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MRiddickW
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2010
Total Posts : 11

Posted 11/16/2016 2:48 AM (GMT -6)

Hi all. Every once in a while I create charts with just a melody and chords above it. Problem is, almost all of the standard document styles are just awful when it comes to chords. The only style that seems like the chords were designed to be viewed from even a moderate distance is Jazz Style, which uses JazzText. Even then, it's marginal, and maybe I don't want all my charts to have that handwritten-with-Sharpie look.

Is there somewhere I can go to find document styles or libraries that someone else has made? Or do I really have to go through and create my own chord library and document style in order to get something that looks semi-professional and is legible from more than three feet away? Not to mention the fact that now I'm dealing with the "error selecting font" message.

Apologies for the mini-rant: I'm about to start charting a few Christmas songs and only want to deal with this once.

Finale 2011 - Windows 7 Professional

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820 CPU @ 3.50 GHz
16 GB RAM
Focusrite 2i2 for all audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 GPU with 2 GB VRAM
240 GB SSD system disk
Two 2 TB HDDs in RAID 1 config

Jocko_23
Registered Member

Date Joined May 2009
Total Posts : 32

Posted 11/16/2016 7:56 AM (GMT -6)

Have you tried the "Finale Copyist" Library for chord suffixes? It is not too much "handwritten"

If you use it, you should also to change the font for chord symbols in the document options to "Finale Copyist Text".

You may find this helpful:
http://www.finalemusic.com/blog/creating-music-with-a-handwritten-appearance/ (scroll down to the bottom)

Jock

Finale 2011b - Win7 64bit home
Finale 25 - Mac OS X

Post Edited (Jocko_23) : 11/16/2016 7:00:20 AM (GMT-6)

N. Grossingink
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2002
Total Posts : 3991

Posted 11/16/2016 8:33 AM (GMT -6)

You might get some ideas from this recent discussion:

forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=6&m=488220

N.

OSX El Capitan 10.11.6
Finale 2011c, 2012c for production work

Finale 2014.5, not used by my clients

(Finale v25 - not interested yet)

TgTools, Patterson Plugins, JW Change and Staff Polyphony, QuicKeys 4
Mac Mini 2.4 Ghz Intel, 8GB RAM
New Belgium Fat Tire Ale

saxsolos
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2009
Total Posts : 90

Posted 11/16/2016 3:21 PM (GMT -6)

I would use the JazzCord library. It seems to have a lot more than the Jazztext library and the playback is better for a lot of the chords.

i7
Windows8 64 bit
Mac Pro
Finale 2000-2013
Sibelius 6
Garritan JB

Graham Lloyd 1956
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2014
Total Posts : 4

Posted 11/16/2016 11:59 PM (GMT -6)

I've downloaded and use Inkpen Chords for all my chords these days. I find the look is stunning for me. It takes a little getting used to to set up some, and I mean some of the spacings and font sizes, but once done, I just import my chord library from chart to chart. Beautiful. I think the chord settings have been set up according to Sammy Nestico's recommended chord writing. I use Broadway font for my charts with this 'imported' Inkpen font for my chords and it all looks great to me.

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