Audio

Audio track adjustment availability depends on each track’s properties:

DRMed files or files that haven’t been downloaded to your device can be played at 50%, 75%, or 100% of their normal speed.

Other tracks can be played from 25% to 200% of their original speed, and their pitch can be independently adjusted by up to an octave in either direction.

Only recordings made while viewing the current score or bookmark are visible in the recording panel’s list view. If you’d rather make the audio file available to all scores, swipe over the recording from right to left and tap the orange Remove action (or “unlink”, depending on your version).

When appropriate, forScore’s audio panel can be found at the bottom of the main view. It appears and disappears along with the rest of forScore’s controls when you tap the center of the screen.

This panel is available if you’re viewing a score that has an audio track or recording associated with it (see the Metadata section for more details on managing audio tracks), or if another app is playing audio and the “use external audio” option is enabled in forScore’s settings panel.

Tip: Tap or drag the pill-shaped control at the top of the media box upward or downward to show or hide it as needed.

Playback

Adjustment:

In most cases you can adjust a track’s playback speed and pitch independently. (See the sidebar for specific examples and restrictions.) These options are saved automatically per score.

Locking:

If your settings allow you to flip between scores, the lock icon in the media box can prevent you from accidentally flipping to the next or previous score as long as the track is still playing.

Replay:

Automate your page turns by recording them in conjunction with a linked audio track. Tap the Replay button in the media box (the page with an arrow in it) and turn pages while the track plays. On subsequent plays, pages will turn themselves at just the right moment.

While replay mode is on, small lines in the seek bar will show you where saved page turns are located. A “···” button will also appear on the right-hand side of the seek bar, allowing you to edit or remove saved page turns.

Looping:

If you’d like to loop a portion of the song, just tap on the repeat symbol and drag the two handles left and right to set the loop time. For more precise control, tap the “···” button.

Recording

Whether you’d like to review your practice sessions later or share your progress with friends and colleagues, forScore’s recording feature can help. Choose “record” from the tools menu, then tap the microphone icon when you’re ready. You’ll see a red volume meter so you can make sure you’re close enough for the microphone to pick up clear audio. Tap again to stop recording, and then either save or discard it. Saved recordings are automatically linked to the current score so you can review them later.

The list icon next to the microphone lets you view, share, or delete any recordings you’ve made for the current score.

Note: The media box is not visible while recording. Tap the X button when you’re finished recording to continue using the media playback controls.

The recording feature requires access to your device’s microphone and the system will prompt you to allow this the first time you try to record. Use the Settings app (or System Preferences if you’re using a Mac) to grant or revoke this access at any time.

Tools

Many of these actions can be assigned to customizable gestures and shortcuts via the settings panel.

The tools menu gives you quick access to many of forScore’s functions. Some of these items are explained in greater detail throughout this guide.

Annotate: Use your finger to draw directly on the page, add text annotations, or use the stamp and shape tools to add common markup symbols.

Links: Create links between two pages of the current score to quickly handle repeats.

Buttons: Place tappable circles on a page to trigger certain actions.

Rearrange: Move, duplicate, rotate, or delete pages and split or merge documents.

Crop: Maximize your screen real estate by fixing crooked scans, removing excess margins, and getting the best possible view of each page.

Share: Print a score, send it to another PDF-compatible app on your device, or share it via email, AirDrop, and more.

Store: Discover something new to play, find popular accessories, or learn more about some of forScore’s newest features in our in-app purchase storefront.

Services: Download files into your library or save them to the cloud for safe keeping and easy access.

Scan: Create PDFs from images in your device’s photo library or use the built-in camera to take pictures of each page on the spot.

Templates: Create new PDF files by picking a style and number of pages.

Piano: Use this keyboard to work through tricky measures on the go.

Record: Review or share your practice sessions.

Cue: Broadcast page turns and/or program changes to nearby devices or use Dual Page mode with the standalone Cue app.

Dashboard: See what you’ve been playing and set goals, send reports, or share your progress.

Sync: Configure forScore to keep your content up-to-date across all of your devices using your iCloud account.

Backup: Create and restore from forScore library backups and archives or restore recently deleted items.

Support: Learn more about forScore, see which version you’re using, view library statistics, or send us questions and comments.

Settings: Customize your forScore experience to meet your needs. Learn more in the Settings section.

Cue

Our remote control system, Cue, allows you connect multiple devices together wirelessly to coordinate your page turns and program changes. It uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to discover and communicate with nearby devices, and performance may vary based on environmental factors.

Note: Although Wi-Fi must be enabled for the app to discover nearby devices, an internet connection is not required when using Cue.

Roles

In order to properly coordinate your actions, Cue requires you to pick a role when initiating or joining a session. A “Leader” is responsible for turning pages and navigating between different scores or bookmarks in their library. A “Follower” lets their device follow along automatically, either by responding to page turns, program changes, or both.

Note: A Program Change is how we refer to navigation between songs. When a leader opens a new score or bookmark from their library or flips from the end of one piece to the beginning of the next, that’s a Program Change.

Tap the Cue icon in the Display Options overlay to choose your role: “Lead,” “Follow Page Turns,” “Follow Program Changes,” “Follow Both,” or pick “Dual Page mode” (discussed later in this section). Tap “open panel” or select Cue from the Tools menu to open the Cue connection panel which lists available and connected devices and lets you change your role or disconnect from the current session.

Device-Specific Considerations

Page turns work differently depending on your device’s orientation and settings. If a leader is using their device in landscape orientation, forScore will send page up and down messages but only other landscape-oriented devices will respond. Similarly, half-page turn messages can be sent by a leader who uses them, and only the connected devices who are using portrait mode and who have half-page turns enabled will see the effect.

Dual Page Mode

When using forScore on one device and the standalone Cue app on another, a special Dual Page mode lets you view two full pages side-by-side. One page appears on the primary device, and Cue displays the next page wirelessly. Tap or swipe on either screen to advance, two pages at a time. Links and buttons are also supported on either screen, so you don’t have to worry about which device you need to tap.

The standalone Cue app is currently available on the App Store worldwide.

Cue 2

With forScore 14.4 we introduced a new version of the Cue remote control protocol called Cue 2 which uses Apple’s modern networking frameworks to provide faster and more reliable connections. Cue 2 is compatible with forScore 14.4 or later and the standalone Cue app (version 2.4 or later). You can switch back to the original Cue 1 protocol if needed to connect to devices running older versions of either app: tap the circled ellipsis button in the top left-hand corner of the Cue panel to switch between protocol versions.

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.