MusiQwik and MusiSync are original True Type fonts that depict musical notation. Each music font may be used within a word processing document without the need for special music publishing software, or embedded in PDF files. These fonts work with Windows, Mac OSX (not 9 or earlier), and some Linux. Font names were chosen by me, the creator. Resemblance to any company, product, or other font is coincidental.
NEW: MusiQwik and MusiSync have been upgraded to version 5.002, on 13-Jan-2008. Existing users should get the new version. It has been re-coded to work better with recent operating systems. The package also includes the pre-5 legacy version, for those of you still living in the 20th century.
MusiQwik and MusiSync are offered under the Open Font License 1.1. They are copyrighted, but free in the sense that you can use these fonts without charge. If in doubt, read the license, included in the download package.
If all you wish to do is place the occasional symbol ♪ or ♫ in a document or web page, then you don't need these fonts. Scroll to the bottom of this page for more info.
Here's an example of MusiQwik in use. If your system does not have MusiQwik installed then the following line will be unintelligible plain text:
'&=4Y=!==Y==Y==F=G=X=!=I=H=W===V==:==.
However, if you have MusiQwik installed, the above line will look like this image:
In your browser, the lines look a bit irregular, since the characters are quantized to the monitor. When printed, however, they can be as smooth as any other typeface.
The above sample is part of a hymn by Bach. As you see, MusiQwik is intended for writing a line of actual music. It cannot do everything, but it is probably adequate for writing out the melody to a song. If what you need is a collection of general musical decorations, then try MusiSync. Without the font installed, you see plain text here:
M n h ä é Ê Q W ? $ I ¶ w ú
However, if you have MusiSync installed, the above line will look like this image:
Both fonts, with instructions, are here:
First, enable JavaScript
MusiQwik and MusiSync are intended for word processors (even Notepad will work), but not for web pages. Some of the characters are interpreted differently by different browsers, even the new "standards compliant" ones. Besides, most visitors to a web page will not have the fonts installed.
If you really need to write musical notation, and maybe hear what you wrote, then you would be better off with a music notation program. They come in various price ranges. Among the less-expensive are Noteworthy Composer or Melody Assistant.
Elsewhere: Matthew Hindson has a bunch of excellent music notation fonts. There are some nice music-themed (and other) fonts at Pearlygates. The Bach Musicological Font is an alternative (in some cases, a better alternative) to my own music fonts; it is shareware, but beginning in late 2004 its creator made it available without charge to some users. If you need special symbols used in modern music, Christian Texier has them (site is in French). The Euterpe Font includes Unicode musical symbols.
Many commercial music notation fonts come as part of a program package. Such fonts are licensed only for users of the particular program. Gerd Castan describes and links to a variety of musical notation fonts, whether commercial or more freely available.
Using standard fonts: Symbols ♪ and ♫ are within standard fonts that come with nearly all modern Unicode-compliant systems. If you see notes there, your system works. The trick is to find the symbols.
For a web page, use the HTML Entities ♪ and ♫ for those symbols. Fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman will work, but you cannot use any old font: for example Verdana only has the first of these symbols, and the original Times may not have them. So be sure to specify the exact font name. You will probably also wish to increase the font size. A rare visitor, using an older or exotic system, will not see the notes.
In a word processor, the two symbols can be accessed via your system's character map program (in Windows, it's in the Accessories menu, possibly System Tools submenu). The characters can be found among several other decorations, way down the Unicode list (past the math symbols, but above the Arabic). Just remember that they do not appear in every font.
Fonts designed by Robert Allgeyer