PDF Music Score

[Bluekiwi]

Can I load a pdf file into composer and edit with text etc and then save again?
Raewyn

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Notation Composer doesn't open nor read pdf files. It does, however, open .mid, .kar and .not files.

ttfn,
Sherry

[kritiana08]

PDFtoMusic is designed for you. Open a PDF document, and after a few seconds, you just have to click a button to hear the score playing, and even the lyrics be sung!

Because it only processes PDF files that have been exported from a score editor software, PDFtoMusic offers a unique reliability and outstanding results.
Therefore, scanned sheet music cannot be managed by PDFtoMusic.

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Thanks for the inclusion of PDFtoMusic for getting PDFs to MIDI, which can be found here for $49 (currently) (http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusic.htm). The caveat with this program is that it only reads PDFs which have been produced by music scoring programs. I'm not sure how that would work for PDFs that are produced by third-party apps like PDF Creator or Cute PDF (it should probably work fine), but it doesn't work for scanned scores (ie. "photocopied from paper") that have been shared as PDF. Also, to do any editing, you have to buy the next product up the line. The good part for Notation Software users is that it does export to .mid, so you could use that to get your sheet music. If you just need to work with a "nice" PDF score, then this program is probably all you'd need.

An even more flexible solution that we have found is the Neuratron PhotoScore 7 Lite (used to be PhotoScore MIDI) which you can find here (http://www.neuratron.com/photoscore.htm). It reads scans directly from your scanner, BMP and PDF files, and has correction capabilities built in (you don't have to buy the next step up as you do for the Myriad product above.) It regularly sells for $59, but does occasionally go on sale (I got it for $24 usd when I purchased it.) I've had extremely good results using this software to get old copies of music into .mid format so I could use it in Notation Composer to get good performances and/or sheet music.

As with any software and your particular needs, one product may be better than another for you. PDFtoMusic has a trial version you can try out, whereas the PhotoScore 7 Lite does not.

Enjoy!
Sherry

p.s. For the Neuratron PhotoScore 7 Lite, you have to visit the link above, click the small blue text "purchase (http://www.neuratron.com/order.asp)" link at the top of the right-hand features column. Then select "Photoscore Lite 7" in the Product drop box. It's not so obvious, but it is there :)