Table of Contents

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 Scan is great for quickly capturing scores, a flatbed scanner 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.

Dashboard

If you allow it, forScore can track which scores, bookmarks, and setlists you view and for how long. With this information collected, the Dashboard feature in the tools menu can give you valuable insights into your playing habits and helps keep you on track. Three tabs along the top or bottom of the screen (shown on the left of the screen in a sidebar when space allows) give you different ways of viewing and using this information:

Analytics

The Analytics tab shows information collected over the past ninety days. It can show you statistics for either items (scores and bookmarks) or setlists, and displays either the total amount of time you spent playing or the number of views.

Tap on any day to see a detailed list of items or setlists in the lower portion of the screen. This list shows everything you viewed on that particular day and is sorted from most played or viewed to least. You can tap on any item or setlist in this list to see how often you’ve viewed or played it over the past ninety days.

Goals

The Goals tab helps you reach a minimum number of views or amount of play time for each day, week, month, or all time. Goals can be item- or setlist-specific, or they can be more general.

The main list of goals shows your current progress as a circular view and, if your goal is time-specific, uses an additional view in the lower left-hand corner to show your results for the previous term. For instance, a weekly goal would prominently display this week’s progress with a smaller view for last week’s results.

Tap a goal to edit it or to view your results for the past ninety days. The timeline along the top of the screen shows your results for the past ninety days: tap on any of these graphics to share your progress with friends or colleagues via email, message, Twitter, Facebook, and more. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable or to share your success.

Reports

The Reports tab lets you periodically share more detailed information with a colleague or instructor as a PDF document. To begin, create a new report template and tap the circled arrow button to edit it.

Here, you can customize your report to display progress for all items and/or setlists or for one in particular. Select day, week, or month, and choose how far back you’d like the report to go. Once you’re done, tap the back button and tap the report to view its results and use the action button in the top right-hand corner to share it.

Note: The information forScore collects is stored locally on your device. It doesn’t get sent to any servers, and won’t be shared with anyone unless you specifically choose to do so. Visit forscore.co/privacy to learn more.

The Files App

On iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple provides a standard system interface that any app can use to help you work with documents, also available through the standalone “Files” app. It lets you access and work with your documents whether they’re stored in iCloud Drive, third party cloud storage services, or within apps like forScore that choose to make their documents available in this way.

File Providers

The Files interface lets you access documents stored in iCloud Drive, other apps, or dozens of third-party cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. Learn more about configuring the Files interface to work with your favorite cloud storage provider at forscore.co/files.

Importing Files

Use the Import button in the main menu to copy files to your forScore library. Tap a single file or use the Select button (only available in the Browse tab) to import multiple files at once. Use the Locations sidebar to switch between cloud storage providers, including iCloud Drive, or to view files stored locally on your device.

Sharing Files

Any time you share files from forScore, you’ll see iOS’ native sharing interface appear which includes an option called “Save to Files.” Use this action to copy your files to other apps or upload them to any of the cloud storage services you’ve configured.

On iPads, Drag and Drop gestures make importing and sharing content even easier, especially when using iOS’ multitasking modes. Learn more about these gestures in the Drag and Drop section at the end of this guide.

The Services Panel

If you prefer, you can also access the Files interface using forScore’s Services panel. If it’s not already shown in the list of Services, tap the + button to select it, then tap it to view the splash screen and choose to either upload or download content.

forScore’s Documents

Every app has its own Documents directory where they can store a user’s information. This is where forScore stores all of your PDF files; if you’ve ever used the File Sharing interface, this is the directory you were working with.

forScore’s Documents directory can also be accessed directly through the Files interface and standalone app. Choose “On My iPad” (or iPhone) from the Locations list in the app’s sidebar to see app folders for forScore and any other apps on your device that store data in their own Documents directories.

Working within forScore’s Documents directory through the Files app carries the same implications as working within the File Sharing interface does—delete files here and they’ll be permanently removed from forScore. We do not recommend renaming PDF files through this interface as doing so will remove that file’s metadata, annotations, and more.

Note: If you want to rename PDF files stored in forScore’s Documents directory, use the metadata panel to change its title instead and the filename will be updated to match it as closely as possible.

Accessibility

forScore includes several Accessibility options in the settings panel that can help you get more out of the app.

Reflow

Although forScore can’t interpret the notes in a PDF file, it can detect where important information is generally on each page. With Reflow, forScore takes that information, magnifies and redraws it, then lays it out end-to-end so you can read your music in one long line—like a horizontal teleprompter. Reflow gets you most of the way there with its smart detection, and if it gets something wrong you can correct it quickly and never worry about it again.

Reflow is available by default on iPhone but on other devices it must first be enabled for use through the ‘Accessibility’ section of forScore’s settings panel. To activate it, select the Reflow (zig-zag arrow) icon from the Display Options overlay.

Reflow mode features several buttons along the top of the screen: Edit, zoom, navigation mode, and an exit button. Learn about each of their functions below.

Editing Zones:

The Edit button allows you to adjust Reflow’s zones if needed. You’ll see them as gray rectangles—tap once to see its resize controls, and tap again to show the delete option. Drag the green control at the top of each rectangle to downward to split it horizontally into two new areas.

You’ll see a control bar along the bottom of the screen: use the + button at the bottom of the screen to create a new zone, use the arrows to move between pages, and drag the set of three lines on either end of the control bar to drag it up or down and out of your way. If you’d like forScore to reset all zones and re-scan the page, tap the Reset button.

Zoom:

Zoom in or out to find the best magnification for you—up to three times as large as the original page.

Navigation:

Choose to page or scroll through your music. In Page mode, tapping on either side of the screen will shift the music over by half of your screen’s width. In Scroll mode, your music will scroll by continuously: tap the left side of the screen repeatedly to slow it down or the right side to speed it up. Tap in the center of the screen to pause or resume scrolling.

More

Other Accessibility settings allow you to disable Drag & Drop and Contextual Menu gestures, change the metronome’s sounds, adjust the default size of links and buttons, or use full-screen menus.