I need a flat symbol!

Music notation symbols, fonts, font sources and font creation, SmuFL.
Post Reply
Hector Pascal
Posts: 100
Joined: 17 Oct 2021, 23:15

I need a flat symbol!

Post by Hector Pascal »

Screen Shot 2023-08-31 at 4.32.11 pm.png
Screen Shot 2023-08-31 at 4.32.11 pm.png (36.13 KiB) Viewed 23133 times
Hi everyone,

I design my title pages in a desktop publishing program, and I use a font called Impact.

I really wish Impact font included a flat symbol, so that I could write B :f instead of B-flat.

Any ideas? I will look into designing a :f symbol to match Impact font, and pasting it as a graphic where I need it.

Best,
Hector.
User avatar
OCTO
Posts: 1814
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 06:52
Location: Sweden

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by OCTO »

I think you need to design it... :)
Use FontForge. And let us show what you can!
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.5 • Sibelius 2024.3• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 11 /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
benwiggy
Posts: 930
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by benwiggy »

You'll have to use a different font for that character. However, 'matching' a flat symbol to am industrial Grotesque (in the nicest possible sense!) font like Impact is not going to be easy.

Very few text fonts have (decent) accidentals in the normal Unicode positions (U + 266D to F): you'll have to use one from a music font.
User avatar
OCTO
Posts: 1814
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 06:52
Location: Sweden

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by OCTO »

Take small cap "b" from the font and try to tweak it.
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.5 • Sibelius 2024.3• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 11 /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
jrethorst
Posts: 132
Joined: 09 Apr 2016, 18:48

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by jrethorst »

Per this web site:

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how- ... s-in-fonts
Arial, Courier New, Lucida Sans, MS Reference Sans Serif and Times New Roman are common fonts that include musical symbols.
This site has the keyboard symbols for Alt Key, Unicode and HTML formats:

https://barbaracasey.com/make-music-not ... ext-fonts/

John R.
John Rethorst
Hector Pascal
Posts: 100
Joined: 17 Oct 2021, 23:15

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by Hector Pascal »

Thanks everyone! To a man on a galloping horse, the Broadway Copyist flat symbol actually looks not half bad when placed in close proximity to Impact font. I am thinking I could possibly get away with it.
Screen Shot 2023-09-01 at 4.03.27 pm.png
Screen Shot 2023-09-01 at 4.03.27 pm.png (11.3 KiB) Viewed 23048 times
I've downloaded FontForge and I will attempt to tweak the flat symbol.

Cheers and thank you again as always,
Hector.
benwiggy
Posts: 930
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: I need a flat symbol!

Post by benwiggy »

jrethorst wrote: 31 Aug 2023, 20:01 Arial, Courier New, Lucida Sans, MS Reference Sans Serif and Times New Roman are common fonts that include musical symbols
Note my use of the word "decent". Here's Arial's Sharp:
Screenshot 3.png
Screenshot 3.png (55.03 KiB) Viewed 23043 times
It doesn't have a flat, nor natural. It does have two other music characters: a single quaver, and a pair of beamed quavers.

Courier Std (not New) contains the two quaver chars only.

MS Reference does have the three accidentals, but they are awful.

Times has the same characters as Arial, and they are similarly awful.
Post Reply