PDF Metadata

Way back when forScore was just an idea, we made the decision to design it around the PDF file format. It’s the most ubiquitous format for documents that feature precise layouts (anything more than basic text). There are many versions of the PDF specification, but all of them include some basic information about a file like its author, subject, and keywords.

Since one of forScore’s most fundamental features is its ability to organize your music by these kinds of metadata, it made sense to connect the two dots. “Fetching” is the term we came up with to describe the process by which forScore reads a PDF’s metadata and adopts some of it when it makes sense to. This can happen automatically (if the “automatic fetching for new files” setting is enabled) or manually from the metadata panel (tap a text field and then use the “Fetch…” button just above the keyboard). In either of these cases, the PDF file’s “author” is used to fill in forScore’s “composer” field, “subject” becomes “genre”, and “keywords” become “tags.”

This all works wonderfully if your PDF files include this kind of information, and if that information is correct. Unfortunately, many scanning programs will either fill in their application name or your own as the Author, so whether or not this feature will save you time depends largely on where your PDF files come from. When used correctly, however, this kind of metadata can be a great, permanent way of tagging your files. If your forScore library is lost and you don’t have a backup, or if you’re using your files with another PDF reader, this information will still exist within each PDF file and can be easily retrieved.

Bonus tip: If you want to get really fancy, forScore can read specially-formatted keywords as rating and difficulty. Use the keyword “forScore-difficulty:2” with a number between 1 and 3, or use the keyword “forScore-rating:3” with a number between 1 and 5.