Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

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

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by benwiggy »

Technically, you can put an augmentation mark on any number, though their usage may be rare, and there are variants on the augmentation mark style.
Knut
Posts: 867
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 18:07
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by Knut »

Thanks.
benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by benwiggy »

It has only recently occurred to me (Doh!) that the reason for the zero-width was so that different glyphs could be typed together and appear at the same horizontal position. Hence the font having the same numerals in different heights.

That's not how I use it -- I use the basic set of figures as chord suffixes in Finale -- so that's not necessary. But I'll keep a copy of the original font in case I need it for other environments.
Florian
Posts: 86
Joined: 31 Dec 2016, 15:34

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by Florian »

I just came across this forum, following some link posted on the Dorico support forum – and was surprised finding some threads concerning the music fonts I created a couple of years ago.
benwiggy wrote:Well, I've created a "clean" version of the font, fixing all the errors that Fontforge flagged. I didn't make any kerning alterations, and I'll adjust my existing documents. For reasons that need not bore you, it's not that much of a job to adjust the chord suffixes.

Thanks for the advice. There aren't many fonts out there with all the figured bass symbols, and I really like this one.
Ben (?), I'm glad you like the font!
Would you consider uploading your clean version to the GitHub rep? Or else, could you send it to me so I can do that?
benwiggy wrote:It has only recently occurred to me (Doh!) that the reason for the zero-width was so that different glyphs could be typed together and appear at the same horizontal position. Hence the font having the same numerals in different heights.
That's it. I never used the chords function in Finale, the font was designed for use within Finale's text expressions.
Knut wrote:I took a look at the Sebastian figured bass font. It contains a number of ligated +_numeral and numeral_+ glyphs which is not found in the current version of SMuFL. Do you know if these can be found in the literature, or are they of the font designer's own creation?

Here's the figured bass symbols currently featured in SMuFL:
https://w3c.github.io/smufl/gitbook/tab ... -bass.html
https://w3c.github.io/smufl/gitbook/tab ... ement.html

As you can see, the only ligatures featured are 2+, 4+, 5+ and +7.
If I remember correctly, for most of these ligatures it was just me playing around with numerals and lines. I won't pretend I'm an expert for figured bass notation, but as far as I know, at least the 6+ ligature is fairly common too. I wonder – why has it not been included in SMuFL?
benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by benwiggy »

Florian wrote:Ben (?), I'm glad you like the font!
Would you consider uploading your clean version to the GitHub rep? Or else, could you send it to me so I can do that?
Yes, I love it! All the other Fig Bass fonts I've seen look like Times, rather than looking like an 18th-century face.

I'll happily send the revised version to you: I would have left it alone, but for Finale making the numbers disappear on -screen at certain view sizes!

What did you model the symbols on?
Harpsichordmaker
Posts: 62
Joined: 10 Apr 2016, 08:19

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by Harpsichordmaker »

May I ask, would you please give us the link to the revised font?
And, am I permitted to use the glyphs to make a Sibelius-friendly font?
Only for personal use.
benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by benwiggy »

It may be that the revised font is not as suited to Sibelius as the original.

I'll upload it here, as I've not worked out how to upload things to other people's Github projects (despite having a couple of projects there myself...)

Florian's photo on github looks familiar....
Attachments
Sebastian-FigBass.otf.zip
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Florian
Posts: 86
Joined: 31 Dec 2016, 15:34

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by Florian »

I just uploaded the revised version to the Github page. (https://github.com/fkretlow/sebastian) Thank you!

I created a whole set of numerals in different sizes while working on the fonts. They were all derived from the symbols for time signatures. As for the ligatures, I just knew you could combine any number with an augmentation mark, as you mentioned earlier in this thread, and of course I had a couple of scores to look at for inspiration. And a lot of time..

Of course you're welcome to make a Sibelius-friendly version. Just as a matter of interest, as I've never used Sibelius: what would you change in order to make it Sibelius-friendly? And why would the revised font be less suited to Sibelius?

O yeah that photo... I actually never noticed. When I decided to stop working on the fonts, I posted them on the Finale forum and sent them to Daniel. He suggested that I should rather move them to Github and kindly set it all up for me. I guess I should look for a more appropriate picture...
benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by benwiggy »

I have never used Sibelius, so I don't know how figured bass symbols are added there. I was merely sounding a note of caution that the zero-width font may work better in that environment than as in Finale's chord suffixes.
Harpsichordmaker
Posts: 62
Joined: 10 Apr 2016, 08:19

Re: Problems with Sebastian-FigBass

Post by Harpsichordmaker »

Florian wrote:I just uploaded the revised version to the Github page. (https://github.com/fkretlow/sebastian) Thank you!

I created a whole set of numerals in different sizes while working on the fonts. They were all derived from the symbols for time signatures. As for the ligatures, I just knew you could combine any number with an augmentation mark, as you mentioned earlier in this thread, and of course I had a couple of scores to look at for inspiration. And a lot of time..

Of course you're welcome to make a Sibelius-friendly version. Just as a matter of interest, as I've never used Sibelius: what would you change in order to make it Sibelius-friendly? And why would the revised font be less suited to Sibelius?
Sibelius expects to find certain glyphs in certain slots of the font file, so it's just a matter of moving the glyphs from their slots to those slots Sibelius wants.
Other adjustments may be required, i.e. height, left-right position in the slot and so on.
I'll try and if I get a font usable in Sibelius I'll let you know.
Thanks
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