New SMuFL fonts!

Dorico
#1

Scoring Notes made a post on their website about several new fonts that are SMuFL-compatible.

https://www.scoringnotes.com/meta/a-fount-of-fonts-at-notation-central/

MTF-Cadence has worked with Dorico for some time, but previously contained a limited number of glyphs. In version 2.2, it’s now been expanded with a much larger set that should cover most needs.

Four of MTF’s other fonts have been made SMuFL compatible (Arnold, Beethoven, Haydn, Scorlatti), but currently they contain a limited set of glyphs, similar to that of a ‘standard’ music font for other software. However, Abraham Lee will be enlarging them in due course.

I’m using Cadence as my default font: it’s lovely.

#2

Thanks for the tip mate :slight_smile:

#3

I also use Cadence as my workhorse, and I’m absolutely thrilled that Abraham was able to find some time to bring other fonts from his catalog over to SMuFL. They’re all super high quality!

#4

Arnold is the one I was really waiting for! But all the others are absolutely stunning, and each one is the right one for different projects.

Paolo

#5

Abraham’s fonts are available for “trial” for a $1 USD Personal License purchase. Commercial use requires a commercial license which is also quite reasonably priced.

As mentioned above, besides Cadence the other fonts are a bit more limited. Things you may find missing in Beethoven and Scorlatti are diamond noteheads. Arnold seems to be missing tremolos.

EDIT: References to compliance were removed to focus instead on glyph coverage

#6

While your warning is useful, SMuFL-compliance has nothing to do with the number of glyphs any one font covers, but rather the way they are mapped. Bravura implements the whole specification because it is the flagship font, but it certainly is no requirement for a font to be compliant.

#7

Compliant wasn’t the right word to choose then, but the point hopefully is clear—you likely won’t be missing anything with Cadence, but there are obvious holes with the rest as of this writing.

#8

SMuFL compliant: the glyphs that the font contains are in the right places;
SMuFL-complete: it has all the glyphs.

Bravura has 3496.
November2 has 1917 glyphs. (Though lacks the Longa and square brackets for accidentals, as of v2.2.)
Cadence has 1663 glyphs.
Petaluma has 1374.

#9

Again, I apologize for misusing the word compliant and have edited my post to reflect more accurately my point, which is only that some specific glyphs needed for commercial use may be missing in some fonts as of this writing.

#10

I am thrilled!
I love cadence and use it. Haydn is of course very particular but lovely.
Scorlatti I don’t like too much - but can’t wait to now try Arnold!
I always liked the UE style

#11

Haydn is indeed particular—it needs a lot of changes to the Note Spacing algorithm to behave properly in Dorico. I often have to create transpositions or inserts to very old scores, so having fonts which mimic their aesthetic is very helpful, though. Scorlatti is doubly helpful in that regard, as many critical edition vocal scores were prepared with SCORE. The dynamics are especially spot on.

#12

Josh, did you figure out how exactly one needs to change notespacing?
I reduced down to 3 and that goes into the right direction, but still sometimes doesn’t seem enough…
With scorlatti I have the problem that the staff lines get really thin by default.

#13

To my eye, what looks acceptable is changing quarter note to 3 spaces and the custom ratio to 1.3. It’s a very narrow notehead, so even with tighter spacing it’s going to look very different compared to modern aesthetic.

#14

Just a quick question. In installing Cadence, where does one put the provided JSON file? I saw under ~Library/Application Support/SMuFL/Fonts that there were already folders for Bravura, November 2 and Petaluma, each containing the appropriate JSON file, and I was able to create a folder for MTF-Cadence (an action which required authentication), but the system wouldn’t permit copying the JSON file to that folder. Any suggestions?

#15

You need admin rights to do so probably. It worked fine for me!

#16

I have admin rights, I checked the security settings, restarted, etc. etc. and the system still won’t let me copy the JSON file to the appropriate place.

#17

Well, curiouser and curiouser. After mucking about with things and restarting several times, it finally worked. It feels a bit like Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

#18

Cadence should go in the root level Library, not the User Library:

/Library/Application Support/SMuFL/Fonts/MTF-Cadence

You shouldn’t (or rather I don’t) need to change file permissions or authenticate if you’re an admin user; though I’m on Mojave and Catalina doesn’t like anyone doing anything. :wink:

#19

I was indeed trying to install it in the right place, but I have no idea why the system suddenly allowed it.

I have another question, this one about kerning. I was just experimenting with Cadence and I noticed that, while stacks of accidentals are kerned nicely, kerning to other elements seemed not to work. Here’s a passage in Bravura:

and the same passage in Cadence:

I’m wondering why the sharp of the g# doesn’t tuck under the d’ before it in Cadence but it does in Bravura.
Cadence.png
Bravura.png

#20

Hi folks!
My first feeling about this purchase is… not sure I should have done that! Will I really use those fonts? Do you ? I try things, and in the end, Bravura seems to be the most elegant and legible font. My 2 c for the fellow Doricians wondering whether they should invest or not.