Nice text font for music

Music notation symbols, fonts, font sources and font creation, SmuFL.
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benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Nice text font for music

Post by benwiggy »

Amid all the hubbub from Capitol Hill yesterday, I noticed an image of a Congress (or Senate) motion paper, and of course my first thoughts were: Ooh, that looks like a nice font for music! :lol:

After finding a PDF of a motion paper, I discovered that the font is called De Vinne, and it's a nice text font along the lines of MT Modern, Old Standard, Nepomuk, etc. (They use it with ITC Cheltenham Bold for headings.)

https://www.fonts.com/font/bitstream/de-vinne
Schonbergian
Posts: 252
Joined: 03 Feb 2017, 02:25
Location: Toronto

Re: Nice text font for music

Post by Schonbergian »

Nice design, but I would want a sturdier variant for most uses. ("Caption" vs. "Text")
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OCTO
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Re: Nice text font for music

Post by OCTO »

It reminds me very much of Neoplanta BG, which is free.
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
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Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Nice text font for music

Post by benwiggy »

OCTO wrote: 09 Jan 2021, 11:21 It reminds me very much of Neoplanta BG, which is free.
or Old Standard, which is also free, all of which are traditional Modern or "Scotch" faces. MT Modern is my preferred typeface for music. It's the closest text face to the dynamic symbols and numbers like time sigs -- except it's terrible for lyrics, so in choosing something else for lyrics, I use that (Kepler) consistently throughout. (Kepler somehow manages to look Modern and Humanist and Transitional all at once.)

When I have 'a spare moment', I plan to produce some additional styles of MT Modern that fill in the gaps of useful weights.
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OCTO
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Re: Nice text font for music

Post by OCTO »

Similarly I used before Modern No20, but the italic is missing.
I love Old Standard too, but I have difficulty with the "f" italic.

I find that the main issue with all these fonts is discrepancy between thin lines and fat lines, somehow the thin lines are too thin, thus disappearing from page. Unfortunately there is no tool available to do that properly (=embolden thin lines only), and so anyone who wish to tweak a font needs to do it manually.

Here are three versions, the top one is my Muzitex v3, that really stands out, without trouble for reading, I think I still wait for a proper font to replace it fully:
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.05.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.05.jpg (41.28 KiB) Viewed 4428 times
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.14.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.14.jpg (40.17 KiB) Viewed 4428 times
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.56.43.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.56.43.jpg (39.66 KiB) Viewed 4428 times
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)
shelomitbatdvorah
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Joined: 16 Jan 2021, 00:04

Re: Nice text font for music

Post by shelomitbatdvorah »

Oh, I know this font! De Vinne was introduced in the 1890s and was a fairly popular face into the '30s. The modern variants of the family are less heightened, especially the capitals.

I'm doing background research for a critical edition of this score from 1911. About a third of the book was set very beautifully in De Vinne--the remainder considerably less beautifully in a face I haven't yet identified. Sadly, we don't know what manufacturer was involved.
Harpsichordmaker
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Joined: 10 Apr 2016, 08:19

Re: Nice text font for music

Post by Harpsichordmaker »

OCTO wrote: 09 Jan 2021, 23:02 Here are three versions, the top one is my Muzitex v3, that really stands out, without trouble for reading, I think I still wait for a proper font to replace it fully:
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.05.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.55.14.jpg
Screen Shot 2021-01-09 at 23.56.43.jpg
What a beautiful G-clef. Well, not only the G-clef, I love the F clef and the minims as well (or half notes? I mean these: :5 ).
May I ask which music font is that?
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OCTO
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Location: Sweden

Re: Nice text font for music

Post by OCTO »

It is font Vienna, used in Finale.
I do love that font too, and yes half notehead is one of the finest among all fonts in my opinion.
It is based on SCORE.
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)
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