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 tools menu to choose your role: “Lead,” “Follow Page Turns,” “Follow Program Changes,” “Follow Both,” or pick “Dual Page mode” (discussed later in this section). Tap this icon a second time 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

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 14.4, 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 © 2025 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 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.