"Urtext Kapellmeister"

Music notation symbols, fonts, font sources and font creation, SmuFL.
benwiggy
Posts: 833
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

"Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by benwiggy »

Has anyone used the "Kapellmeister" and other fonts from "Urtext Music Software"?

They look quite nice, but there's not enough information there, and the pages also talk about "coming in 2013".

https://www.fontshop.com/foundries/urtext-music-fonts
User avatar
tisimst
Posts: 416
Joined: 08 Oct 2015, 17:57
Location: UT, USA
Contact:

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by tisimst »

The only review I'm aware of was done by Philip Rothman on SibeliusBlog back in 2013:
http://www.sibeliusblog.com/news/urtext ... -fontshop/
http://www.sibeliusblog.com/news/leipzi ... -fontshop/
Music Typeface Designer & Engraver - LilyPond | Sibelius | Finale | MuseScore | Dorico | SMuFL | Inkscape | FontForge
Knut
Posts: 867
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 18:07
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by Knut »

The Urtext fonts look very nice indeed. Although I've never used them, they are among the very few commercial music fonts that look like they were designed by a professional with a background in type design. My only quarrel with them is that they look a bit too embellished for maximum readablility, but this is not an issue for all types of music. As music fonts evoking a certain historical feel, they seem to look better than anything else I've seen.
benwiggy
Posts: 833
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by benwiggy »

Thanks. The samples are nice, but they do "evoke a historical feel", as you say.
User avatar
jan
Posts: 84
Joined: 22 Jun 2016, 08:29

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by jan »

I have "Leipzig 1803" from Urtext and assume that Kapellmeister is similar from a technical point of view.
An example of Leipzig 1803 can be found here: Vintage Score
The package comes with a font similar to Maestro (OTF and TTF), but not 100% compatible, and a number of fonts for Sibelius.
There is also an accompanying text file with the settings for the flags (for Finale and Sibelius).
All fonts were designed by Stephen Carisse.

I contacted him last year, sent him a list of bugs of his font that I noticed in Finale and asked him if he would
send me his other fonts for free for including them in the Music Font Comparison which already includes Leipzig 1803.
Never heard anything. Then a few months ago I started a second attempt and received the answer that he doesn't have time for that...
hm, not the user support that one would expect.
His fonts still look very nice though.

Jan
User avatar
chase43078
Posts: 3
Joined: 14 Dec 2019, 17:14

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by chase43078 »

I just purchase Kapellmstr II and Busoni for about $80 US -- both made by UMF. I use Finale 26 on an iMac and both are current and up-to-date. I am not able to access all the glyphs of either OTF font in Finale. For example, the cut-time symbol appears as a "D.S.," and when I attempt to access the correct glyph, it is not visible within Finale. I can see the symbol in Fontbook. I opened Busoni in a cheap font editor (Type 32) to see if I could re-map the glyph. After swapping the maps for the two glyphs, all of the other basic latin glyphs in the font become um-mapped for some reason. I know enough about fonts to be dangerous, but I cannot seem to solve this problem.

Jan, I wonder if this might be one of the "bugs" you mentioned? If so, have you found any solutions, or did you just give up on the font?

I really love the look that both of these fonts offer, but I have waisted so many hours already trying to resolve this problem. I have had no luck with the vendor.

Thanks.
Chase
Chase
Tampa, FL, USA
Pianist, Organist, Singer, Composer, Arranger
Finale 26 - iMac 17,1
User avatar
OCTO
Posts: 1742
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 06:52
Location: Sweden

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by OCTO »

chase43078 wrote: 14 Dec 2019, 17:32 I am not able to access all the glyphs of either OTF font in Finale. For example, the cut-time symbol appears as a "D.S.," and when I attempt to access the correct glyph, it is not visible within Finale. I can see the symbol in Fontbook. I opened Busoni in a cheap font editor (Type 32) to see if I could re-map the glyph. After swapping the maps for the two glyphs, all of the other basic latin glyphs in the font become um-mapped for some reason. I know enough about fonts to be dangerous, but I cannot seem to solve this problem.
It sounds to me that the font is adjusted for Windows. MM made a terrible mistake to make two different fonts for both platforms. I have read somewhere that a font can have double mapping in order to work properly with Finale but I am not sure how. Jan and tisimst can be of a great help.
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
benwiggy
Posts: 833
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by benwiggy »

chase43078 wrote: 14 Dec 2019, 17:32 I just purchase Kapellmstr II and Busoni for about $80 US -- both made by UMF. I use Finale 26 on an iMac and both are current and up-to-date. I am not able to access all the glyphs of either OTF font in Finale. For example, the cut-time symbol appears as a "D.S.," and when I attempt to access the correct glyph, it is not visible within Finale. I can see the symbol in Fontbook.
If I remember, you must NOT add the font to the MacSymbolText.txt file (or whatever it's called), if it's a Unicode font with lots of extra glyphs (like November2). There is, or was, also a Mac Finale bug about accessing a certain small range of symbols.

Luckily, I'm beyond all that now. I'm very happily using Abraham Lee's MTF-Cadence in Dorico.
User avatar
jan
Posts: 84
Joined: 22 Jun 2016, 08:29

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by jan »

As far as I know you MUST add all Urtext fonts to MacSymbolFonts.txt.
If you don't add them, the problems that you describe may occur.
Wrong glyphs/symbol slots or missing glyphs are typically caused by wrong usage of MacSymbolFonts.txt.

I have only tried the Leipzig 1803 font from Urtext, not the ones that you mention.
But probably they are all similar.

It's possible to have fonts fully compatible in Finale MacOS and Windows - if they are simple fonts that only use 255 characters or if they are unicode-only fonts (not using the first 255 symbol slots). If I remember it correctly the only case where it's not possible is a hybrid font like November 2 or Aruvarb that uses both the first 255 characters AND the upper unicode blocks. These fonts are only fully compatible with Windows.

Jan
User avatar
OCTO
Posts: 1742
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 06:52
Location: Sweden

Re: "Urtext Kapellmeister"

Post by OCTO »

jan wrote: 16 Dec 2019, 15:36It's possible to have fonts fully compatible in Finale MacOS and Windows - if they are simple fonts that only use 255 characters or if they are unicode-only fonts (not using the first 255 symbol slots).
I remember opening Maestro for Win and for Mac in FontForge and the symbols were not placed equally on the same slots. True?
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
Post Reply