Table of Contents

Introduction

Getting the most out of this guide

This document was designed to introduce you to forScore’s many features, and to give you a framework of knowledge to use as you continue exploring and learning on your own. It’s not a technical manual and isn’t intended to provide exhaustive step-by-step instructions for every situation.

Every person learns differently, and while we do our best to make things clear for users of all levels of experience, you may have some questions that aren’t answered here. If that’s the case, visit forscore.co/support to find more specific answers and topics.

Devices

forScore is compatible with iPads running iPadOS 16 or later, iPhones on iOS 16 or later, Macs using macOS 13 or later, and Vision Pro with visionOS 1.1 or later. Except where noted, functions available on one device are also available (and work similarly) on the others. Exact placement and appearance of features and icons may vary based on your OS version, device, settings, and multitasking mode.

iPadOS and iOS are nearly identical in most respects, so to keep things concise we sometimes refer to them collectively as “iOS” in this guide. Unless otherwise noted, those references apply equally to both platforms.

Terminology

forScore is designed to be used with a variety of input methods including touch, keyboards, and trackpads or mice. In general, we use words like “tap” and “drag” or “swipe” which translate to “click” or “scroll” when using a mouse or trackpad. When we refer to screen size or device orientation, these concepts translate to window size and aspect ratio when windowing is used.

A note about Drag and Drop and Contextual Menus

Since they were introduced, forScore has fully supported and made extensive use of both Drag and Drop and Contextual Menu interactions. To keep things simple, this guide doesn’t call out every situation where these features are available. Instead, we provide two sections at the end of this document that help you understand when these interactions can speed up the tasks you’ve learned about in earlier sections.

Additional information about this user guide

This user guide is provided as a courtesy, as-is and without guarantee or warranty. Although we thoroughly proofread the content herein for accuracy and clarity, you are solely responsible for the integrity and protection of your information while using forScore.

This guide was last updated for version 14.3, and all features are subject to change without notice. If you are unsure how any of the processes described in this guide may affect your information, consider backing up your data before proceeding.

Please remember that many musicians rely on the legitimate sale of their sheet music as an essential part of their income. Although forScore provides the mechanism for importing PDF files from the numerous sources, it is solely your responsibility to ensure that doing so does not infringe upon any current laws or restrictions under which you are subject.

For any questions, corrections, suggestions, or concerns, please visit forscore.co/support and send us a message—your feedback is how we make better products.

All content copyright © 2024 forScore, LLC. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be reproduced, modified, or distributed without permission.

Scan

When you need to digitize a paper score, Scan can help. Snap a photo of each page with your device’s camera or add a few images from your Photos library. Adjust your pages if needed, then let Scan turn them into a standard PDF file.

While Darkroom is great for quickly capturing scores on the go, a flatbed scanner or dedicated scanning app is recommended for archival digitization.

Getting Started

Add pages from a variety of sources shown as icons at the top of the screen. Take pictures using the document scanner or camera (if supported by your device), import images from your device’s photo library or the Files app, or browse for images you’ve already added to forScore’s Documents directory. Tap the circled + button in the page view to add another page with whichever source you used last.

Scan requires access to your device’s camera and/or photo library and the system will prompt you to allow this the first time you try to add images. Use your OS’ settings (the Settings app on iOS and iPadOS or System Settings on Mac) to grant or revoke this access at any time.

The document scanning method is easiest to use: point your camera at a page and the system will attempt to find the edges automatically, then snap a photo when it’s ready. If you prefer, you can take the photo manually instead. Use this system interface to apply filters and use its built-in cropping and rotation functions to make any necessary adjustments. When you’re finished, tap Done and the system will hand those photos off to forScore to continue processing.

iOS’ Document Scanning interface limits the number of images you can capture in one session. To add more images, tap this interface’s “save” button to close it and add the current batch of images to forScore’s grid view, then tap the + button or the document scanning icon to repeat the process as many times as needed.

When using the camera input source, take each photo and tap “Done” when you’re finished. When adding images from your photo library, tap to select each image you’d like to use, then tap Cancel when you’re finished. (This system interface can’t be changed, but don’t worry: tapping cancel just ends the import process and doesn’t remove any of the photos you’ve already chosen.)

Page Layout

Once you’ve returned to forScore’s Scan interface, you’ll see a grid of thumbnail images. Drag these thumbnails around to adjust your layout, or tap on one to see a larger version of it and make any necessary adjustments. If you need to remove an image, tap the blue circled “x” in the top left-hand corner of each thumbnail. When you’re done, tap the “Save” button and supply a filename to create your new PDF.

Rotating Images

While viewing a full-screen image preview, use the arrow buttons in the top right-hand corner of the screen to rotate your image 90° at a time. You can also rotate images from the main thumbnail view by placing two fingers on a page and rotating them.

Adjusting Images

Scan’s Enhance tool analyzes your photo and applies a set of filters to give you much better results with just a single tap. It adjusts the tone, highlights, and shadows of your image automatically and intelligently. For more fine-grained control, use the Adjust tool to manually change your image’s saturation, contrast, and brightness levels. These tools are available from the main thumbnail view and in each full-screen preview, so you can use them to adjust a single image or all images at once.

Cropping

Perfectly framing your shot can be tricky, but with the Crop tool you don’t have to. While viewing a full-screen image preview, select the Crop icon to begin and forScore will attempt to automatically detect the edges of your page. Drag the handles to perfectly align each corner—they move independently of each other, allowing you to account for perspective and rotation while removing excess margins.

forScore Pro

Features

forScore Pro is an optional, auto-renewing subscription that allows us to offer more detailed, priority customer support whenever possible, ensures we can be ready for the latest devices, accessories, and software updates on day one, and gives you access to certain features and benefits like the ones described below (the exact list is subject to change; for the most current information visit forScore.co/pro).

Priority Support:

We’re always happy to answer basic questions or point you to the right article on our knowledge base, but some people want a little more personalized help. By subscribing to forScore Pro, you allow us to spend more time with you so you can learn how to use the app to its fullest and get quicker answers to any questions that might come up.

Face Gestures:

If your device supports face tracking, you can use facial gestures to turn pages—by turning your head, by winking, or by moving your lips to the left or right. Choose whichever mode works best for you and adjust its sensitivity in the forScore Pro section of forScore’s settings panel, if needed. For best results, ensure that there’s sufficient lighting and, if using mouth movements, take advantage of the automatic calibration method for easy setup.

Pop-up Menus:

The six primary buttons in forScore’s title bar feature pop-up menus to let you quickly perform common tasks related to each of them. Use one continuous gesture to activate and use the menu: touch the button and drag your finger downward to see the list of shortcuts, keep dragging your finger until it’s hovering over the item you need, then let go to use it. If your device supports it, you can also use 3D Touch to activate these menus.

While in annotation mode, use pop-up menus to switch between layers, change the selection tool’s mode (freeform or rectangular) or adjust the size of any drawing preset as well as the stamps, shapes, and eraser tools.

Note: when using a mouse or trackpad, right clicking any of these buttons will immediately present its pop-up menu. You can also click and drag downward to show the menu, but due to conflicts in the way iPadOS and macOS handle Drag and Drop this will not work for buttons that also support rearranging (annotation drawing presets).

Page Copy & Paste:

Each page has a single annotation layer by default, but forScore Pro subscribers will also see an additional “PDF” layer at the top of the Layers list for every page of a score. This layer works much like other layers do, but with one important distinction: when you use the selection tool’s Copy or Cut actions, forScore copies any annotations on that layer as well as the contents of the page itself. This allows you to move measures around or copy and paste them between pages to better suit your needs. Learn more about the selection tool in the Annotation section of this guide, or see this knowledge base article for step-by-step instructions.

If you’re a forScore Pro subscriber and you make structural edits to a document, you can share those changes with colleagues—either send an annotated PDF file with permanently embedded annotations, or share a 4SC file (the receiver can show, hide, or clear the PDF layer but can not make any changes of their own).

Note: forScore cannot copy vector information stored within a PDF file, it can only copy a high-resolution image of the selected portion of a page. If you’re working with vector-based files (which can be enlarged without limit), changes made using Page Copy & Paste will appear pixelated at higher zoom levels. Whenever possible, permanent or archival changes should be made using the same source material and application that was used to create the original PDF file in the first place.

Stamps & Symbols:

Swipe left and right in the Stamps palette to access six additional stamp sets (almost 400 additional symbols) and use them as is or copy any of them to your personal collection to edit or reorder them. Pro users can also create stamps using Apple’s SF Symbols library—just find a symbol using the SF Symbols app and type in its name to add it to your stamp collection. That gives you access to over 6,000 symbols as of iOS 18 and any that are added with future OS updates.

SF Symbols can be used for more than just stamps: open the metadata panel and tap a metadata category to customize it. In addition to the symbols offered there by default, Pro users can add any other SF Symbol by name to perfectly personalize their organizational system.

Apple Pencil:

On supported devices, while holding Apple Pencil near the screen, you can use customizable pinch, swipe, and tap gestures to resize or cycle through presets, undo or redo drawings, or show a rotary preset picker that makes accessing your presets faster and easier than ever. With Apple Pencil Pro, you can even configure the squeeze gesture to show this rotary picker for instant access with one hand.

Profiles:

Create multiple settings profiles for separate forScore users or customize your forScore experience for any situation. When you switch back and forth between profiles they’re updated and restored automatically.

Sharing:

When sharing scores, bookmarks, or setlists, an additional “automation” option allows you to easily copy the relevant URL so you can save it wherever you like.

App Icons:

Customize your home screen by choosing from additional app icon options.

Subscribing

Choose Settings from forScore’s tools menu and select “forScore Pro” to learn more, subscribe, access settings for subscriber-only features, and restore or manage an existing subscription.

Note: if you’re currently subscribed to forScore Pro and you start using forScore on a new device, you may need to use the Restore button found within this panel to start using your membership on that device—your original device(s) will still be able to use forScore Pro.

If you choose to become a forScore Pro subscriber, you’ll not only be getting the benefits outlined above: you’ll also be supporting us and making sure we can keep releasing updates for years to come. After the first year, Apple takes a smaller cut so more of your money goes directly to supporting our app.

And if you’re perfectly happy with forScore just the way it is, there’s no pressure to become a subscriber. No existing features require any further payment, so you can use them forever. If your needs grow, we’ll be ready to serve them.

Complete terms of service are available at forScore.co/terms-of-service and our privacy policy can be found at forScore.co/privacy.

forScore Pro Pass

With forScore 14 we introduced a forScore Pro 30-day pass that unlocks all forScore Pro features for 30 days with no auto-renewal. Although a forScore Pro subscription is more cost-effective, this pass gives you an opportunity to try these features so you can decide if subscribing is right for you.

Adding Files

Apple’s File Sharing interface has limited support for working with subdirectories, so forScore does not support organizing your files in this way. Only add files to your forScore library, not folders.

Look for this icon when working with PDF files in other apps; it usually indicates that the app supports copying the file to other PDF-compatible apps on your device, including forScore

forScore is designed around the PDF file format and generally works best when each file in your library contains all pages of a single piece of sheet music. If you have separate PDF files or images for each page of a score, you’ll need to combine those into one multi-page PDF file first.

If you’ve got a longer PDF file that you prefer to keep together, bookmarks allow you to easily identify and navigate to specific pieces within the larger compilation. Learn more in the Bookmarks section of this user guide.

Copying Files to forScore

Import: Open forScore’s main menu and tap “Import” (or press command-I) to browse for any compatible files stored on your device or through any cloud services you’ve configured (learn more in The Files App section of this guide). On a Mac, you can also access the Import function from the menu bar under File › Import. On an iPad or Mac, use Drag & Drop to quickly and easily copy files into your forScore library.

From a computer to an iPad or iPhone: If you already have a PDF sheet music collection on your computer, File Sharing is a great way to get started. As of macOS 10.15 this panel is built into Finder, while in previous versions (and on Windows computers) it’s built into iTunes instead. Visit support.apple.com/HT201301 for the most up-to-date instructions.

From other apps: Use any app that supports system sharing features to send a copy of a PDF file to forScore. From the Mail app in iOS 14, for instance, tap and hold your finger down over an attachment until the contextual menu appears, then choose “Share” and tap “Copy to forScore.” In Safari and many other apps, look for the action icon (see the example to the right of this page) while viewing a PDF file. Each app works a little differently, so consult their documentation for explicit instructions.

Services

If you’ve purchased content from digital retailers like Musicnotes, Noteflight and Virtual Sheet Music, or if you use a cloud storage service like Dropbox, use the Services panel to access your files. Visit the Services section of this guide to learn more.

Scan

For paper music you haven’t yet digitized, Scan is a great option. With it, you can snap photos of each page and let forScore turn them into a PDF file for you. Learn more about this feature in the Scan section of this guide.

Text Files

You can also add text files (TXT, RTF, DOC, or DOCX) to your forScore library and they will be automatically converted to PDF files for you. Some formatting may be lost, however, so for the best results consider exporting those documents as PDFs first.

Deleting Files

To remove a score from forScore, swipe across it from right to left in the menu or right click and tap the red Delete (trash can) action—it’ll ask you to confirm so you don’t delete anything by accident. You can also tap on the “Edit” button to select multiple items from the list and delete them all at once.

If you’ve deleted something and need to get it back, you may be able to retrieve it by choosing “backup” from the tools menu and tapping “recently deleted.”