On Oct 19, 2006, at 7:47 AM, shirling & neueweise wrote:
i'm possibly going to be involved in a project where the choice of
"jazz" fonts or not won't be up to me. i haven't used jazz fonts
at all, and the last time i compared any of them was around 5 years
ago. i remember seeing 3 or 4 designed by someone whose name i
can't remember (les somebody?) that i found quite elegant.
what don't you guys like about Jazz (comes with finale)?
Got an hour or so?
I use Jazz, and I have issues with it. Mostly it has to do with some
glyphs being too stylised, particularly the text fonts, and some
missing glyphs. I have replaced some characters here and there to
make it more legible, but there is still a ways to go. I still use
the edited version of JazzCord that you made for Darcy way back when!
What I like about it is that it is bold and jumps off the page at
you. It is easier to read under low light conditions and at the
smaller size that jobber parts are usually printed at (I try to stay
at least at 85%, but not everyone does!). I have adjusted my line
thicknesses to match (I find the defaults too thin at 85%) and use a
different text font at times to avoid the worst aspects of the
JazzText's illegibility. It also has the kind of special symbols that
jazz musicians are used to reading that are missing from Maestro and
Engraver, and since it looks hand-copied, I sincerely believe that
jazz musicians swing better when reading it. Among some jazz
musicians, engraved-looking music carries an association with school
and getting yelled at for jazz phrasing in concert band, so I think
the look of Engraver makes some musicians stiffen up.
is there a list of available jazz fonts somewhere?
I don't have pages of the same music in different fonts, as you are
looking for, but Rich Sigler is probably the guy you want that
designed several fonts, including Jazz and Swing, which are popular.
http://www.jazzfont.com/
There is also Golden Age (I think that was the first hand-type
music font) that I think is discontinued. It was more tame and
classic-looking than JazzFont, but I found it worked best with wide
spacing. Tight spacing caused problems. Here is an address:
Donald Rice Music Preparation
P.O. Box 110838
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-486-7307
and Sibelius' Inkpen font, but I don't know if it is perfectly
compatible with Finale. I also find it even stubbier and heavier than
Jazz, but you didn't ask for MY opinion.
Bill Duncan's Articulations font addressed most of the missing jazz
symbols that you don't get in Engraver.
Here is a list of fonts, but not just hand fonts. You will have to
sort through a bit.
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/music.html
Good luck with that.
Christopher
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