Posting this in case other macOS users run into the same issue after updating to 6.2.2.
After updating to Dorico 6.2.2 on macOS today, all special chord symbol glyphs disappeared globally across all projects.
Important:
This was NOT related to chord symbol syntax, project settings, fonts, templates, or individual documents. The problem affected all projects immediately after updating to 6.2.2.
I tested multiple fonts and reset preferences, but the issue remained.
Solution:
I restored the previous Dorico application version from Time Machine by replacing:
/Applications/Dorico.app
with the pre-6.2.2 version.
After restoring the previous version, everything immediately returned to normal, including all chord symbol glyphs.
In my case, restoring the Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 6 user folder was NOT necessary.
What font(s) are you using for special chord symbol glyphs, Thomas? I expect the issue will be that whatever font you have chosen for ‘Chord Symbol Music Text Font’ doesn’t contain the required glyphs, and this would have happened to work in Dorico 6.2.10, but no longer works in Dorico 6.2.20.
Which fonts? If you are using an incompatible font like Finale Jazz Text, you can try Finale Jazz for Chord Symbols Music Text Font. (The Finale fonts are missing lots of glyphs or are in incorrect SMuFL locations.) Both Bravura Text and Petaluma Text work fine for me.
Well, the question is why the new Dorico update, which is just a maintenance update, suddenly causes problems. It is just one upgrade higher. So they must have changed something that causes font rendering problems. I actually changed my chord symbol font to Bravura to test it, and it didn’t help. So I don’t think it is my font, which, by the way, is an old Steinberg Cubase font called Krenitsky, that looks awesome for chord symbols. (See snapshot)
That’s your Chord Symbols Font, not your Chord Symbols Music Text Font, which is what determines the accidentals and slashes. You can use any standard font for your Chord Symbols Font, but have to use a SMuFL compatible font for Chord Symbols Music Text Font.
Your screenshots make clear, Thomas, that the accidentals in your chord symbols are not coming from the same font as the letters and digits. So please do tell us: what font do you have chosen for the ‘Chord Symbols Music Text Font’ font style? Can you attach a project with your preferred settings in?
There is indeed a fix in version 6.2.20 that affects what happens when Dorico has to substitute glyphs from a different font when the chosen one doesn’t contain them. It ought not to change the actual behaviour of the application, so if you can provide us with more details we can check.
Maybe because @dspreadbury wrote the SMuFL specification? I’m sure if you attached a file, it can be determined whether it’s a problem with the font or if there is something else causing this! (No disrespect intended!)
— Jim
Hello! I also seem to be having the same issue. I was using Finale Maestro, but tried all different Maestro fonts and none of them show the accidentals. However, I switched to Bravura and the accidentals in the chord symbols were back. It seems to be a maestro font issue. It seems to be in this specific update as well. I have a friend open the same file on their laptop which hadn’t been updated yet. Thanks for your help!
Hi! I am having the same problem. How can I fix this? I use Trebuchet as my chord symbols text font and finale maestro for the accidentals, but finale maestro sharps and flats have just simply disappeared in my chord symbols. What do I do? Thanks.
I think in practice you have always been using the Bravura accidentals in your chord symbols, because Finale Maestro doesn’t include any accidental glyphs in the places where Dorico expects to find them when it’s building chord symbols. So you should in fact notice no difference in the appearance of the chord symbols after switching to using Bravura explicitly.
It is simply ridiculous to ask users to switch back to Dorico’s default chord symbol font in order to work around a problem introduced by the latest update.
The whole point of a professional notation program is that users can choose whatever font they want for chord symbols, lyrics, expressions, or any other text element. If a previously working setup is broken by an update, the responsibility should be on the software developer to fix it—not on users to abandon their preferred settings and adopt inconvenient workarounds.
I sincerely hope the Dorico engineers identify what went wrong and restore the previous functionality as soon as possible. It should not be our job to figure out how to work around features that were broken by an update.
You can’t though. If you want to use a text font that has the letters rearranged in random locations, you can’t expect a word processor or DTP software to know that and be compatible with it. They expect the letter A to be in the correct location in the font or else it won’t display correctly. Same thing with music. Dorico has always been upfront that you have to use a SMuFL-compliant font for chord symbols. The manual is exactly the same in 5.1 and 6.1:
If you are using a font that doesn’t have the glyphs in the correctly assigned SMuFL locations, you can’t expect Dorico to be compatible with it any more than Adobe InDesign could be with a text font where the letter locations have been randomized. The cool thing with Dorico is that you can usually go into the Edit Chord Symbol Component dialog and switch the glyphs up with a few clicks, save that as a default, then use the Library Manager to bring these into any other file with a single click.
If you really want to use an incompatible font, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some workarounds. If you don’t like Dorico’s factory fonts, there are lots of great SMuFL-compliant fonts out there by @NorFont.com and Notation Central.
I heard from Tim in tech support via email last week and, as far as I know, someone is investigating it — though it has been a while now. He sent me a link to revert to my previous version of Dorico (6.0) and my chords are working again. Would be nice to be able to update, though, and also to hear from someone from the development team via the thread above.
I’m sure if you attached a file, it can be determined whether it’s a problem with the font or if there is something else causing this! (No disrespect intended!)
