Inkscape

Editing music scores in .pdf

Asked by RegB

Could a music score template be provided in file>new> ?
(or perhaps as a draw object ?)
I am having SOME mount of success using inkscape to edit music scores, however there is some difficulty in copying a measure or two, since the score lines occupy the full page width and are therefore not included when selecting/copying only a measure or two.

I don't know enough of the proper terms for this, but I would like underlying score lines when I paste and I would like them to be at the same level of magnification as the note heads.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Inkscape Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Alexandre Prokoudine (alexandre-prokoudine) said : 		#1

Hi,

Is there a reason you are not using something like MuseScore?

Revision history for this message
RegB (2regburgess) said : 		#2

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestion.
Other than "I didn't know about MuseScore" and "I tend toward open source" ... no.

I will investigate MuseScore, but in any case I would like to continue with Inkscape.

Revision history for this message
RegB (2regburgess) said : 		#3

I just tried MuseScore, initially I like it.
However, I had arrived at Inkscape because it can import and edit .pdf files of scores, which I still want to do.
MuseScore does not import .pdf and doesn't seem able to import any of the file formats that Inkscape can export, so it seems that I cannot use a simple 2 stage process.

Revision history for this message
RegB (2regburgess) said : 		#4

I also tried openoffice draw, but that asked for a file password.
I then tried making a private copy of the original pdf file without a password.
It seems that Inkscape makes some weird changes to a pdf file if you just open it, make no changes and then just save it as a pdf.

Revision history for this message
su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#5

<off-topic>

> It seems that Inkscape makes some weird changes to a pdf file
> if you just open it, make no changes and then just save it as a pdf.

Please keep in mind: Inkscape is not a PDF Editor (nor does it claim to be one):
- if you open (aka import) a PDF file in Inkscape, the information of the PDF file is converted into an SVG structure (this conversion is mostly based on poppler (external library), and additional Inkscape-internal routines)
- if you save a copy of (aka export) the current document as PDF, the current SVG structure is converted to a PDF file (done mostly by cairo, another external library).

If you want really need to _edit_ a PDF file as PDF file, you'll probably need to buy software like e.g. Adobe Acrobat.

</off-topic>

Revision history for this message
mahfiaz (mahfiaz) said : 		#6

When you copy-paste, magnification does not change. What you actually want is this:
* hold Shift to select multiple objects
* Ctrl+D duplicates in place
* learn how to use snapping, BTW, Inkscape tries to snap near the mouse, so the place where you start dragging matters

You could use rotation center as snapping point to make sure the note is placed to exact same height as before:
* select a note, click on it again, you will see rotation handles and a cross
* move the cross to the line (have snapping enabled)
* now when you drag the note itself, it snaps to rotation center as well, you could also drag several notes at once, shift-select them and start dragging from near that note which you just prepared.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask RegB for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.