Appendices

File formats
Your user folder
Keyboard shortcuts
Useful links

File formats

PDFtoMusic manages several file formats. Here is an overview of each of them.

Adobe PDF format (.pdf)

This format has been designed by Adobe, PDF standing for "Portable Document Format". It eases the exchange and distribution of any document. It can store any kind of graphical objects, from text to pictures.
It's the groundwork of PDFtoMusic.

PDFtoMusic reads and processes this kind of document, as long as its data contain vector graphics.

MusicXML format (.xml)

Designed by Recordare, this format is about to become the exchange file format for music scores. Based on XML, a text descriptive format, it is now managed by an increasing number of music programs.
In order to open PDFtoMusic to as many people as possible, it has been naturally chosen as the groundwork format for the Pro version of PDFtoMusic.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

MusicXML compressed format (.mxl)

It is a packed version of the MusicXML format. In fact, this kind of file can be obtained by compressing a MusicXML file as a Zip, then renaming the result file from .zip to .mxl
In the same way, the original MusicXML file can be extracted from the .mxl by renaming it to .zip then unpacking it with any utility that supports this format (for instance, the original unzip program)
.
Because MusicXML is a descriptive text of the score, these files can be quite large. In order to save bandwidth, either when such files are sent by e-mail or put on a Website, using a .mxl can be useful.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Myr format (.myr)

It's a Myriad proprietary format, managed by Melody Assistant and Harmony Assistant.
Music-related information is stored as musical objects.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

MyrWeb format (.myrweb.html)

With this format, anybody can view and hear your score, without having to install anything on their computer or tablet beforehand.

A MyrWeb file can be sent by e-mail, or included directly in a Website without needing any special technical skill.

The dead simple score sharing format par excellence.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Mid format (.mid)

This format, based on the MIDI exchange standard between electronic music devices (keyboards, synthesizers, expanders, etc) contains a description of the notes that constitute the music pieces, as well as basic information about the score. However, details about the piece graphical appearance, its page layout, note appearance or ornaments are not stored. Albeit very incomplete, and until the use of MusicXML broadens, it remains the standard exchange format for almost all music programs.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Kar format (.kar)

It's actually a mid format, to which additional commands have been added in order to store lyrics related to a staff. Originally, this format was designed to store Karaoke scores (hence its name).

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Wav format (.wav)

It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).

Initially designed for PC, it is now managed by almost any sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

AIFF format (.aiff)

It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).

Initially designed for Macintosh, it is now managed by almost any sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Mpeg format (.mp3)

It's a binary audio format that contains stereo digital audio data. This format is compressed lossless, which means that it is shorter than an uncompressed format (wav,aiff) but can suffer from a slight loss of quality.

When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Vorbis Ogg format (.ogg)

BMP format (.bmp)

It's a binary picture format. Data is not stored as graphical object, but as pixels.
It is managed by almost all the graphic editors.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Svg format (.svg)

It's a vector image format. It contains graphical objects in scalable form, enabling to zoom infinitely without loss of precision. These files can be included very easily in Web pages, or be viewed in a Web browser.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Multi-page svg format (.svg)

It's an SVG export of all the score pages at once, side by side. Mainly designed to be displayed in a Web page, this format will let Webmasters easily display a mullti-page score in a web page area (div)

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Structure of your user folder

The user folder contains files that have been created by PDFtoMusic. It is highly recommended to perform backup copies of this folder at regular intervals.

This folder is located in your user document folder, in the "Myriad Documents/PDFtoMusic" subfolder.

The subfolders are:

"Correction" : If you asked for the corrections not to be stored in the PDF document itself, the changes you applied to the documents will be stored here. There will be one correction file for each edited PDF.

"Export": When the result from an imported PDF file is automatically exported, it is stored by default in this folder. You can change this location from the general preferences, "Export" section.

"OCRCorrection": When you amend the result of the character optical recognition, databases are created in this subfolder

Keyboard shortcuts

Beyond keyboard shortcuts for menu options, some keyboard keys trigger actions:

Spacebar: starts and stops music playback
Down arrow: switches to next page
Up arrow: switches to previous page
Esc: cancels processing of the current file

Useful links

Here is a list of Web sites where you can download music PDF files:

http://dirk.meineke.free.fr
http://icking-music-archive.org
http://www.cpdl.org
http:// www.solovoces.com
http:// www.sheetmusicnotes.com
http:// www.score-on-line.com
http:// www.oldmusicproject.com
http:// www.free-scores.org
http:// www.eythorsson.com
http:// www.guitarpixel.com
http:// www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ef/music/
http:// www.mutopiaproject.org
http:// www.jazzbank.com
http:// www.evatoller.pp.se
http:// www.kantoreiarchiv.de