MusGlyphs and Metrico: Music text fonts that allow you to easily input music symbols such as Swing
- tarokoike
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
For example, let's think about a case of inputting the following music symbols that indicate a swing feel into a score.
In Finale, this was easily input by selecting a preset symbol from the Expression Selection dialog box.
In Sibelius, you can also easily input this by selecting “Text tab > Style > Metric Modulation”.
In the case of Dorico, at least in Pro 6, the latest version at the moment, there is no direct function for inputting these symbols.
Therefore, you will need to install a music text font that allows you to input these music symbols separately and input it as texts.
If you have the Japanese version of Finale installed in the same environment as Dorico, a music text font Rentaro which comes with the Japanese version of Finale contains Swing symbols, so using this on Dorico would be one of a quick solution.
If you need a high-quality music text font for engraving work for published scores, etc., it is a good idea to purchase and use Chaconne EX, which is a standard music font for published scores in Japan. You can see more details in the following article.
▼[Chaconne Ex] Let's write beautiful music scores! Part 2 (Entering swing symbols)
However, it can be a bit of a hassle to find specific music symbols you want in Rentaro or Chaconne EX. In most cases you need to type special key commands or copying and pasting from a character code table, it can be difficult to enter them quickly and intuitively.
One solution to this problem is to obtain and install a separate music text font designed to allow you to enter music symbols with intuitive key operations.
A typical example is MusGlyphs, which was released in 2021. With this font, for example, symbols like those in this video can be entered very quickly and easily by typing the keys as follows.
ee=e.s
ee=qe3
ses=sse=e.s=se.=ssss
(e= eighth notes, q=quater notes)
Of course, Japanese fonts and Western fonts can coexist in a same document, so it seems useful not only for music notation software, but also for creating music teaching materials using word processors.
The following article contains an interview with the MusGlyphs developer.
▼MusGlyphs, an advanced music text font (April 14, 2021 | by Dan Kreider)
Watch this video to see how MusGlyphs allows you to input music symbols intuitively and quickly.
There is a similar music text font called Metrico, which was released in 2019. This also allows you to input music symbols with simple key operations similar to MusGlyphs.
This is a compact configuration with only 99 registered glyphs compared to MusGlyphs' 957, and there is no Text version set intended for use in word processors.
When they are used in Dorico, the finished product looks like this. The music font used as the base is Chaconne EX, a standard font for published scores in Japan.
MusGlyphs uses Bravura for musical symbols and Academico for alphabet and other texts.
As compared in a previous article, Bravura is a slightly thicker music font than Chaconne EX, but if used in this way, it should not look out of place when combined with music fonts familiar to Finale users such as Chaconne EX and Finale Maestro.
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Metrico can be downloaded for free from this GitHub page.
▼Download Metrico
MusGlyphs can be purchased for $10 on the following website, but the price can be determined by the purchaser, and it can also be purchased for $0 (i.e. free).
▼Purchase MusGlyphs
In either case, you can download it for free as a trial version, and if you like it, you can buy it again for any price you like or donate it to the developer, which may make them happy.
