Printing manuscript paper

Using the above method, you could also configure all sorts of different manuscript layouts in different flows in your same template file: 8 staves to a page, 12 staves, grand staff, etc.

Unlike buying commercial manuscript, right? Oh, wait a minute… I bet you’re too young to ever have done that. Spoiler alert… BTW, the point of printing out manuscript is to use pencil or pen & ink.

BTW, you are absolutely wrong on what one "can’t" do. There are inexpensive and free pdf tools for the PC & Mac that will do everything you need with the freeware. Also, there are inexpensive and free notation apps that will let you lay out staves exactly how you want and drag them in place.

For what the OP was asking, Dorico is the wrong tool. In fact, it’s probably the absolutely worst tool for that job. All the right tools are quick and easy and there are many.

Back in the day, I used to do presentation manuscript. I brought my large sheets of art paper down to a blueprint shop that had a plotter, load a usb stick with a pdf of the staves and have them printed. No one ever complained that the staves were too perfect to have been done by hand. The notation was done with a calligraphy pen & India Ink, of course.

Dorico works perfectly well for manuscript paper, as about a half-dozen users have already demonstrated above.

This is the best way I have found. (with a few tips from others here at the forum)

1: Create a new score
2: Add a solo player
3: Write mood: Add 10 whole notes
4; Engrave mood: add system breaks every whole note
5: Write mood: Delete the notes
6: Shift-C invisible to hide clefs

Layout options Bar Numbers = None
Layout options Note Spacing untick Only justify final…
Layout options Staff labels = None
Layout options Players untick Show bar rests in empty staves

Notation options No barline at end of flow

Jesper

1 Like

…if you want to waste the time — as I have pointed out. Every other way is faster and easier — including editing the pdf downloads from the free sites.

I stand by my statement that, of all the ways to crack that nut, Dorico is the worst. Just because you disagree, it doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

I tend to agree with pfslow. It’s like forcing a tool to do something it wasn’t strictly designed to do. I’m not opposed to dorico implementing an option for this, but the current methods are hacks, and I totally agree that there are a ton of bespoke tools that are better at accomplishing this.

Maybe I see it wrong, but you only have to make a few manuscript layouts once,
according to your own needs, export to pdf and that’s it: instant music paper …
Good for a stormy sunday afternoon :slight_smile:

You guys listened! This is so good. Thank you so much!

If you have Opus or Maestro fonts installed in you computer, go to your text editor like MS WORD or Pages select Opus or Maestro font, set font size to 24, keep typing = (equal) till the end of your page, you’ll get about 12 to 10 staves. You may later increase the left and right margins by setting them to 1cm each. Very simple, you get in less than a minute!

NorFonts,
This is no longer a necessary workaround since the dev team implemented a new feature to draw out blank staves in any frame you create.

1 Like

Hi Dan. I’d like to find Carlos’ manuscript file but it’s not found here or on your Dorico Resources site as far as I can tell. Any ideas?

Maybe I’m not seeing a reply that I should see here. But it’s an actual feature now. Create a new solo file such as Lead Sheet, go to engrave mode, create a new page template by clicking the + sign on the right hand side and choose a custom page based on “none” and name it “Blank”. Select it once created and draw a music frame filling the margins. Click the “flow” blue drop box and set it to “Blank Stave”. Then select that frame and enter the number of staves you want in the Properties Panel. Click to copy right/left icon above the pages and apply. Now you can change any page template to that template. You can right-click page 1 on the right panel and change the template to that page and the following pages. As a bonus, you can still change the staff size in Layout Options.

3 Likes

Just for kicks, I just created a kind of blank manuscript paper that was used for orchestra writing. Took 30 seconds. Anyone old enough to have purchased these monsters?

2 Likes

It is indeed a feature, and one can also find it by searching the online manual for “manuscript paper”.

It’s also possible to fill frames after the final flow in the layout with empty staves.

3 Likes

Lillie, thank you!

Claude thank you!