Musica Viva: The Free Sheet Music Directory : Help

The Free Sheet Music Directory

Index to this page:

File formats

There are a lot of file formats used for sheet music. Here are descriptions of a some of the most common

is a "graphics" format, that is it's used for pictures etc. Most the graphics you see on Internet are in this format. You don't need to do anything special to view GIF files. Your web browser takes care of everything. Advantages are:

Compact files
Viewable online
Doesn't require any special programs. Most any browser can read these files.

Disadvantages:

Screen resolution only. Printouts gets a bit jagged.

JPEG (JPG)

The other standard web standard graphics format. JPEG is not really made for this kind of work, it's more suitable for color photos etc. Still, it can be read by most any browser.

PNG

Due to copyright-problems, the GIF format has lost some of it's popularity recently. The PNG format is supposed to be a replacement. Most users will never notice the difference between GIF and PNG.

ABC

A system for writing music as standard text. There are a couple of free programs that converts ABC to printable music, but since ABC was invented by computer engineers that assumes everybody knows computer programming, it's not nearly as easy to use as it ought to be. Advantages are:

Extremely compact files
Files can be converted into midi-format

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online. That is: the file format itself is so simple you can read the coding directly, but to get it as standard notation, you'll have to download it and then use a special program.
Still unpractical for complex music
Requires special programware. Free ABC programs are available all over the web for all kinds of computers.

PDF

PDF means "portable document format". It's also known as "Acrobat" format. This is a format for text-/graphics documents read- and printable with any computer. You need a (free) program called Adobe Acrobat Reader for these documents. Most computers today comes with Acrobat Reader installed, but if you have an older computer, you might have to go to http://www.adobe.com to get it. Once you have the program installed, you don't have to worry about it. Your web browser will automatically start Acrobat Reader whenever it needs to. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online.
Requires a special program. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is free, though, so maybe that doesn't matter much.

PS (Postscript)

The format used by expensive printers. You can use a program called Ghostscript to view the files, but this isn't really as easy as it should be. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online.
Requires special programware
Large files
The format was never really meant for anything but temporary files for printers

EPS (Encapsulated postscript)

A more pracitcal variation of the Postscript format. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online.
Requires special programware
Large files

ETF

ETF was supposed to be a "standard format", readable by any music notation program. Unfortunately the program manufacturers are never very interested in such standard formats that makes documents created by their program readable by their competitors' programs, So ETF never really caught on. You can use the free program Finale NotePad to read ETF files (Macintosh and Windows only).

MUS (Finale)

Finale is still the most common professional music notation program. Occasionally you find files in Finale-format on the web. Finale NotePad is a free, scaled down version of Finale. You can get it at http://www.codamusic.com. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Large files
Not viewable online
Not very common
Requires special programware that is only available for Windows and Macintosh computers
Hardly any standard at all. Different versions of Finale use different file formats

SIB (Sibelius)

SIB is a format developed by the notation program manufacturer Sibelius. You need Scorch, a (free) plug-in (a plug-in is a small addition to a program) for your web browser for these files. Unfortunately Sibelius never understood the very essence of Internet: that Internet is supposed to be open or *all* kinds of computers. So SIB only works for two of the many types of computers. So it's great for those who happen to have a Windows or Macintosh computer, but it shouldn't have been on the web at all, really. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts
Both viewable and playable online

Disadvantages:

Large files
You need Sibelius to create the files
The Scorch plug-in is only available for Windows and Macintosh computers

Finale Viewer

The Finale Viewer format is Finale's reply to the SIB format. There's not much difference between the two, but at least the Finale Viewer files are smaller and faster loading. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts
Both viewable and playable online

Disadvantages:

You need Finale to create the files
The Finale Viewer plug-in is only available for Windows and Macintosh computers

MUS (Score)

Score used to be Finale's main rival as a professional notation program. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online
Not very common
Requires special programware that is only available for Windows computers

NWC (Noteworthy Composer)

The midlevel notation program Noteworthy Composer has many devoted followers. There is a free plug-in for the file format, but since it only works for Windows, NWC can not be considered a Internet format. Advantages are:

High resolution printouts

Disadvantages:

Strictly for Windows computers

MID (Midi)

The midi format is not a music notation format at all. It's for *playable*, not readable music. There are lots of programs that can convert midi to more or less readable music, but none of them are very good. I will not include midi sites in this directory, but if a site includes midis in addition to sheet music, I'll mention it. Advantages are:

There are millions of midi files available everywhere.

Disadvantages:

Not viewable online
The results are not very good. At best you'll get an outline of the music with no dynamics, no articulation marks etc. At worst you just get an unreadable mess.

KAR (Karaoke)

The KAR format is simply midi with lyrics added.

Load time and browser compatibility

My other site is a homepage tutorial, so I'm of course concerned about the design of the sites, not just their content.

In my opinion people have a right to know if they'll have to wait for a year for a site to load, or if it might cause their computer to crash.

Some of the sites are marked Crash-warning for older browsers. This means that the site contains coding that older versions of browsers might choke on. It could be JavaApplets, too much graphics or something else. If you use an older browser (version 3.0 or earlier of Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer), you should be very careful about visiting these sites. They might cause your computer to crash or to freeze.
There is no need to worry about this if your browser is new (version 4.0 or newer).

If you're a webmasters and if you are interested in getting visitors among the 10% of the web-population who doesn't want to or can't afford to buy a new computer every other year, here are some very sound advices:

Don't use audiofiles, midifiles, avi-files, mov-files or anything like that that starts up automatically!
Don't use Java Applets without giving due warning!
Don't use JavaScript for essential functions!
Keep away from banner exchanges, counters etc. made by people without basic knowledge of HTML. (Music HyperBanner is a good example of this.)
Try to keep the total amount of content on each page (including graphics etc.) below 200 KB. Never go beyond 1 MB! (This is important for those with new browsers as well. You don't want people to fall asleep while their waiting for your page to load, do you?)
Try my collection of free webmaster's tools, especially the browser compatibility and web site checkers!