculation tolerance when searching for equidistant horizontal lines.
On some PDF files generated with a low resolution, horizontal lines of
a staff are not regularly spaced.
Slanted lines
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Complexity: average
Slanted lines are mainly used to draw beams, hairpins or tuplet
groupings.
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A score excerpt
|
In red, what
PDFtoMusic detects
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• Imprecision for slope comparison
Increasing this value will enable slanted lines with more different
slopes but drawn end to end to be merged together.
• Horizontal imprecision for line merging (in line
spaces)
• Vertical imprecision for line merging (in line spaces)
Increasing these values will allow two lines of similar slope on top of
each other to be merged together in order to make a thicker line.
• Vertical distance for line end comparison (in line
spaces)
Increasing this value will enable slanted lines that are not perfectly
end to end to be merged together in order to make a longer line.
• Thickness imprecision for slanted line merging (in
line spaces)
Prevents slanted lines from merging if they meet all the above
requirements but their thickness is different.
• Dust removal on slanted lines: Minimum allowed size
(in line spaces)
Small useless lines are sometimes found, which can be removed with this
setting.
Systems & groups
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Complexity: average
Staves have now been found, as well as slanted lines. PDFtoMusic Pro
will aggregate staves into staff groups. Vertical lines or brace and
bracket symbols located in the left margin are extracted.
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A score excerpt
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What PDFtoMusic Pro
extracts:
A three staves system.
The two bottom staves are grouped into a single part by the brace.
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• Horizontal imprecision for system seeking (in line
spaces)
In some documents, the grouping symbol is either far from the left end
of the staff, or within the staff area. This setting determines the
maximum distance in line spaces.
If this value is zero, each staff becomes an independent system.
• Vertical imprecision for system seeking (in
line spaces)
The maximum distance between the end of the grouping symbol and the top
or bottom of the staff.
Barlines
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Complexity: average
Once staves have been grouped together, PDFtoMusic Pro will locate
vertical lines that start at the top of the system or staff, and end at
the bottom of the system or staff, in order to extract barlines.
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a) thick barline
b) thin barline
c) double thin barline
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• Minimum thickness for a thick barline (in line spaces)
Specifies at what point a barline should be defined as thick.
If, for instance, repeat barlines are not recognized, decrease this
value.
Conversely, if too many bold barlines are recognized, increase this
value.
• Minimum distance between two thin bars (in line spaces)
Sometimes, a barline is drawn several time at the end of the measure in
the PDF file. Increasing this value will replace double barlines with
single ones.
• Minimum measure width (ratio of the staff height)
Measures are supposed to contain symbols, so they should be wide
enough. But some measures can be narrow (upbeat for instance). Decrease
this value if several narrow measures are merged into one.
Clef
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Complexity: low
Once staves have been grouped together, and measures detected,
PDFtoMusic Pro will begin to interpret the individual symbols. It
starts with clefs.
• Minimum height for a clef symbol (in line spaces)
Minimal symbol height to consider it as a valid clef.
• Minimum height of a 8 or 15 over clef (in line
spaces)
Minimum height for considering a clef octave offset (8va, 8vb, 15ma...)
as valid.
• Maximum height of a 8 or 15 over clef
(in line spaces)
Maximum height for considering a clef octave offset (8va, 8vb, 15ma...)
as valid.
Time signature
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Complexity: low
Unabbreviated time signatures can easily be taken for miscellaneous
numbers like tuplets or fingering.
The following settings allow time signatures to be more accurately
interpreted in these cases.
• Vertical parting position between time signature
numerator and denominator (ratio)
Determines
how much line spacing is allowed between the numerator and denominator
to be considered part of the same time signature object. This is
expressed as a percentage (ratio) of the character height.
• Minimum size for time signature numbers (in line
spaces)
Numbers (digits) below this size threshold are not considered to be
part of the time signature.
• Maximum horizontal shift between time signature digits (in line
spaces)
When numbers are made of several digits, this setting defines the
maximum horizontal distance between them.
Notes
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Complexity: low
It's now time to detect notes that are drawn on the staff...
• Maximum size of a grace note head (in line spaces)
Adjusts discrepancies between grace note and regular note size.
Notes are always bigger than grace notes on the same document.
However, this difference is sometimes small. If grace notes are
mistaken for notes, decrease this value.
• Maximum distance from the flag to the note (in line
spaces)
Flags which are too far from the notehead can be removed.
See also: "Dots" section.
Ledger lines
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Complexity: low
Some notes are drawn outside the staff line area. To relate them to the
right staff, but also to show clearly their degree, small horizontal
lines are drawn between the notehead and the staff.
• Maximum size of a ledger line (in line spaces)
Ledger lines wider than the specified value will be ignored.
• Maximum horizontal distance between notehead and the
ledger line (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between notehead and the
ledger line (in line spaces)
The notehead is supposed to be more or less centered on the ledger
line. These settings enable to adjust this tolerance.
Accidentals
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Complexity: low
Accidentals are related to notes. However, when a key change occurs,
similar symbols are displayed before notes but are defining the new key
value. Changing these settings can lead PDFtoMusic to consider note
accidentals as a key change, or vice versa.
• Maximum vertical distance between accidental and
notehead (in line spaces)
If the accidental is verticaly too far from the notehead center, it's
not taken into account. This setting has rarely to be adjusted.
(a)
• Maximum horizontal distance between the right of the accidental and
the left of the notehead (in line spaces)
When notes are in a chord, the accidental may have to
be shifted
left in order to avoid overlapping. Increasing this value will
tend to relate the accidental to the note instead of a key change.
However, more complex algorithms try to keep consistency in the results
provided by this setting (b)
Special cases can be solved by adjusting this value, as in this example:
Where accidentals are drawn far away from
the noteheads.
In the same way, in a chord, accidental placement follows a logical
scheme.
Increasing this value will make PDFtoMusic Pro search for accidentals
farther from the noteheads (c).
Stems
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Complexity: low
Finding proper stems is crucial because it determines both note
duration and chords.
Indeed, the note will be linked to beams and flags through its stem.
• Maximum horizontal distance between the notehead and the stem (in
line spaces)
Vertical lines drawn too far from the notehead won't be
taken into account. (a)
• Maximum thickness of a stem (in line spaces)
Vertical lines thicker than this value won't be taken into account. (b)
• Minimum size of a stem (in line spaces)
Smaller vertical lines won't be taken into account. In certain
documents, notes are drawn with very short stems. It will then be
necessary to decrease this value. (c)
• Minimum size of a grace note stem (in line spaces)
Smaller vertical lines won't be considered as grace note stems.
• Maximum size of a stem (in line spaces)
Longer vertical lines won't be taken into account. (c)
Rests
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Complexity: low
The main problem with rests is to recognize whole rests. It is indeed a
very basic shape (a rectangle) that can be confused with an horizontal
beam or a tenuto symbol for instance. The following settings will help
to differentiate.
• Minimum width of a whole rest (in line spaces)
• Maximum width of a whole rest (in line spaces)
Too wide, or not wide enough rectangles are not considered.
• Minimum height of a whole rest (in line
spaces)
• Maximum height of a whole rest (in line spaces)
Too thick, or not thick enough rectangles are not considered.
• Maximum vertical distance from the rest to the staff
area (in line spaces)
Most
of the time, the vertical height of rests is in the staff area.
However, particularly when the staff is made of several voices, the
rest is shifted up or down in order to avoid ovelapping with other symb
This value sets the maximum offset from the rest to the upper or lower
bound of the staff.
Tuplets
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Complexity: low
Tuplets can apply to notes and rests. They are generally drawn above or
below a beam. They can be drawn using a bracket that specifies the
notes to apply the tuplet to.
Tuplets can be confused with fingering notation.
Tuplet seeking can be deactivated through the "Correction" menu, for
the whole document.
• Maximum horizontal distance between the number and the
middle of the beam (in line spaces)
When the tuplet is related to a group of beamed notes, the tuplet
number is centered on the beam. This value defines the maximum offset
from this ideal value. (a)
• Maximum vertical distance between a tuplet and the
line (in line spaces)
The tuplet number is usally close to the beam. This
value defines the the maximum offset from this ideal value. (b)
• For thin lines broken by a tuplet value, Maximum horizontal distance
between the line end and the note (in line spaces)
Sometimes, the tuplet is drawn with a bracket that
encloses notes. This value defines the maximum gap between the number
and the line end (c)
• Maximum horizontal distance for connecting broken tuplet lines (in
line spaces)
When the tuplet number is drawn over the line, this line is broken.
This value defines the maximum width of the gap (d)
• Minimum height for tuplet text (in line spaces)
• Maximum height for tuplet text (in line spaces)
These bounds of tuplet character height help to
differentiate between a tuplet and a fingering.
• For discriminating between a tuplet and a fingering
ornament, ratio between the number of text objects that can make
a well placed tuplet and the number of text objects that can make a
tuplet
The possible confusion level between tuplet and
fingering is calculated, and if too high (big proportion of possible
misplaced tuplets), we'll suppose that tuplets are all drawn with a
bracket.
Dots
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Complexity: low
Dots can be drawn after the notehead to alter its duration, or they can
be staccato or repeat barline elements.
• Minimal size of a dot (in line space)
Dust (small meaningless dots) can be removed with this setting.
• Maximum size of a dot, to discriminate it from a grace
note head (in line spaces)
Removes all unidentified dots below a certain size.
Increasing this value can affect the double-whole rest recognition.
• Maximum vertical distance between the notehead and the
dot (in line spaces)
The duration dot related to a notehead to make a dotted
note value
can be shifted vertically. If a duration dot is not taken into account,
increase this value slightly.
• Maximum horizontal distance between the notehead and
the dot (in line spaces)
Defines the maximum horizontal distance for a dot to be
considered as being related to a notehead.
• Maximum distance between the dot and the repeat bar
(in line spaces)
If a repeat barline is taken for a piece start or end
barline, increase this value.
Ornaments
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Complexity: average
PDFtoMusic has some settings to manually compensate for graphical
similarities, such as the shape of tenuto ornaments and whole rests.
• Minimum horizontal size for a tenuto (in line spaces) (b)
• Maximum horizontal size for a tenuto (in line spaces)
• Minimum vertical size for a tenuto (in line spaces) (a)
A
tenuto is a small horizontal line usually drawn above the notehead.
Many kinds of horizontal lines can appear on a score. These values can
be adjusted to locate tenuti between the horizontal lines that haven't
yet been processed as staff lines or ledger lines.
• Maximum horizontal distance between ornament and note
(in line spaces) (c)
• Maximum vertical distance between ornament and note (in line spaces) (d)
Ornaments are generally placed near the note they are related to. These
values define the maximum tolerated distance.
• Minimum horizontal size of an ornament (in line spaces)
Some very small shapes can be taken for ornaments. This value removes
very small shapes that can be taken for ornaments.
Fingering
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Complexity: average
Fingerings are numerical values from 0 to 5 that define the finger of
the performer that has to be used to play the note.
They can be easily confused with tuplets.
To know the height of a character on the page, hold the mouse pointer
over the object for one second.
• Fingering character minimum height (in line spaces)
• Fingering character maximum height (in line spaces)
Adjusting fingering character height bounding values can, in some
cases, help to differenciate between a tuplet and a fingering.
Slur
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Complexity: low
Slurs and ties are always related to two notes: the source note and the
target note.
For each shape likely to be a slur, PDFtoMusic Pro will search for
matching notes. Possibly, if a line end occurs in the middle of a slur,
the target not will be searched for in the matching staff of the next
system..
• Maximum horizontal distance between the slur end and
the notehead (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between the slur end and the notehead (in
line spaces)
Maximum distance between the notehead and the slur end. It only affects
the rough search of notes related to the slur.
• Minimum slur height (in line spaces)
Defines the amount of arc a slur must have in order not to be
considered a horizontal line.
• Imprecision for slur seeking (in line spaces)
Fine setting for finding the note to be related to the slur.
• Vertical imprecision for connecting slurs from a
system to another (in line spaces)
When a slur is broken by the end of the page, a second
slur is searched for in the equivalent staff of the next system. This
value defines the vertical tolerance for finding the second slur.
• Imprecision for merging two overlapping slurs (in line
spaces)
In some files, several slurs are drawn at the same place. In order to
reduce them to only one slur, an area comparison is performed, with
this tolerance.
• Ratio of two-part slurs (mirror) occurrence
In some files, slurs are drawn in two parts, one for the first half,
then one (mirorred) for the second part. An analysis is performed for
determining whether the file follows this way of displaying slurs.
If the number of end to end slurs compared to the number of separated slurs is greater than the ratio,
slurs are considered to be mirrored.
Tie
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Complexity: low
Slurs have been extracted, PDFtoMusic Pro now tries to find which of
them are actually ties.
This needs the note height to be compared, as well as a rather short
distance between the notehead and the tie end:
• Maximal horizontal distance between the tie end and
the note head (in line spaces)
• Maximal horizontal distance between the tie end and the note head (in
line spaces)
Beam
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Complexity: average
Horizontal and slanted lines that have not been processed yet will be
analyzed in order to see whether they connect to note stems and are
thick enough. They will consitute the beams..
• Horizontal imprecision between stem position and beam
(in line spaces)
Adjusts how far from the note stem the beam is allowed
to appear before it is no longer considered a beam grouping. This
value enables to adjust this tolerance
(a).
Note that PDFtoMusic may interpret tenuto ornaments as beams if this
value is increased.
• Horizontal imprecision between stem position and beam
for tremolo (in line spaces)
For tremolos, the beam doesn't connect to the stem (b)
• Vertical imprecision between stem position and beam
(in line spaces)
In the same way, vertically the stem end has to be close to the beam (c)
• Minimum thickness of the beam (in line spaces)
Horizontal and slanted lines will be considered as beams only if their
thickness is above this value (d)
Be aware a too low value can disturb the tuplet recognition.
• Maximal thickness of the beam (in line spaces)
Horizontal and slanted lines will be considered as beams only if their
thickness is below this value (d)
• Minimal distance between beam and notehead (in line
spaces)
Beams have to be far enough from the notehead (e)
• Tolerance for multiple beam slope comparison
When a beam is made of several lines, they have to be more or less
parallel. This value is the tolerance between these beam slopes.
Fonts
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Complexity: low
• Ratio between characters on the staves and the total
number of characters for considering a font as a music font
In
order to know whether a font is used for drawing music symbols or text,
the way the font characters are spread on the page is analyzed.
The number of characters drawn inside the staff areas is counted, as
well as the number of characters outside these areas.
This ratio is compared to the value of this parameter, and the font
type determined.
Please note that this result can be changed after the fact by manually
editing the font type ("Correction" menu)
Characters
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Complexity: low
Characters that have not been yet processed as music symbols will be
analyzed in order to form words.
• Maximum vertical distance between a character and the word it belongs
to (in percent of the word height)
Defines the imprecision in the word base line. The greater value, the
more characters located on slightly different line will be considered
as belonging to the same word.
Especially useful for for superscripted letters, as in chord suffixes
like "C7", where the "7" is shifted up.
• Maximum horizontal distance between the end of a word
and a character for concatenation (as a ratio of the word height)
With a greater value, characters farther apart vertically will be
considered as belonging to the same word.
If this value is too high, lyrics related to the staff might merge
into a single word.
More important: on tablatures, cell numbers can be erroneous. For
instance, a 3 followed by another 3 on the same string will give "33"
• Maximum horizontal distance between the end of the
word and the musical symbol for tempo markings (in percent of the
word height)
Enables to merge the tempo text indication and the musical one, made of
a note followed by an "equal" symbol and the tempo value.
• Minimal distance between two identical characters (in
percent of the character height)
In some files, each character is drawn several time,
-almost- at the same place. This parameter enables to remove these
identical characters when another one has already been drawn.
Words
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Complexity: low
Characters have been grouped into words. These words will constitute
word lines, and these lines analyzed to determine whether they are
lyrics, or chord names.
Bar numbers, staff or staff group names are extracted.
•Vertical imprecision for creating word lines (as a
ratio of the word height)
Defines vertical tolerance for creating word lines.
• Maximum horizontal distance between measure start and
its number (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between measure start and its number (in
line spaces)
This defines maximum distances for measure number
seeking.
• Maximum vertical distance between the staff and its
name (in line spaces)
Staff name is supposed to be vertically centered on the
staff line area. This parameter defines the tolerance.
Lyrics
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Complexity: low
Word lines that are not chord name lines will be analyzed to extract
lyric lines. A lyric line is always located under its matching staff.
• Ratio for discrimination between dash and underline
Horizontal lines in a lyric line are considered as dashes or underline
(melisma). The vertical position of the line, in proportion of the line
height, differenciates between them.
• Ratio between the number of words and the
number of notes in a staff line, theoretically 1.
Enables not considering some words as lyrics, if greater than the limit.
Sometimes, text lines, drawn under a staff are not
lyric lines, but for instance, the page footer. The words that can be
related to a note are counted, in proportion with those which can't. If
this ratio is below the provided value, the line won't be considered as
a lyric line.
• Maximum distance between the first line of lyrics and the bottom of
the staff (in line spaces)
If the first word line is too far from the bottom of the staff, it is
not considered as a lyric line.
• Maximum vertical distance between lyrics lines
(in multiple of the line height)
When searching music with several lyric verses, this setting determines
the maximum distance to consider between verses.
• Matching ratio between notes for shared lyrics
When a lyric line is located between two parts, notes in the two staves
are compared, and a matching ratio between them is computed. If the
result is greater than this parameter value, lyrics are considered as
shared between the two staves.
Paragraphs
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Complexity: low
Words that have not been yet processed as lyrics, chord names, staff
names, etc, will be grouped into paragraphs and exported as free text.
First, words will be aggregated into word lines, then the lines
vertically merged into paragraphs.
• Maximum horizontal distance for merging text in lines
(as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum distance between two words on the same line.
• Maximum horizontal distance for adding a space in line
(as a multiple of the font size)
If the distance between two words on a same line is
greater than this value, a space character will be inserted between
them.
• Maximum horizontal distance for merging lines in a
paragraph (as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum horizontal offset between two lines in a same
paragraph. It is applied to the left and the right of the lines
(paragraphs can be justified)
• Maximum vertical distance for merging lines in a
paragraph (as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum vertical distance between two lines of a same paragraph.
Multiple bars
|
| |
Complexity: low
Multi-rest measures are drawn as a symbol at the center of the measure,
and a number above.
• Minimum height of the multi-rest number (in line spaces)
The number has to be tall enough (a)
• Maximum offset between the multi-rest number and the
measure center (in line spaces)
The number has to be more or less centered in the measure (b)
• Maximum distance between the multi-rest number and the staff (in line
spaces)
The number has to be drawn above the staff, but not too far (c)
Parts / Endings
|
| |
Complexity: low
Part indicators define portions of the score that are played only at
some times.
• Maximum thickness of a part line (in line spaces)
Vertical or horizontal lines thinner than this value will be ignored
(a)
• Minimum height of the vertical line (in line spaces)
Vertical lines at the beginning and the end have to be tall enough (b)
• Minimum length of the horizontal line (in line spaces)
The line that joins the beginning and the end can be broken, we define
here its minimum length (c)
• Imprecision for connecting vertical and horizontal
lines (in line spaces)
Vertical and horizontal lines are interpreted as part of the same
(ending) bracket only if they are within this tolerance.
• Minimum height of numbers (in line spaces)
Numbers have to be big enough (d)
• Minimum height of dot (in line spaces)
The dot between
numbers, if present, must be big enough. If it is not, it will be
removed, in order to avoid confusion with a staccato, for instance.
Crescendo / decrescendo
|
| |
Complexity: low
Slanted lines that have not been considered yet as beams are analyzed
in order to determine whether they connect by one of their ends.
Depending on the result, they are either considered as crescendo,
decrescendo or marcato.
• Horizontal imprecision for seeking the two lines of
the symbol (in line spaces)
• Vertical imprecision for seeking the two lines of the symbol (in line
spaces)
Lines have to connect with enough accuracy (a
& b)
• Minimum size for a decrescendo. If smaller, the
decrescendo will be changed into a marcato (in line spaces)
Decrescendo has to be wide enough, otherwise it is considered as a
marcato (c)
• Comparison of crescendo line size (as a ratio of the
reference size)
Lines must be of about the same length (d)
Octave offset
|
| |
Complexity: low
Octave shift symbols (8va, 8vb, 15ma, 15mb) are followed by a line,
dashed or not, that shows which notes are affected.
• Horizontal imprecision for seeking line on the right
of the symbol (in line spaces)
The line must not start too far from the symbol (a)
• Vertical imprecision for seeking line on the right of
the symbol (in line spaces)
Line has to be more or less vertically centered on the symbol (b)
• Discrimination between a line drawn with dashes and a
line with dashed attributes (in line spaces)
Maximum distance between dashes when the line is drawn dashed (c)
Pictures
|
| |
Complexity: low
In a PDF file, pictures can either be decorative or draw the shape of a
music symbol.
• Maximum size of pictures to be processed as music
symbols (in pixels)
Bigger pictures will be considered as decorative.
• Minimum size of pictures to be exported in the result
(in pixels)
Smaller pictures will be ignored and won't be exported in the result
file.
Introduction
|
|
|
Kooplet is a search engine specialized in music scores.
From a note pattern Kooplet will display a list of documents from the Internet that contain this pattern.
Processed
file formats are those containing all necessary information to provide
an editable score. For instance, digital audio formats
(wav,aiff,mp3,etc) are ignored.
Kooplet will provide links to files in Myr, PDF, Mu3, Mus, XML, MXL,
Abc, Etf, Tef, Nwc, Enc, Tab, Mid, Kar, Mod, S3m, Cmf, Sty, Rhp, Etf,
Gp5, Gp4, Gp3 or Gtp format.
PDF files can be converted by PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic Pro, the others can be imported directly in Harmony Assistant.
By clicking the "Play" button below the search result area, you'll be able to hear the note pattern in its context.
Three search modes are available. Search mode can be selected from the first icon in the toolbar:
- Search for pitch, regardless of the rhythm
- Search for rhythm, regardless of the pitch
- Search for both pitch and rhythm
It is also possible to search music score files for text, as well in the titles or comments as in the lyrics.
If a text and a music pattern are entered, result documents match both the text and the pattern.
Contrarily to other generic search engines, Kooplet extracts
information from within the music file content.
Documents
are not stored on the Kooplet servers but remain on the site where they
have been found. Therefore, when downloading or viewing a document, you
will read it directly from the original site that hosts it.
The toolbar
|
|
|
The toolbar changes according to the selected search mode, or whether you insert notes or rests, etc.
From left to right, you can find:
- Search mode selection
- Start and stop pattern playback
- Delete the whole pattern
- Pattern input from the microphone (experimental)
- Sharp mode for note input
- Note/Rest input mode
- Symbol duration
- Dot mode
Tips
|
|
|
You can add symbols by clicking the virtual keyboard.
If you click the keyboard or the staff with the Shift key down, you hear the note without inserting any symbol.
If you click a symbol with the Alt key down, it is deleted.
If notes are selected in the frontmost document before Kooplet is activated, these note will be used as search pattern.
Advanced search
|
|
|
When
searching for a text, if you write the words between quotes, search
will be performed on these words in this order. Without quotes, it will
be performed on these words in any order.
For instance, if a score contains lemon tree, it will match the tree lemon search, but not "tree lemon" between quote marks.
If you write a minus symbol before a word, this will have to be absent from the document text.
For instance, if you search for Ave Maria -Gounod, matching files will contain the words Ave and Maria, but not the word Gounod.
The "Setup" button set up the search broadness.
PDFtoMusic enables to convert or hear PDF files without using the
graphical user interface (GUI).
It is ran through a command line.
This operating mode is especially intended to be used by visually
impaired people, who cannot navigate within the interface.
On Macintosh :
When the program is installed, a p2mp command is created in the
Applications folder.
Run the terminal and enter
/Applications/p2mp followed by the complete name of the PDF file to
process.
On Windows :
A command called p2mp is available in the program install folder
(C:\Program Files\PDFtoMusic ou
C:\Program Files\PDFtoMusic Pro).
From an MS/DOS command window, move to this folder then enter
p2mp followed by the complete name of the PDF file to process.
The result fime (by default a MusicXML) is created at the same level as
the PDF file.
Here are the available options:
| -h, --help |
display this help |
|
-v language
|
(EN,FR) turn verbose
output
on |
default: off
|
| -firstpage nnn |
first page to
process
|
default: 1
|
| -lastpage nnn |
last page to process
|
default: document's
last
|
-password pass
|
password for
protected PDF
|
default: none
|
| -pathdest
target_folder |
|
default: same as the
PDF file |
| -format name |
XML,MXL,MYR,MID,KAR,WAV,
AIFF,BMP,NONE |
default: XML |
| -multivoices n |
0 or
1
|
default: 1 |
| -enhancedchords n |
0 or
1
|
default: 1 |
-tuplets n
|
0 or
1 |
default: 1 |
| -fingering n |
0 or
1 |
default: 1 |
-keychanges n
|
0 or
1 |
default: 1 |
| -clefshift n |
0 or
1 |
default: 1 |
| -highdef n |
0 or
1 |
default: 1 |
| -register xxxx |
xxxx is your
personal registration number |
|
| -play |
the result is played
once the PDF has
been processed |
|
This way of working is
provided for your personal purpose only. Using it in an automated
system for the benefit of a third party is strictly forbidden.
No recognition algorithm can be 100% reliable. In
the event you encounter translation errors,
PDFtoMusic offers some tools to help you fix them.
Fonts
Symbols
Staves and systems
Fonts
|
| |
PDFToMusic extracts character fonts from the PDF
document, in order to "read" the music sheet.
However, when a PDF document is created, fonts are
not stored as is in the file, but transformed.
First, to shrink the file size, only used characters
are embedded.The name of the font is also often
encoded. Moreover, no clue is provided that would
enable PDFtoMusic to distinguish it without fail.
Some portions of text can be written with a default
font (Times, Courier, ...), directly managed by the
PDF format. In such cases, the font is not included
in the PDF file and won't appear in the recognized
font list.
In a first step, PDFtoMusic tries to extract a
consistent font name, and searches for it in its
known font name database. If the name is found, the
font is considered as "forced, application". You
can't change this status.
If the first step gets nowhere, PDFtoMusic applies
dedicated algorithms to distinguish between text and
music fonts. Fonts are then marked as "Text, auto",
or "Music, auto". You can change this status through
the "Correction > Fonts" menu option and, for
instance, change a text font to music font.
Tip: double-clicking a character on the PDF document
opens this window with the matching font selected.
This change can be limited to the document or
applied to all documents.
If limited to the document, only the current
document will be affected by this change.
If applied to all documents, each time the font name
will be found again in a PDF file, its state will be
forced. Of course, this option has to be used
wisely. You therefore create your own database of
the fonts that are the most frequently found.
Please note that these changes can be stored in the
PDF document, and kept from one use of this file to
another, or if you send the document to another
user.
In this last case, the font name database of the
recipient won't be altered.
Once fonts have been marked as music or text, they
are processed accordingly by PDFtoMusic.
Music fonts are optically analyzed, character by
character, in order to guess the meaning of each of
them.
For text fonts, the operation is a bit different.
PDFtoMusic uses first the Unicode data from the PDF
file. In most of the cases, the result is
consistent. However, some PDF files don't provide
accurate Unicode data. It's rather easy to realize:
recognized text is completely different from the
original one.
Here is for instance what you see in PDFtoMusic:
And once the result is loaded in
a music notation software:
PDFtoMusic offers a solution to this problem by
making "Text font, with optical recognition"
editable. Once a font is marked as such, if it
appears that there are errors in the default optical
recognition (some characters are very close to each
other: I and 1, O and 0, etc), you can remap the
associated keystroke for any character. To do so,
click on the character preview, and then press the
key on your keyboard which you would like associated
with that particular character symbol. From this
point, the result of the recognition is changed.
The characters you modify appear in a different
color on the preview.
Amendments to the recognition are stored in a
database, so that when a strictly identical
character is found later in another document, it
will be amended automatically. PDFtoMusic "learns"
in order to ease your work.
To input a Unicode character which can't be entered
directly from your keyboard, like for instance,
Greek or Hebrew, let the command key (Apple key on
MacOS, Ctrl key on Windows) depressed, while
entering the Unicode value of the character (in
hexadecimal).
For instance, Command+0394 will define the capital
greek delta.
A summary of Unicode values can be found here: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tomw/java/unicode.html
Finally, some fonts don't include either music
symbols or digits and letters, but graphics.
Examples of this would be accordion register
indicators, guitar chord diagrams, embellishments,
etc.
In these cases, you can specify that the font has to
be processed as graphics.
The miscellaneous characters of this font will then
be considered to be graphics, and exported
accordingly in the result file.
Once imported into Harmony Assistant, it gives:
Symbol
correction
|
| |
When moving the mouse pointer over a music symbol,
its color changes:
Right-clicking opens the contextual menu related to
this object.
In this menu, you can change the object settings.
This is very useful, for example, when PDFtoMusic
interprets a particular object incorrectly.
The red cross remove the object from the PDFtoMusic
processing.
The green cross restore the object initial state.
To select several objects, apply a right click
outside any object and define the area. All objects
in this area will be selected.
To add several objects to the existing selection, do
the same with Alt key pressed.
To remove several objects to the existing selection,
do the same with Command key pressed.
You can select all objects from the Edit menu.
All change applied to a selected object will be
applied to all selected objects with the same kind.
Staves
and systems
|
| |
A music score is made of several pages. Each page
shows staff lines, joined in systems by a vertical
line on the left.
There can be therefore several systems in each page.
When a performer doesn't play anything during
several bars, the matching staff is often omitted in
the system.
PDFtoMusic applies complex algorithms to "follow"
staves from one system to another, and bring the
parts together.
You can amend this result through "Correction >
Staves and systems".
In this mode, the score is displayed in gray, while
systems are shown as a blue vertical bar and
numbered: S1, S2, etc.
Between each system, a glue tube enables you to merge
systems.
Between each staff, a pair of scissors enables you to
split the system.
Click the icon to apply the operation.
If you need to apply the same operation to the whole
page, the whole document, or to the same place on
all pages, right-click the icon and select the
operation mode from the contextual menu.
Each part is marked with a letter, possibly followed
by its name between brackets.
If you applied a change, the part name is displayed
in green.
Clicking the blue arrow in the staff opens the
contextual menu for relating the staff to the part:
- Automatic computation:
- Exclude from computation:
The staff will be ignored. It enables you to remove
a staff for computation, so that it isn't exported.
- Part list:
Choose in this list the part to which the staff has
to be related.
- Create new part:
Creates a new part and relates the staff to it.
If the error you fix has occurred on all pages,
right-clicking the staff name opens a contextual
menu, enabling to apply the staves arrangement of
the current page to all the other pages of the
document.
You can open the mixer from the Windows menu.
The mixer show the play state of the frontmost
document.
For each part we found :
- The singer language (if the part has related
lyrics). You can click on the flag to change it.
Right click to change all languages.
- The current sound level. It can vary according
to the general volume, the paning and the
dynamics.
- The volume and the paning. You can change
them.
- The octave shift.
- An icon to change the related instrument.
- An icon to mute the part. Right click mute all
the other parts.
At window bottom :
- An icon to reset all values.
- Surround enabling.
- General volume.
You can open the virtual keyboard from the Windows
menu.
When a music is playing keyboard keys are show.
You can select:
- The part to display.
- Number of octaves.
- Value of first octave.
Version 1.4.0 / April 2013
This version brings an enhanced stability, a better
symbol recognition, new computing options as well as
some user interface improvements. In particular,
it's now possible to group objects together and
apply changes to all of them at once.
Two new floating tools are included : mixer and
virtual keyboard.
The played measure list can now be forced.
News and
Improvements
- New floating window: Mixer
- New floating window: Virtual Keyboard
- Quick opening of the current document in the
score editor of your choice.
- Page change on Pg Up & Pg Down keyboard
keys
- Specific processing of thin beams
("Correction" menu)
- Specific processing of note stems drawn using
curves ("Correction" menu)
- Better management of slurs across end of line
- Lyrics language displayed through a small flag
- Improvement of language automatic recognition
- Improvement in text spacing recognition
- Optional display of file complete path in the
window title
- New setting for playing the score
automatically after processing
- Independant key signature change on staves
- Corrections are applied to all selected
objects of the same type
- Now possible to select objects through
discontinuous selection, exclusion of a
selection area, selection of one or several
staves
- Edit menu: delete changes on selected objects
- Edit menu: select all, deselect all
- Improvement of Da Capo management and better
export
- Management of 7-shapes Fasola notation
- Improvement in shape note recognition
- Improvement of title, composer and remarks
recognition
- Improvement in speed for module: staff
following from one system to the next
- Improvement in speed for module: music symbols
optical recognition
- Improvement in ottava symbols processing
- Management of fontless documents like the PDF
files generated by iWriteMusic
- Better processing of information written
outside the staff area
- Virtual Singer voices (SATB) are better
determined and set
- Better processing of staff group name
- A new options enables to display measure
numbers and to spot measures that are never
played (it's generally due to a mistake in break
symbols)
- Now possible to force the list of measures to
play
- When compressed MusicXML format (.mxl) is
used, pictures of the document are now managed
in a standard way, and therefore imported by
programs that can process such embedded pictures
(PDFtoMusic Pro only)
- Miscellaneous PDF-specific graphic settings
are now calculated: stem line width, staff line
width, grace note size, etc. These settings are
exported in MusicXML (PDFtoMusic Pro only)
- Shape-note notation management module has been
completely rewritten
- Better management of incomplete measures
(anacrusis, upbeats) before or after repeat
start and end barlines.
- Management of staves with different time
signatures
- Management of implied tuplets through rhythmic
pattern recognition
- Improvement of chord diagrams recognition
- Improvement of lyrics and note association
- New algorithm for grace note tracking and
processing
- Better management of double-sharp symbols
- Recognition of a new ornament : staccatissimo.
- Improvement of C (Tenor) clef spotting
- Improvement of distinction between key
signature and note accidentals.
- Management of dotted notes with double stem
- Better processing of stemless notes
- Better spotting of dotted barlines
- Management of tempo text mentions made of
several words
- Better management of arpeggio symbols
- Better recognition of lyrics language
- In global setup, default corrections that will
be applied when a PDF file is loaded can be
selected
- Better management of numbered parts (endings)
at the beginning of a line
- On documents with several lyric lines, when
break symbols are missing or wrong, break
symbols can be automatically created to match
the number of repeats.
- New option in the export to create a separate
file by part (PDFtoMusic Pro only)
Fixes and Changes
- Relation between file types and opening
application
- Management of TrueType CID type 2 Fonts
- Fixed crash on corrupted bitmap pictures
- Fixed crash when a long line of text is
considered as the lyrics syllable related to a
note
- Fixed icon positions when settings are reset
to default values
- Chord line management when conflicting with
bar numbers
- Fixed problem when saving instruments
- Online search for free PDF score files using
Kooplet has been improved, and the quantity of
indexed files drastically increased.
- Some combinations of break symbols and
numbered parts (endings) could result in an
infinite play.
- Fixed a problem in shared lyrics recognition.
Version 1.3.1 / May 2012
Improvements
- Better beam handling
- PDF files are now managed up to version 1.7
- Better ledger lines management
- Management of copy/paste protected PDF files
- New version auto detect
- Better broken slurs management
- Better 8va and 8vb management
Fixes
- Recent files menu
- User's toolbar
- Mensurstrich notation
- Dynamics vertical position on one line staves
Version 1.3.1d (May 15, 2012
)
Improvements
- Title, Composer, Remarks are extracted from
the PDF and exported
Fixes
- Better management of repeat start/end
recognized as piece start/end
Version 1.3.1c (April 19,
2012 )
Fixes
- Possible crash when playing a score that
contains lyrics written in an unknown language
- Windows:
Fixed
problem
in
the
memory
management library of the PDFtoMusic non-pro
version, that could prevent processing of
long scores
Version 1.3.0 / March 2011
New
- The Kooplet music search engine is included,
to search the Internet for PDF scores
- Possible to deactivate the chord name search
("Correction" menu)
Improvements
- Position of the play bar in multi-rest bars
Fixes
- Rest display
- Marcato Staccato ornament display
- Tuplet rests in MusicXML export
- Rests that fill a bar in MusicXML export
- Rests vertical position
Version 1.3.0c (March 17,
2011 )
- Repeat barlines between clef and time
signature weren't processed.
- Fixed toolbar update problem when setting up
the icons to display
- Fixed
crash on some files, Windows version
Version 1.3.0d (March 24,
2011 )
- Better management of slurs/ties drawn astride
a line break
- Some
chords were incorrectly played arpeggiated
Version 1.2.1 / April-May 2010
New
- Management of forced bar numbers
- Management of incomplete time signatures
- PDFtoMusic Pro: Command-line access (without
GUI)
- PDFtoMusic Pro: Batch processing: Messages can
be saved in a log file
- PDFtoMusic Pro: Expert mode: Maximum grace
note size setting
Improvements
- General improvement of musical or alphabetical
characters
- Better management of double barlines
- Improvement of numbered endings management
Fixes
- Page number in the drawer
- Dots localisation problem
- On some files, accidentals and grace notes
recognition
- MusicXML export: "<" character in lyrics
- Space character management
Version 1.2.1c and 1.2.1d (
May 4th - 6th 2010 )
- Improvement of music export (any format)
- Improvement in the way melismas are performed
by Virtual Singer
- Improvement of the arpeggio symbol management
- PDFtoMusic
Pro:
MusicXML
export:
stem
sizes
of
secondary staves of a group (e.g. piano bass
staff) weren't properly saved
- Windows:
Packed
MusicXML (.mxl) didn't work
- Windows
Vista/7:
once
the
program
was
installed,
the system displayed an alert box saying
that the install might not be completed
properly
- Windows
Vista/7:
The
appearance
of
dialog
boxes
could not be as expected
Version 1.2 / April 2009
New
- The toolbar can now be customized
- A folder of sample PDF files is now provided
- It is now possible to exclude break symbols
(segno, coda...) from the processing
Improvements
- Better export of grace notes (appoggiaturas)
in MusicXML.
- Better recognition and export of tremolos.
- Better management of repeat start and end
symbols
- Better management of drum staves, especially
on documents that only include such staves.
- .myr export now manages metronome
- Verse number in lyrics are now better managed.
- Better recognition for half notes
- Crossed grace notes are now located and
exported
- Better management of whole bar rests
- All actions available from menus can be
activated through an icon, and vice versa
Corrections
- Fixed performance of some kind of drum staves
- Fixed a small problem of file compatibility
between PDFtoMusic and Melody Player
- Fixed problem in beam recognition
- Crash on embedded Adobe Type 1 fonts with
composite diacritics.
Version 1.1 / September 8, 2008
New
- Packed MusicXML format (.mxl) is now managed
- Correction Menu : item to allow bracket to
create groups
- Correction Menu : item to ignore the clefs
vertical offset
- Management of implied tuplets
- Now possible to export in MusicXML 2.0 format
(global setup)
Improvements
- Better management of drum staves
- Opening a PDF file from the desktop doesn't
load the last documents
- Shift + mousewheel changes display scale
Fixes
- Confusion between tuplets and part start
- Chord diagrams management
- Confusion on drum staves
- Memory crash when deleting a change made to
the document
Version 1.0.4 / April 24th, 2007
New
- A correction can now be applied to a group of
symbols.
Right-click to define a selection area. Symbols
in this area appear as selected. Right-click on
any symbol in this selection area and select a
correction to apply: it will be applied to all
the symbols of the same kind in the selection
area.
Improvements
- Better memory management for page graphic
cache. Enables to manage bigger PDF files.
Fixes
- Seeking of the staff related to chord diagrams
Version 1.0.3 / April 3rd, 2007
Improvements
- Optimization of processing time
- Better management for chord name written on
shifted lines.
- Better management of grace notes
- Accented characters made of two parts
- Recognition of guitar chord diagrams drawn
with an emty grid character and a set of dots
- Recognition of some key changes
- Parenthesis around an accidental or a
notehead, when drawn with a text font
- Font OCR database updated.
- Macintosh: Multi-screen management
Fixes
- Recognition and export of the Aiken FaSoLa
notation
- Management of Adobe Type 1 fonts
- Applying a change on a document with a guitar
chord diagram
- Recognition of horizontal beams, when
overlapping a staff line
- Problem when a chord name was "Re"
- PDFtoMusic Pro: empty pictures are no more
exported in MusicXML
- MacTel: keyboard management
Version 1.0.2 / February 21st, 2007
Improvements
- Possible to change note duration AND add or
subtract a dot.
- Crossed grace notes management
- New keyboard shortcuts for display scale, 200%
scale
- Dynamics merging ensure that the result is
logical, for instance to avoid merging "mf" and
"sfz"
- New full screen and drawer management
- Font OCR database updated.
- PDFtoMusic Pro: New setting for the expert
mode: maximum beam thickness.
Fixes
- Tenuti recognition
- Ties within slurs
- Breve rest recognition
- Tempi display, edit and export
- Beamed notes with double stems
- Stem direction in chords
- Framed text could interfere with part numbers
Version 1.0.1 / February 8th, 2007
Improvements
- When defining a new kind of tuplet, it's added
to the tuplet value list.
- .myr files are now packed.
- "How to create PDF files with Mac OS 9"
chapter added to the manual.
- "How to create PDF files with Linux" chapter
added to the manual.
- Improvement in bar number seeking.
- Time signature detection has been improved.
- Improvement of paragraph recognition for free
text objects.
- Font OCR database updated.
- .myr export: default instruments for the
metronome are automatically created.
- PDFtoMusic Pro: After changing expert mode
settings, possible to compute all the open
documents again.
- PDFtoMusic Pro: In batch export, it's now
possible to define the amendments to computation
settings that will be applied to each and every
processed file.
- PDFtoMusic Pro: When editing expert settings,
when at least one item has been changed from the
reference value, the matching topic name is
highlighted in the list, and the offset from the
current value to the reference is also
displayed.
Fixes
- Miscellaneous problems in general settings.
- Problem that could occur when trying to edit
or play a non-vector document (scanned page or
not a music score)
- Infinite loop when selecting a user tuplet
- Exported page selection in other formats than
MusicXML
- Double barlines at end of bar could be not
well recognized.
- File kind detection according to its extension
when exporting
- Chord names and text related to the staff
could be not exported in .myr format
- Output device related to the instrument when
exporting in .myr format
- Alert about bar numbering when applying
correction on systems
- Windows: files with accented characters in
their name are now properly managed.
- Windows : default value of the selector when
selecting a folder.
- PDFtoMusic Pro: dynamic size when exporting in
MusicXML format
- PDFtoMusic Pro: "slash notation" export in
MusicXML format
Version 1.0.0 / February 1st, 2007
Very first public version.
Non processed elements
|
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- Text or page rotation
- Circled fingerings or string numbers
- Different time signature at the same time position
Unregistered version
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The unregistered version of PDFtoMusic will only play the first page of
a document, and can export only one page at a time.
Explanatory text appears on each exported page processed with the demo
version.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Here are some frequently asked questions, along with their answers:
PDFtoMusic displays a score but says that the document
doesn't include any exploitable music data. Why?
Some PDF files embed only a single picture for the
whole score, instead of a collection of simple graphic objects.
This kind of PDF file has probably been generated from a scanned paper
sheet. PDFtoMusic can't extract and process elementary graphical items
in such cases, and reports that such a document cannot be processed.
How to know whether a PDF file can be processed by
PDFtoMusic?
The simplest way is to ask PDFtoMusic to load it. It will then tell you.
Otherwise, open it with Acrobat Reader (or equivalent) and do "Select
All". If the PDF file contains exploitable data, the selection range
will be fragmented. If the PDF file contains only a scanned picture
that
can't be processed either the selection range will be empty, or the
whole score will be selected as a single block.
File formats
Your user folder
Keyboard shortcuts
Useful links
File formats
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PDFtoMusic manages several file formats. Here is an overview of each of
them.
Adobe PDF format
It's a document format designed by Adobe, PDF standing for "Portable
Document Format". It eases the exchange and distribution of any
document. It can store any kind of graphical objects, from text to
pictures.
It's the groundwork of PDFtoMusic.
PDFtoMusic reads this kind of document.
MusicXML format
Designed by Recordare,
this
format is about to become the
exchange file format for music scores. Based on XML, a text descriptive
format, it is now managed by an increasing number of music programs.
In order to open PDFtoMusic to as many people as possible, it has been
naturally chosen as the groundwork format for the Pro version of
PDFtoMusic.
PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.
This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.
You can use the Myriad
Music Plug-in to embed this kind of file in a web page or the Melody
Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.
MusicXML compressed format
It is a packed version of the MusicXML format. In fact, this kind of
file can be obtained by packing a MusicXML file with zip, then renaming
the result file
from .zip to .mxl
In the same way, the original MusicXML file can be extracted from the
.mxl by renaming it to .zip then unpacking it with any utility that
supports this format (for instance, the original unzip program)
.
Because MusicXML is a descriptive text of the score, these files can be
quite large. In order to save bandwidth, either when such files are
sent by e-mail or put on a Website, using a .mxl can be useful.
PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.
This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.
You can use the Myriad
Music Plug-in to embed this kind of file in a web page or the Melody
Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.
Myr format
It's a Myriad proprietary format, managed by Melody
Assistant and Harmony
Assistant.
Music-related information is stored as musical objects.
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
You can use the Myriad
Music Plug-in to embed this kind of file in a web page or the Melody
Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.
Mid format
This format, based on the MIDI exchange standard between electronic
music devices (keyboards, synthesizers, expanders, etc) contains a
description of the notes that constitute the music pieces, as well as
basic information about the score. However, details about the piece
graphical appearance, its page layout, note appearance or ornaments are
not stored. Albeit very incomplete, and until the use of MusicXML
broadens, it remains the standard exchange format for almost all music
programs.
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
You can use the Melody
Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.
Kar format
It's actually a mid format, to which additional commands have been
added in order to store lyrics related to a staff. Originally, this
format was designed to store Karaoke scores (hence its name).
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
You can use the Melody
Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.
Wav format
It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This
format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and
saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).
Initially designed for PC, it is now managed by almost any
sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound
database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality
will be obtained when using the base GOLD.
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
AIFF format
It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This
format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and
saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).
Initially designed for Macintosh, it is now managed by almost
any sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound
database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality
will be obtained when using the base GOLD.
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
BMP format
It's a binary picture format. Data is not stored as graphical object,
but as pixels.
It is managed by almost all the graphic editors.
PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.
Structure of your user
folder
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The user folder contains files that have been created by PDFtoMusic. It
is highly recommended to perform backup copies of this folder at
regular intervals.
This folder is located in your user document folder, in the "Myriad
Documents/PDFtoMusic" subfolder.
The subfolders are:
"Correction" : If you asked for the corrections not to be stored in the
PDF document itself, the changes you applied to the documents will be
stored here. There will be one correction file for each edited PDF.
"Export": When the result from an imported PDF file is automatically
exported, it is stored by default in this folder. You can change this
location from the general preferences, "Export" section.
"OCRCorrection": When you amend the result of the character optical
recognition, databases are created in this subfolder
Keyboard shortcuts
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Beyond keyboard shortcuts for menu options, some keyboard keys trigger
actions:
Spacebar: starts and stops music playback
Down arrow: switches to next page
Up arrow: switches to previous page
Esc: cancels processing of the current file
Useful links
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Here is a list of Web sites where you can download music PDF files:
http://dirk.meineke.free.fr
http://icking-music-archive.org
http://www.cpdl.org
http://
www.solovoces.com
http://
www.sheetmusicnotes.com
http://
www.score-on-line.com
http://
www.oldmusicproject.com
http://
www.free-scores.org
http://
www.eythorsson.com
http://
www.guitarpixel.com
http://
www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ef/music/
http://
www.mutopiaproject.org
http://
www.jazzbank.com
http://
www.evatoller.pp.se
http://
www.kantoreiarchiv.de
If you encounter specific issues that you can't solve, of if you need
something precise that can't be fulfilled by PDFtoMusic, you can
contact
us, we'll do our best to help you.
Before all:
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Ensure that you actually own the most recent
version of the program (see our website).
If not, download the new version then check whether your problem still
occurs.
Either :
- Send an e-mail to this address "pdftomusic@myriad-online.com",
describing your hardware and software configuration, as well as the
problem you encounter, as precisely as possible.
You can also send an e-mail directly from the application, through the "Internet" sub-menu. Please don't hesitate to add
a file, as short as possible, that enables us to reproduce the problem
- Send a regular post mail to Myriad, 26 rue
Michel de Montaigne,
F-31200 Toulouse, France. However, if you have access to the Internet,
e-mail is recommended.
`
Non-profit distribution ofthe unregistered version of
PDFtoMusic is permitted without prior written notice, provided that the
software is not modified in any way, and is distributed in its entirety
(this includes the application, data files, and all accompanying
documentation).
For-profit distribution of the above software requires a prior written
agreement from the authors, by post, fax or e-mail.
Complete or registered
version
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By
purchasing
a complete version of
PDFtoMusic, the user accepts the present
software license.
The complete version of
PDFtoMusic is assigned to its owner,
becoming personal and confidential as soon as the personal code that
have been sent to the user after their purchase has been entered in the
software. Neither the registered copy of the software, nor the personal
registration number can be distributed in any form.
This license is not limited in time, and remains valid for all new
versions of the same product.
It is valid for
one user only.
If you need to share a registered version of
PDFtoMusic among several users,
please contact us to get a site license.
The user is fully responsible for the non-distribution of his personal
registration number and his registered copy of the software.
Disclaimer
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In no event will Myriad,
its officers,
directors, employees or agents be liable for any special, incidental,
or
consequential damages resulting from possession, use, or malfunction of
one of their products.
Neither exchange, nor
partial or total refund
can be claimed for these products after the user
has received and read his personal registration code.
Myriad reserves the right to invalidate and to disable at any time the
personal registration code of a user following the
illegal distribution of his code or a default in the complete payment
of
his software license fee.
In no event will Myriad be liable for any
direct or indirect consequence of the invalidation and disabling of a
personal
registration code following a default in payment or an illegal
distribution
of the personal code.
Myriad Software, the Myriad Software logo, MyrScript, Harmony Assistant, Virtual Singer are trademarks of Myriad Software.
Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Adobe, Adobe Illustator and Adobe Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
The application general menu*, "order" sub-menu, will connect you to our store, from where you can order a PDFtoMusic licence.
Please consider that the playback quality of PDFtoMusic, as well as the
audio file export (WAV, AIFF, MP3) can be drastically improved by using GOLD 2 sound base.
* Called "?" on Windows, "PDFtoMusic" on Macintosh
We wish to thank all people who helped us, since May 2006, by their
advices and extensive tests.
MM Aarden, Aguila, Bautista, Belkin, Butin, Faivre, Gershwinou,
Good, Groromrom, Herman, Hinchey, Houllemare, De Kloe, Lagarde, LeBow,
Le Calonnec, Legall, Lemaire,
Machefert, Nappert, Nicou, Oliveira, Puff, Rouquie.
A special thank to Franck Aguila for having designed and drawn the
application graphics.
