Does anyone have, or know where to find a comparison sheet for the various SMuFL compliant engraving fonts? I’d like to see something where I can judge relative weights and styles easily, but I haven’t been able to find anything. My goal is to find something a bit heavier than Bravura, but not quite so heavy as Engraver. Using Sebastian right now, and it’s pretty good overall, but I’d like to have options.
Here is a music font comparison made by @FredGUnn:
There is also this neat comparison tool on the elbsound website. There are a lot of fonts in there, not necessarily all SMuFL.
I don’t know of a comparison chart, but if you don’t mind paid fonts and are looking for heavier than Bravura, check out: NorFonts Scherzo Std, Vintage Plate Std, Vintage BH Std. Also from MTF - Arnold Heavier and Cadence Heavier.
I’ve looked at all these, but it’s difficult to judge without seeing examples side by side. None have really done it for me so far, but maybe I’ve just been looking at too many, too far apart.
What I’m looking for, I guess, is something closer to Maestro Wide. I know it’s part of the Maestro SMuFL, but I can’t seem to access that weight as a default music font.
I have a decent handful of music fonts, having taken advantage of the bundle discounts at Notation Central. I’d be happy to screengrab a handful for side-by-side comparison. Can you think of (or provide) a snippet of music which would highlight the diversity of features you’d like to compare?
perhaps something on this page is helpful?
The font comparison tool is pretty cool. What it shows me is there are a lot of really good fonts out there, but they each have their drawbacks. Vienna comes closest to what I’m looking for, but I’ll probably stick with Sebastian for now. I still love Engraver for most everything except the noteheads.
They’re just a little too beefy for my taste. Bravura is closest in everything else; I just wish the noteheads had a little more weight.
You’ll have to find the wide noteheads in FinaleMaestro, and swap them in the Notehead Set editor. There’s no setting that switches to wide noteheads in Dorico.
(They’ll be in the additional/alternates section from U+F400 onwards.)
Good call. ![]()
No: the “Larger Noteheads” set is always Bravura, regardless of the current Music Font. (See also clef change clefs.)
It doesn’t have to be. You can edit it in Notehead Sets / Large Noteheads.
The problem with the large notehead symbol is that it’s in the font’s Private Use Area (PUA), meaning it can have a different codepoint in different SMuFL fonts. So unfortunately, changing the Music Font in Dorico, doesn’t affect PUA symbols.
EDIT: I’ve just realized you know all of this. I just meant to explain that if a SMuFL font provides both types of noteheads, they can both be used.
I’ll have to check that with Maestro. Could be a solution I’m looking for. I’ve seen it before, but thought it always defaulted to Bravura. But like the plain time signature, perhaps there’s a way to change that default.
