Scanning
You can import scanned files using PrintMusic's built-in SmartScore technology. The SmartScore Lite feature in PrintMusic, like most music scanning products, doesn’t recognize articulation marks, hairpins, double or repeat barlines, or text. It will do 3 accidental types, 3 clefs, 16 staves per page, smallest note value is a 32nd note, and a maximum of 1 augmentation dot. With SmartScore Lite, you can open several scanned files at once. See To Convert Scanned Files with SmartScore Lite.
Because scanning is not a perfect science, you will need to clean up any file after conversion. Depending on the music, some users will find it easier to simply re-enter the music via one of PrintMusic's traditional note entry methods: Simple Entry, Speedy Entry, or HyperScribe.
Remember that to take advantage of any of PrintMusic's scanning capabilities, you will need to have a properly installed scanner (contact the manufacturer of your scanner if you have questions).
A few tips to remember: the better the original, the better the recognition accuracy. Always place the original squarely on the scanner; hand scanners will produce slanted scans. Always use grayscale. You may need to experiment with dpi, although 300 works best in most cases. Higher dpi does not always produce higher accuracy. Increasing contrast (25%) may produce higher accuracy, especially for faded or reduced originals.
The following steps describe how to use PrintMusic to scan and open a single or multiple page document. To acquire sheet music from your scanner:
- Place a page of sheet music on your scanner. To get the best results, start with a clean, high-quality original (not a photocopy) that does not have frayed edges or crooked staves. Lay the music squarely on the bed of your scanner. Do not use scores with more than 16 staves.
- In PrintMusic, choose File > Scanning: SmartScore Lite > Scan and Import. (Or, in the Launch Window, click Scanning). PrintMusic opens the SmartScore Lite 5 dialog box and automatically displays a preview of the sheet music in your scanner. If you do not see a preview, click the Preview button.
- Adjust settings as desired and click Scan.
- Scan one page. PrintMusic asks you if you have more pages to scan. If you do, click Yes and repeat the last two steps. When you have scanned all pages, click No. A message appears noting that your files have been saved to a temporary folder.
- Click OK. The SmartScore Lite dialog box appears.
- Click Add Files to List. The Open dialog box appears where you can choose the file(s) you have just scanned.
- Click Open. Your file(s) appear in the file list. Click a filename to display a preview of that page in the preview window on the right.
- Click Begin Recognition. The Instrument Name Assignments dialog box appears, which allows you to configure instrument transpositions, staff names, and the MIDI instruments. It is important to apply this information to ensure your staves are transposed properly.
- Click OK. PrintMusic transcribes the scanned file(s) and displays the music in a single PrintMusic file. (If you encounter problems, such as a "Recognition Failed" error, see Using your scanner's software to scan sheet music for PrintMusic import below).
- Save the file with a new name.
- Make any desired edits. Because scanning is not a perfect science, you will need to proofread the music and correct for missing notes, ties or dots.
- Convert slurs to ties, where needed. SmartScore will attempt to convert ties based on context but may occasionally guess incorrectly and insert a slur. Although slurs and ties are graphically the same, slurs and ties are different musically. Remove the incorrect slurs with the Smart Shape tools: see To move, reshape, or delete Smart Shape slurs. Add the ties with the Simple Entry or Speedy Entry tool.
- In files with more than one staff, fix the key signatures, if needed. All staves will be set to independent key signatures, which causes the Key Signature tool
to change the key individually for each staff. Make sure you set the proper transposition for any transposing staves if you decide to use this fix.
It is preferable to scan from SmartScore's own scanning interface for several reasons: Auto-resolution, auto-deskew, multi-page/single image file creation, greyscale thresholding, etc. If you are using SmartScore's scanning interface and your scanner does not operate or you get a "Recognition Failed" message, you can bypass SmartScore's scanning interface:
- In SmartScore Lite, choose Select Scanner and choose your scanner.
- Scan in grayscale at a resolution of 300 to 400 dpi (NOT black and white).
- Save each page as a separate uncompressed TIFF file.
- Continue with the To open scanned files with SmartScore Lite steps to import and translate the scanned documents.
Failing this method, open the scanning module associated with your scanner. Scan and save each page as an individual TIFF file according to steps 2 and 3 above.
- Scan one page at 300 dpi (dots per inch), producing a grayscale TIFF file. See your scanner documentation for details. See Using your scanner's software to scan sheet music for PrintMusic import.
- In PrintMusic, choose File > Scanning: SmartScore Lite > Import Existing TIFF file. The SmartScore Lite dialog box appears.
- Click Add Files to List. The Open dialog appears where you can choose the scanned file you want to translate.
- Navigate to your TIFF file and double-click on it. The file name of the file you chose will appear in the file list.
- Repeat the previous two steps to add more files to the list. Or, choose several files at once in the Open dialog box if there are several files you want to convert.
- Click Begin Recognition. The Instrument Name Assignments dialog box appears, which allows you to configure instrument transpositions, staff names, and the MIDI instruments. It is important to apply this information to ensure your staves are transposed properly.
- Click OK. PrintMusic transcribes the scanned file(s) and displays the music in a single PrintMusic file. (If you encounter problems, such as a "Recognition Failed" error, see Using your scanner's software to scan sheet music for PrintMusic import).
- Save the file with a new name.
- Make any desired edits. Because scanning is not a perfect science, you will need to proofread the music and correct for missing notes, ties or dots.
- Convert slurs to ties, where needed. SmartScore will attempt to convert ties based on context but may occasionally guess incorrectly and insert a slur. Although slurs and ties are graphically the same, slurs and ties are different musically. Remove the incorrect slurs with the Smart Shape tools: see To move, reshape, or delete Smart Shape slurs. Add the ties with the Simple Entry or Speedy Entry tool.
- In files with more than one staff, fix the key signatures, if needed. All staves will be set to independent key signatures, which causes the Key Signature tool to change the key individually for each staff. Make sure you set the proper transposition for any transposing staves if you decide to use this fix.
