September 14, 2018
Feature of the Week
When you’re first getting started with forScore, it’s great to be able to jump right in and see how it all works before you begin the process of digitizing your paper scores or invest in a large collection of digital sheet music. In fact, when forScore launched it was preloaded with almost 300 pieces of public domain music from the Mutopia Project. As time went on and people became more familiar with the concept of reading sheet music off of an iPad, including that content no longer made sense. It made updates larger and took up more storage space, so we removed it—but it wasn’t gone for good.
With forScore 2 we removed these scores from forScore itself and made them downloadable directly from our website instead, and with forScore 4 we expanded that concept into the forStore: our storefront that offers a variety of PDF scores for download using Apple’s in-app purchase system. Our forStore (choose “Store” from forScore’s Tools menu to access it) offers pieces from a handful of publishers, including those Mutopia scores we originally optimized for use with forScore. A few of the most popular composer collections are available for just 99 cents each and the rest are completely free, so it’s a great place to find something to get you started.
Earlier this year we also partnered with Musicnotes so you can download your purchases directly into forScore as standard PDF files. They have a small selection of free scores on their website that is definitely worth checking out if you haven’t done so already.
This week Logitech announced that their Crayon, the iPad stylus they co-developed with Apple, is now available for anyone to purchase (it had previously been offered only to educational institutions). Although there are some notable differences between the Logitech Crayon and the Apple Pencil, they share a lot of technology and we wanted to take a moment to highlight how both of these accessories work with forScore.
Once you’ve connected either device to your compatible iPad, it works just like you’d expect: tap or drag to use any app just like you normally would with your fingertips. Apple’s palm rejection kicks in automatically, helping to distinguish between intentional touches and incidental ones, so you can worry less about your hand position.
Most of the time the Pencil, Crayon, and finger touches all do the same thing—except when an app like forScore has been designed to work differently. For instance, you can use either stylus to annotate in forScore by simply drawing on the page. There’s no need to activate annotation mode first: forScore does this automatically and starts drawing your markings without missing a thing. The Apple Pencil section of forScore’s settings panel lets you control this behavior (called “automatically enter annotation mode”).
If you want to take things one step further, the “automatically exit annotation mode” option lets forScore save your markings and return to viewing mode after a configurable delay (choose “short” or “long” instead of the default “never”). Because forScore needs a moment to save your work and can’t track markings made during that process, it’s important to get this timing right based on how you use forScore. Otherwise, it will attempt to save while you’re still trying to annotate and forScore may miss some of your markings.
Apple’s palm rejection works well for most people most of the time, but if you find that your iPad is inappropriately picking up your hand movements, there’s another forScore setting that may help called “prevent finger drawing.” If enabled, forScore only allows a stylus to make markings and ignores all hand or finger touches. You can still use your fingers to switch annotation tools or zoom in on the page, just like you always do, but you won’t be able to make any markings with them. This setting works any time you use your stylus to enter annotation mode but not if you activate annotation mode manually—in that case you can still use your fingers to draw (helpful if your Apple Pencil is connected but out of reach).
Finally, forScore emphasizes your drawings by varying their width based on how hard you press and the angle of your stylus in relation to the screen. You can disable either of these if you prefer by disabling “tilt” and “pressure” in forScore’s settings panel.
For musicians who annotate regularly, an Apple Pencil or Logitech Crayon can make a world of difference. If you have a compatible iPad or are thinking of upgrading, visit your nearest Apple retail store if possible to check it out—it just takes a few minutes to really get a sense for what these accessories can do.
Things have been quiet this summer as we’ve worked to get all of our apps ready for iOS 12, but as Apple puts the final touches on their annual fall event (scheduled for September 12th this year) things are starting to get exciting.
Today, Logitech announced that Crayon, their Apple-sanctioned stylus that offers much of the same technology as the Apple Pencil but in a more rugged package, is now available for the general public to purchase. The Crayon was originally introduced earlier this year as an accessory designed for and sold exclusively to the Educational market. It was and still is offered to educational institutions at $49.99, a discount from the new standard price of $69.99. That’s a notable drop from the Apple Pencil’s $99 price tag.
The Crayon works exclusively with the iPad (6th generation), although that may change next week if new iPad models are introduced. Unlike Apple Pencil, the Crayon doesn’t support pressure sensitivity but the rest of the experience and technology are similar: it reportedly offers the same palm rejection and precision as the Pencil.
The Apple Pencil is a fantastic product that we continue to strongly recommend for all owners of compatible iPads, and it sounds like the Logitech Crayon will help expand that incredible experience and bring it to even more people. We can’t wait to get our hands on one and try it out. Visit Logitech’s website to learn more about the Crayon and to order it.
There’s a lot to love about forScore (three years of “feature of the week” articles is proof enough of its wide range of capabilities) and it goes beyond the app itself. Whether you have a question about an existing feature or simply want to share your thoughts with us, the Support section of forScore’s Tools menu is filled with resources to help you take full advantage of our app.
From our searchable knowledge base to the complete user guide, the Support panel’s resources are your first stop when questions arise. We work incredibly hard to make sure our documentation is up to date and as clear as possible, but everyone learns differently—if something doesn’t make sense, contact us! We’re always happy to answer your questions and hear your constructive comments.
When you’re ready to explore further, you’ll find links to our website, Twitter feed, and to our other apps on the App Store. You can even check out our latest news posts and articles like this one right from within the app—great for keeping up with all of the changes and improvements we’re constantly making.
There’s one last thing you’ll find in the Support panel, and it’s right up at the top: information about forScore and your music library. You’ll see which version of forScore you have installed (and if a newer version is available the list below may include a link to the App Store so you can download the latest update). You’ll also see how many scores, audio tracks, backups, and other files are stored in your forScore library and how much storage space is used by each of these.
Support isn’t just something that’s offered in response to problems, it’s how we continue to make forScore the best app it can be—by striving to be proactive and thoughtful. These resources can help you enjoy forScore more, so don’t wait until something comes up to check it out.
The most essential part of reading sheet music is legibility: if you can’t see what’s on the page your music is sure to suffer. From insufficient lighting to spontaneous gusts of wind, there are plenty of physical and technical reasons why reading sheet music can get tricky.
Backlit screens improve legibility greatly, but going digital presents it own usability issues. For instance, the most common iPad screen size—9.7 inches diagonally—is smaller than most pages of printed sheet music. forScore offers cropping and zooming to help enlarge your score and make it easier to read, but for some people it’s just not enough.
To give all musicians the best possible view of their music, we created Reflow. By analyzing each page of sheet music, forScore can automatically detect where most individual systems of music are located. Reflow then renders those areas (at up to twice their original size) and lays them out end-to-end. The result is something like a horizontal teleprompter, where your music is magnified and you read by scrolling from left to right continuously instead of back and forth and up and down through pages of music. It removes page turns while making notation larger and easier to read.
With forScore mini, Reflow is an essential tool that lets you read sheet music on even the smallest screens. Although it’s not as important on an iPad, Reflow is also offered in forScore as an accessibility option. To enable it, visit the “Accessibility” section of forScore’s settings panel and select “Reflow.” Once enabled, Reflow is available in the Tools menu, as an option when customizing gestures and page turner or keyboard shortcuts, and right from the title bar.
While using Reflow, tap the magnifying glass icons to increase or decrease the size of your music, and tap the Page/Scroll button to change how you advance. With Page, forScore quickly scrolls left or right by a set amount when you tap either side of the screen. Scroll mode, on the other hand, moves the music at a steady pace—tap the center of the screen to start or stop it and tap the left or right sides multiple times to speed it up or slow it down. If you fall behind or need to skip ahead, drag the music left or right at any time and scrolling will resume automatically.
Reflow makes its best guesses about where music falls on each page, but you can tweak things from there if needed. Tap “Edit” while using Reflow to add or remove zones, adjust and resize them, or split them up if they overlap and forScore can’t tell them apart. It usually takes just a minute or two (if any adjustments are needed at all), and then you’re free to use Reflow whenever you like with no additional work.
We’ve pioneered many features over the years, but Reflow is definitely the most eye-catching and rewarding. There aren’t many revolutions left to be had with sheet music, but with Reflow we leveraged the technical capabilities of one of the most incredible devices on the planet and reinvented the experience of reading sheet music without requiring any special data or formatting. They’re your own, standard PDF files, augmented and transformed into something entirely new.