Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

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MTGuru
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Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

Post by MTGuru »

The other day I needed some blank music staff paper, and happened to be completely out. So instead of downloading something from the Net, I created my own in ABC notation for abcm2ps. Here's the pseudo-tune, let's call it the Staff Paper Hornpipe. :-)

%%pagewidth 8.5in
%%pageheight 11in
%%topmargin 0
%%botmargin 0
%%scale 1.0
%%stretchstaff 1
%%stretchlast 1
X:1
M:none
K:clef=none
xy! xy! xy! xy! xy! xy! xy! xy! xy! xy!

The formatting directives at the top set the page dimensions, the staff size (scale), and stretching to ensure full-width staff lines. Both the meter M: and key K: are set to blank. Then each xy! group "fools" ABC into printing a blank line.

(For ABC geeks, x = invisible rest, y = invisible spacer, ! = forced line break. All seem to be necessary for consistent behavior, but yx! works as well.)

The result is a nice page of 10 blank staves.

If you're printing to A4 paper, you can substitute the dimensions:

%%pagewidth 21.0cm
%%pageheight 29.7cm

You can also add another xy! group for 11 staves per page.

The Concertina.net converter uses the abcm2ps engine, so the Staff Paper HP works just fine and gives a nice PDF page. Unfortunately, Concertina.net seems to ignore A4 formatting directives and always produces Letter Size output. But if this matters to you, you probably already know this. Use fit-to-page or however you usually handle the Concertina.net PDFs.

The Staff Paper HP requires no special program, so it's as handy as your favorite ABC app or Concertina.net. It's also completely customizable - margins, staff spacing, portrait/landscape, etc. For example, if you want a larger staff to write on, increase the scale. A value of

%%scale 1.2

gives 8 (instead of 10) larger staves per Letter Size page.

The Staff Paper HP should work with any program which supports the ABC 2.0 draft standard. I'd be curious if it works with other ABC notation programs as well as abcm2ps. Try it with your favorite and let us know. If your program allows formatting via program dialogs, you might be able to omit some or all of the %% formatting directives above.

Enjoy ...
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Re: Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

Post by Innocent Bystander »

Works nicely in ABC Explorer! TYVM!
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Re: Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

Post by cboody »

A truly neat application of abc MT. Can I mention it on the abc user site??
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Re: Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

Post by MTGuru »

Innocent Bystander wrote:Works nicely in ABC Explorer! TYVM!
Thanks for the feedback, IB. I'm glad it works!
cboody wrote:A truly neat application of abc MT. Can I mention it on the abc user site??
Thanks, Chuck. Which ABC user site? Let me take a look first. I may be a member myself. I lose track of these things ...
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Re: Easy Blank Music Staff Paper in ABC

Post by cboody »

Sorry, I misspoke. It is the abc user group I meant. abcusers@yahoogroups.com You may be a member, but I haven't seen anything from you there I don't think.

Chuck
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