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Fonts

Most items you see in Finale are created with font characters. In addition to items created with text, musical symbols (such as noteheads, clefs, and expressions) are font characters as well. Finale is unique among music notation programs in that it allows the user to specify the font used for music characters. This means you can choose from different note heads, different treble clefs, or whatever you'd like, to make your music look exactly the way you want it to. Furthermore, within lyrics, text blocks, chord symbols, and the Shape Designer you are able to mix fonts freely: you could, for example, combine text characters with musical symbols, or have selected lyrics italicized.

PostScript and TrueType

All fonts included with Finale come with a Type 1 PostScript font (with a corresponding screen font) and a True Type font. A PostScript font does not appear on screen and will only print to PostScript printers, where it provides superior printed output. PostScript fonts have accompanying screen fonts which allow the user to have an idea what the font will look like in printout. These screen fonts don’t resize smoothly on the computer’s screen, meaning that a 24 point font will look okay at 100 percent, but jagged at other point sizes, page reductions or view percentages. TrueType fonts allow you to print to non-postscript printers as well as resize smoothly in both printout and on screen. TrueType fonts do not work, however, in the creation of EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files. A full installation of Finale installs both the PostScript and TrueType fonts in your system.

Where are the fonts installed?

The Finale Installer automatically installs the Maestro, Maestro Wide, Maestro Percussion, Petrucci, Tamburo, Jazz, and Engraver Fonts TrueTypes directly into your Fonts folder located in your Windows folderLibrary/Fonts folder. The PostScript fonts are installed in a folder called PS fonts, located on your root directory (usually c:\). If, when you open Finale, large text symbols like & and Ï appear instead of clefs and notes, Windows is unable to locate the Maestro font. The solution is to go to the Fonts Control Panel and manually add the Maestro font to your system, and restart. (Note that PostScript font installation is printer specific and that the PostScript fonts are only visible to the printer that was selected as the default printer when the fonts were installed.)

How to identify font types

PostScript fonts often have abbreviated names like Maest. If you click on the font and choose Get Info from the File Menu, you’ll see an icon of a laser printer with a page sticking out of it. The number on the page tells you what version of PostScript the font is: current font technology would be a type 1 font.

Screen or bit-mapped fonts come in specific sizes and are recognized by the number: for example, Maestro 24 would be a screen font. If you “Get Info” on a screen font, you’ll see an icon consisting of a page with a corner folded over with a single A on it.

TrueType fonts are usually identified by a full name without a number, like Maestro. If you “Get Info” on a TrueType font, the icon will display a page with a corner folded over and three A’s on it.

PostScript fonts are recognized by .PFM or .PFB extensions. TrueType fonts have a TT icon, and.TTF extensions, and Windows will create corresponding files with .fot extensions.

Finale also divides the font list into different types of fonts, such as text fonts, Japanese fonts, symbol fonts, and so on. Starting with Finale 2002a, your symbol or music fonts will appear listed after your text fonts. Symbol fonts are listed in the MacSymbolFonts.txt file, a user-editable text file that must reside in the application folder. For more details, see the appendix entry Configuring MacSymbolFonts.txt.

Additional discussions of fonts and font selections appear in individual entries, such as Lyrics; Noteheads; Expressions; Text; and so on.    

To globally change a musical element’s font

With this technique you can change the font for a single element of the music, such as the clefs or the notes themselves. If you want to change all elements of the music to a different font, see “To change music fonts ,” below.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Fonts. The Fonts options appear, with buttons and popup menus for various elements of the file. The Select Font button refers to the font used for the notes, rests, accidentals, and other musical symbols; if you use this button to substitute a music font of your own design, you’ll need to make some adjustments to music character in the Document Options dialog box. (Finale makes the necessary adjustments automatically if you specify Maestro, Petrucci, Engraver, Jazz, or Sonata as your default music font.) See Document Options-Fonts.
2. From the popup menus on the left, choose the type of music character you want to change. Accidentals, Alternate Notation, Augmentation Dots, Flags, Chords, Key Signatures or Notes and Rests are all possible options.Then click the drop down list to choose the specific music character. Click the Set Font button and the Font dialog box appears. Choose the font name, type, and point size, you’ll see the sample text change in the display below. You can choose any combination of style elements: bold, italic, and so on.
3. Click Apply to save your settings.

To change music fonts

If you choose not to use one of Finale’s default fonts, Maestro or Jazz, you can substitute any other music font.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Set Default Music Font. The Font dialog box appears.
2. Choose the new font and style; click OK twice. Depending on the music font you’ve selected, you may have to fine-tune the positions of individual elements, such as the eighth-note flags. For details, see Document options-Flags.

To change positioning of other individual elements, select their corresponding category in the Document Options dialog box. If you want to change other elements to another font, such as JazzText or JazzCord, continue with the instructions below.

3. From the Document Menu, choose Data Check, then Font Utilities. The Font Utilities dialog box appears.
4. Select the text font you want to change by clicking the top Set Font button. Select the text font you want by clicking the bottom Set Font button. For example, select Times New Roman mixed sizes and styles for the Search For font and Jazz Text mixed sizes and styles for the Replace font.
5. To change chords, from The Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Fonts. The Font options appear.
6. From the popup menus next to Chord, choose Symbol. Click Set Font and choose JazzCord or the desired chord font.  
7. Click OK (or press return) twice.
8. Click the Chord Tool  . The Chord Menu appears.
9. From the Chord Menu, choose Change Chord Suffix Fonts.  
10. To change the entire library of chord suffixes at once, click the Set Font button in the lower half of the screen. The Font dialog box appears, letting you specify new font, size, and style characteristics for the suffixes. For best results, be sure that the Fix Chord Suffix Spacing checkbox is selected, so that Finale automatically adjusts the individual characters in each chord suffix to compensate for the new font and size.
11. Select a type style, and then click OK. You return to the document, where Finale has changed the font for your chord suffixes. Finale is smart enough, however, not to change any musical symbols within the suffix, such as the f in F7f9.

To change every occurrence of one font to another

You can use Finale’s Data Check submenu to change every occurrence of one font and size to another, no matter where they occur—in symbol libraries, in text, in chord symbols, and so on. See also Change Fonts plug-in.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Data Check, then Font Utilities. In the dialog box that appears, you can instruct Finale to search for a specific font and replace it with another.
2. Specify the font to be replaced and the font to replace it with, and click OK.

To change every occurrence of a font to a different size

With this technique, you can scale every occurrence of a certain font that’s used in your document to a larger or smaller font size, no matter what size was used in each occurrence. For example, you could tell Finale to scale every occurrence of New York 24-point down to 12-point. In so doing, Finale would also scale New York 36-point down to 18-point, and New York 10-point down to 5-point.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Data Check, then Font Utilities. In the dialog box that appears, you can instruct Finale to search for a specific font, style and size and then replace it with the same font of a different size. All occurrences of this font will change in size proportionally.
2. Specify the font, style and size you want changed and Click OK (or press return).
3. Specify the percentage you want the specified font to be scaled to. If you want text included as part of a shape expression scaled, make sure “Scale Fonts in Shapes” is checked.
4. Click OK.

To change the music font of noteheads on a staff by staff basis

To use Tamburo, Maestro Perc, or Jazz Perc for your percussion notation, assign it as the notehead font in each staff or as the document’s default notehead font. Then, take advantage of Finale’s built-in percussion libraries or create one of your own, so that notes you enter on a percussion staff automatically assign themselves to appropriate lines or spaces with the correct noteheads. For details, see Percussion. 

1. Click the Staff Tool  .
2. Double-click the staff. The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
3. Click the Notehead Font checkbox if it is not already selected.
4. Click Select and choose the new font.
5. Click OK twice. Your new font is now being used for noteheads while other elements such as flags and clefs are taken from the default music font(s).

To eliminate dimmed font names from a document’s font lists

Finale stores a font list with each document you create. The list contains the fonts that were available to Finale when the document was created. If you notice that some font names are dimmed in the font selection boxes of a certain document, it’s because those fonts were present when the document was created (or previously edited) but are no longer installed.

This procedure removes dimmed font names from a document’s font selection boxes.

• From the Data Check submenu of the Document Menu, choose Check Document Fonts Against System Fonts.

Transporting files across platforms

Starting with Finale 2002a, files can be transferred across platforms while maintaining correct higher ASCII text characters, such as è, ö, and hard spaces (commonly used in lyrics). Finale is configured to do this by default, by having “Automatically Convert Text In Files From Other Operating Systems” selected in the Open section of the Program Options dialog box.

It is essential that the MacSymbolFonts.txt file be placed in the application folder, for both Windows and Macintosh users (note that in spite of its title, this is a required file for Windows). This user-editable text file contains the names of all the Macintosh fonts that are symbol fonts and therefore do not need to be converted (as opposed to text fonts which will be converted). For more details, see the appendix entry Configuring MacSymbolFonts.txt.

Engraver Font: The Alternate Notehead Sets

Let Ring Noteheads

“Double-stopped unison” Noteheads

“Trill to” Noteheads

Indeterminate and Determinate “Tone-cluster” Noteheads

Dynamics

Articulations

Tempos

Harp Pedaling

“Let Ring” Noteheads

These are noteheads with the let ring symbol. By having the let ring symbol directly attached to the notehead, consistency of the symbol placement is achieved. These noteheads can be accessed through the Special Tools Tool (change notehead). First enter the notes with any of the Finale note entry methods, then with Special Tools Tool change the notehead.

Engraver Font Set and Engraver Font Extras                        Engraver Font Extras Only

Also included are the two “let ring” symbols for input with the articulation tool.

“Double-stopped unison” Noteheads

“Trill to” Noteheads

Set One: Full Size

These noteheads are to make consistent the process of setting up “trill to” notes when they are to be outside of the staff. First enter the notes with any of the Finale note entry methods, then with Special Tools Tool change the notehead, shorten the stem and move it to the desired horizontal position.

Set Two: 75% Reduction

These noteheads are already reduced to 75% and can be used as “trill to” notes for use within the staff. Enter with the Articulation Tool.

Indeterminate and Determinate “Tone-cluster” Noteheads

These noteheads allow for a quick and consistent way to input tone-clusters. After inputting notes, use the Special Tools Tool to change the noteheads.

Indeterminate

Determinate

Dynamics

Type away! Make whatever dynamic possible.

ex.

There are two sets of parenthesis for use. Theandmarkings need more space than the other symbols, so use the shift-[ and shift-] both before and after any dynamic with anand before any marking with a .

Articulations

Engraver Font Set

Engraver Font Extras

Engraver Text Fonts

Tempos

Harp Pedaling