Dorico Pro 6’s chord symbols customize function now closes to the level of Finale (Part 1)
- tarokoike
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Dorico Pro 6, which was released on May 1st in Japan, 2025, has been updated with many features.
In terms of chord symbols, the most important improvements are that you can now systematically adjust the kerning (distance between characters) between two adjacent characters/symbols, and that editing results such as character/symbol balance in a chord symbol are now applied to chord symbols of the same type with different roots.
This video also provides details on the new features of Dorico Pro 6 related to chord symbols.
To be honest, I had the impression that the chord symbol-related functions in Dorico prior to version 5 were weaker than those in Finale. For example, it was difficult to create a user-defined chord symbol library in Dorico Pro 5, as mentioned later.
In version 6, this has finally been improved, and it seems that Dorico now has the editing capabilities for chord symbols close to Finale.
There are still some mysterious aspects of the behavior, but our testing results have determined that it can be used at a practical level, so I will summarize what we know so far in this article. *
*In the first article, we tested the operation with Dorico Pro Version 6.0.0.6026 (Apr 29 2025).
This article contains a lot of information, so it will be published in two parts. In this first part, I will summarize the previous issues with Dorico's chord symbol customization function and how it was resolved by this update, as well as how to set it up using the Engraving Options, which were possible even before Dorico Pro 5.
[Table of Contents for Part 1]
- The order of use of each function when editing chord symbols
[Table of Contents for Part 2] (planned)
3. Kerning pairs for chord symbols
4. Adjusting the appearance of chord symbols
5. Adjusting the appearance of individual chord symbols
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- Music notation software and chord symbols
Chord symbols are generally used in music genres such as jazz/fusion, rock, and pop, which are often not performed according to set notes or rhythms. You may also see them in music teaching materials for analyzing harmony, for example.
The most important issue in notating these scores is that they should be easy for performers to read and for students to understand, so the way they are expressed varies from case to case, and therefore the music notation software used to notate them requires a wide range of customization.
Looking back at Finale, which had the most flexible editing functions of any music notation software, one of its strengths was the ability to freely edit the font type, size, and placement of all elements in a chord symbol, and then use that to create a chord symbol library of the user's choice.
In fact, the Japanese version of Finale was equipped with a chord symbol library that the Japanese distributor at the time had created based on Japanese music notation practices, making full use of this function, and which was completely different from the library included in the original English version of Finale. (For details, please see this article.)
Chord suffix library for Finale v26/27 Japanese version (partial)
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- Issues before Dorico Pro 5 and improvements in this update
In Dorico, it has been possible to edit chord symbols to suit the user's preferences, but in Dorico Pro 5 and earlier, if you edited Cm7(♭5) by moving the "(♭5)" part above the "m7" to save width, for example, this would not be applied when you changed the root to Dm7(♭5), and you had to repeat the same editing work.
In other words, if you wanted to create a user-preferred chord symbol library like you did in Finale, you would have to individually perform the same setting work for up to 7*3=21 different ways (CDEFGAB, C#D#E#F#G#A#B#, C♭D♭E♭F♭G♭A♭B♭) for each type of chord symbol, assuming all root patterns are created, which was not impossible, but was not realistic in terms of the amount of work.
In Dorico Pro 5 and earlier, it was not possible to edit chord symbols of the same type with different roots at the same time.
In Dorico Pro 6, this has been improved, and editing a chord symbol with one root can also be applied to the same chord symbols with other roots.
Some people may be surprised that this function, which was common in Finale, was not included in Dorico until now, but anyway thanks to this improvement, users can create their own chord symbol libraries with a reasonable amount of work in Dorico Pro 6, just like Finale.
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- Three major updates related to chord symbols in Dorico Pro 6
There are three main types of updates to chord symbols in Dorico Pro 6. This article will focus mainly on (1) and (2).
(1) Applying the edited results of a chord symbol to all roots
The “Apply to All Roots” button has been added to the “Default Appearance of Chord Symbols in Project” dialog, so that edits such as the size and position of elements in a chord symbol are now applied to chord symbols of the same type with different roots.
(2) Set kerning for chord symbols with any font pair
The “Edit Chord Symbol Kerning Pair” dialog has been newly added, allowing users to set the optimal kerning for combinations other than the Dorico default of “Academico for text and Bravura Text for music symbols”, such as the Japanese version of Finale's “Arial + Kousaku/Finale Maestro” combination.
(3) User-defined chord symbols
The “Create Custom Chord Symbol” dialog has been newly added, allowing users to create free, user-defined chord symbols, such as “C cluster”.
(Back to table of contents)
- The order of use of each function when editing chord symbols
As of May 28, 2025, when this article was published, the information in the Japanese user manual has not yet been updated, but the file “Dorico_6.0_Version_History.pdf” that can be downloaded during installation contains the following guide on the work procedures for editing chord symbols.
First, decide on a Chord Symbol Font and Chord Symbol Music Text Font in Library > Font Styles.
Set the Engraving Options > Chord Symbols page to the settings you like best.
Select the Chord Symbol Presets at the top that most closely match the look you want.
Carefully consider the individual options on the Chord Symbols page to get your particular chord symbol as close as possible to the look you want.
Adjust the offset and scale factors of each component in the Design section of the Chord Symbols page. (These can have a big impact on the overall appearance of the chord symbol, especially if you're using a font other than the default.)
If, after trying all the options in the Engraving Options dialog, the horizontal spacing of each component isn't quite right, use the Edit Chord Symbol Kerning Pairs dialog (new in Dorico Pro 6) to adjust these kerning pairs.
Use the Default Appearance of Chord Symbols in Projects dialog to adjust the appearance of the entire chord symbol or its individual components.
If you want to adjust the appearance of an individual chord symbol for a specific situation, right-click on the chord symbol in Engrave mode and select “Chord Symbols and Chord Diagrams > Chord Symbol Appearance” to display the “Default Appearance of Chord Symbols in the Project” and override the appearance of the chord symbol.
In this article, I will follow this procedure and try to recreate some typical chord symbols in the Japanese version of Finale v26/27 from scratch in Dorico Pro 6 as examples.
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1. Decide the font
As mentioned above, the Japanese version of Finale v26/27 created and included its own chord suffix library, which differs from the original English version. The specifications are as follows.
[Specifications for chord suffixes in the Japanese version of Finale v26/27]
Root: Arial 16pt
Root alterations: Maestro 17pt
Suffix: Arial 12pt
Tension brackets and numbers: Arial 10pt
Tension alterations: Maestro 14pt
Major △, half/dim ○ and %: Maestro 24pt
There are two types of fonts for chord symbols: “Chord Symbol Font” and “Chord Symbol Music Text Font” that can be set in “Library > Font Styles”. The former is responsible for the alphabetic parts such as roots and Maj7, and the latter is responsible for the musical symbols such as ♭ and #.
In this example, I will use Arial as the chord symbol font, just like the Japanese version of Finale v26/27.
On the other hand, as for the chord symbol music text font, as detailed in a previous article, Kousaku, the default music font in the Japanese version of Finale, is not SMuFL compatible, so it cannot be used as a music font in Dorico.
Therefore, instead of Kousaku, we use Finale Maestro, which is a SMuFL compatible music font included with Dorico and has an appearance similar to Kousaku.
You can set the size to your personal preference based on the results displayed on the score. When the root is set in Arial 16pt, I think you will achieve a good balance if you set Finale Maestro to roughly 14 to 16pt.
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2. Settings in Engraving Options > Chord Symbols
Next, set Engraving Options > Chord Symbols.
This is basically a setting that each person should decide freely according to their own preference. There are many settings, but this task is basically done only once, so it is best to take your time and think it through carefully.
If you want the settings closest to those in the Japanese version of Finale v26/27, it is a good idea to set it as follows.
[Root chord]
Vertical position of root note accidental: Superscript (※Doing this will make the root note accidental quite small, but we will adjust this using the method introduced in the second part of this article.)
[Chord quality]
Chord quality > Major and minor > Vertical position of major and minor quality: Subscript
Chord quality > Diminished > Vertical position of diminished quality displayed in text: Subscript
Chord quality > Diminished > Vertical position of diminished quality displayed in circle: Subscript
Chord quality > Half diminished > Vertical position of half diminished quality displayed in circle with slash: Subscript
Chord quality > Augmented > Vertical position of augmented quality: Subscript
Chord quality > Augmented > Vertical position of augmented quality: Subscript
Chord quality > Suspended notes > sus 2nd appearance: 2 only
Chord quality > Suspended notes > Vertical position of suspended notes: Subscript
[Interval]
Interval > Vertical position of interval: Subscript
Interval > 6/9 appearance: 6 over 9 (no line)
Interval > Major 7th > Appearance of major 7th: Maj7
Interval > Major 7th > Vertical position of major 7th: Subscript
Interval > Major 7th > Appearance of minor or augmented chord: Maj7
Interval > Major 7th > Vertical position of minor or augmented chord: Subscript
Interval > Major 7th > Appearance of minor or augmented chord of other interval: Show
[Alteration, etc.]
Alteration > Position of stacked alteration relative to root: Align bottom to root
Alteration > Horizontal alignment of stacked alteration: Center
Alteration > Appearance of added notes: Always omit "add"
Alteration > add Separation of alterations from altered notes: Always use commas
Dominant Altered Chords > Altered Chord Appearance: alt
Dominant Altered Chords > Altered Chord Display Vertical Position: Subscript
Modal Chord Symbols > Mode Name Capitalization/Characterization: Make Modes and Scales Lowercase
Modal Chord Symbols > Mode Vertical Position: Subscript
Design > Stacked Alterations Scale: 50%
At first glance, it may seem like there are a lot of settings, but in Dorico, all symbols related to chord quality and pitch (suffixes in Finale) are basically changed to “subscript”, and most of these changes are related to that.
As with other settings in Dorico, it is a rule of thumb to always make such global settings before individual edits. This is because changing the global settings after individual edits may cause the individual edits you have already made to be lost.
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The font settings and chord symbol customization functions in the Engraving Options mentioned above were also included in Dorico Pro 5, so many people may already be familiar with them.
In the next article, we will continue this series by taking a closer look at the new “Edit Chord Symbol Kerning Pairs” dialog and the greatly improved “Default Appearance of Chord Symbols in Projects” dialog in Dorico Pro 6.
(Back to table of contents)
