Importing PDF files? (2024)

drummerMan

• Dec 21, 2021 - 15:44

Just wondering if any progress has been made to import PDF files?

Comments

Jojo-Schmitz

• Dec 21, 2021 - 16:19

Nothing different, still via File > Pdf Import, which goes to https://musescore.com/import, which is running Audiveris

drummerMan

• Dec 21, 2021 - 16:23

In reply to Nothing different, still via… by Jojo-Schmitz

so basically sends the pdf to the Audivereis server? I don't need a plugin correct?

Jojo-Schmitz

• Dec 21, 2021 - 16:29

In reply to so basically sends the pdf… by drummerMan

No plugin needed for this

drummerMan

• Dec 21, 2021 - 16:38

In reply to Nothing different, still via… by Jojo-Schmitz

I take still doesn't work. Always get unsuccessful.

Attachment	Size
Screen Shot 2021-12-21 at 11.38.28 AM.png	304.42 KB

DanielR

• Dec 21, 2021 - 17:18

In reply to I take still doesn't work… by drummerMan

Some users have got better results by installing the latest Audiveris software on their own computer and running it separately. You can then try to "tune" Audiveris by adjusting various recognition parameters.
https://github.com/Audiveris/audiveris

drummerMan

• Dec 21, 2021 - 18:12

In reply to Some users have got better… by DanielR

thankx Daniel I will download and try it out.

bottrop

• Dec 21, 2021 - 21:41

In reply to I take still doesn't work… by drummerMan

if for BBKings Rock me baby, you could download the Midi from the web and open it in Musescore.
regards bottrop

Marc Sabatella

• Dec 21, 2021 - 18:04

And if neither the automated service nor running Audiversis yourself produces results - that would be normal if the original is handwritten or poorly scanned - then you can always try any of the various commercially-available music recognition apps. They all produced MusicXML that MuseScore can then import.

drummerMan

• Dec 21, 2021 - 18:12

In reply to And if neither the automated… by Marc Sabatella

aaah ok thankx Marc

drummerMan

• Dec 23, 2021 - 17:25

Well, long story short, dowloaded open source from github and compiled audiveris for my MacOS.

Being a retired software engineer and familliar with the tools, good news was able to compile successfully. But had to install some other packages to accomplish this. Notably, older version of java (jdk11) and freetype. best to use Brew.

Bad news, importing a .pdf to generate a .xml fails with java exception out of Memory heap. Posted the issue on github. we'll see if i can get this resolved.

The import which sends to the audiversi server definitely doesn't work. keep getting unsuccessful with any pdf.

I will try to export .mscz file to .pdf and try that to see if there's an issue with either webserver or the opensource version.

If anyone trying this, you really need some software development skills to get through it.

Any other suggestions for apps that have been successful i'd like to hear

drummerMan

• Dec 23, 2021 - 19:27

OK so I exported a musescore file to a pdf.

Imported the pdf into audivertis opensource locally and failed. also tried the Audivertis web server again with the pdf and got the unsuccessful message.

So bottom line unless i hear back from gitHub team I'm moving on and look for a different application

DanielR

• Dec 23, 2021 - 19:34

In reply to OK so I exported a musescore… by drummerMan

@drummerman
As regards commercial OMR software I have successfully used:
a) SharpEye: very old-fashioned in look and feel but excellent at note recognition (not so good at lyrics OCR); cannot use PDF file as input (I use TIFF in preference to BMP).
b) PhotoScore: more up-to-date, better UI, can use PDF file as input.

I have also heard good reports of ScanScore, but I have not yet used it.

drummerMan

• Dec 23, 2021 - 21:19

In reply to @drummermanAs regards… by DanielR

well that's a start buddy. I really don't care about look and feel as long as it works. I'll check them out.

Interesting SharpEye actually scans and reads the TIFF to produce a .mscz file.. Impressive.

thankx Daniel

DanielR

• Dec 23, 2021 - 23:05

In reply to well that's a start buddy. … by drummerMan

"SharpEye actually scans and reads the TIFF"
I don't want to create a misunderstanding here. So let's be clear: I have never tested SharpEye with a multi-page TIFF file. I always use individual TIFF files, one per page of the original document.

And I find that black-and-white mode works better than greyscale. In GIMP terms, I always convert with Image > Mode > Indexed... > Use black and white (1-bit) palette.

drummerMan

• Dec 24, 2021 - 01:07

In reply to "SharpEye actually scans and… by DanielR

Thankx Daniel, makes sense

Can't find any downloads for the MacOS. And looks like they disable Save on the demo version.

drummerMan

• Dec 28, 2021 - 15:32

In reply to "SharpEye actually scans and… by DanielR

Still issues with audivertis on both platforms.

MacOS too many issues. Windows binary worked exporting xml sheet 1, but failed other sheets.

I submiited bug reports to the github audivertis project for both platforms

Bummer cant get this working 😒

Jm6stringer

• Dec 28, 2021 - 16:46

In reply to Still issues with audivertis… by drummerMan

Earlier you wrote:
Any other suggestions for apps that have been successful i'd like to hear
and
OK so I exported a musescore file to a pdf.

There is a difference in whether the music was exported as a pdf file from a score editor, or whether the pdf was created from an image (e.g., scanned to pdf).

For a music pdf exported from a score editor, see
https://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusicpro.htm
Available for MacOS, and a free trial, too.

drummerMan

• Dec 28, 2021 - 16:58

In reply to Earlier you wrote:Any other… by Jm6stringer

ok i'll check it out.

But, I tried exporting pdf from Musescore also, and tried to import to Audivertis and that failed also. So I'm assuming that MuseScore is considered a score editor?

thankx

Jm6stringer

• Dec 28, 2021 - 17:09

In reply to ok i'll check it out.But, I… by drummerMan

MuseScore is a score editor.

You wrote:
I tried exporting pdf from Musescore also, and tried to import to Audivertis...

Since that pdf was exported from MuseScore (a score editor) it's a good candidate for PDFtoMusic. You can compare its results to Audiveris.

drummerMan

• Dec 28, 2021 - 18:57

In reply to MuseScore is a score editor… by Jm6stringer

oooo now i get it. So I need to find out how the pdfs were generated from the site.

thankx for that info

Jm6stringer

• Dec 28, 2021 - 21:56

In reply to oooo now i get it. So I… by drummerMan

You really don't need to find out how any music pdfs were generated. The conversion results will speak for themselves. Some conversion software work better with one. Some can handle both.
Years ago I used Audiveris - before its current use by MuseScore - and recall scanning printed music (so generating a "picture" of the music). I had fairly decent results with lead sheets.

Anyway (as shown in my post above), you can always "click and scrub" on a pdf score to see whether it is a picture, or whether "scrubbing" reveals those discrete elements as produced by a score writer. Then choose a converter to use.

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 14:00

In reply to You really don't need to… by Jm6stringer

thankx the pdfs are created with Finale. I'll checkout pdftomusicpro

Jm6stringer

• Dec 29, 2021 - 14:49

In reply to thankx the pdfs are created… by drummerMan

If you created the pdfs yourself using Finale, be aware that using Finale and exporting to MusicXML instead of pdf,
would be the way to go.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/file-formats#musicxml

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 14:54

In reply to If you created the pdfs… by Jm6stringer

The pdfs are not created by me. They are downloaded pdfs from a on-line learning drumming site Drumeo. They told me the pdfs are created from Finale.

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 14:39

In reply to You really don't need to… by Jm6stringer

Well that was easy and troubling. Using pdftomusic demo version only converts the first page. Musescore opens up with either the file dumped as text or error msg indicated file is corrupt.

So not sure if it's because has not been fully exported.

I opened a musescore file (.mscz) that was 1 page and exported as a pdf. Opened in pdftomusic and exported to .xml. Musescore did pretty good job of bringing it in.

So bottom line is that is it possible that pdftomusic creating only one page of multipage is not a valid .xml file for Musescore?

Jojo-Schmitz

• Dec 29, 2021 - 14:47

In reply to Well that was easy and… by drummerMan

In its trial version, that can be downloaded for free on our site, PDFtoMusic can only play the first page of a PDF document, and export only one page at a time.

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 15:03

In reply to In its trial version, that… by Jojo-Schmitz

jojo where is it located? thankx

Jojo-Schmitz

• Dec 29, 2021 - 15:19

In reply to jojo where is it located? … by drummerMan

I googled it

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 15:34

In reply to I googled it by Jojo-Schmitz

yes but there's mention of it but no reference to where it is located on the site. thankjx

Jm6stringer

• Dec 29, 2021 - 15:46

In reply to yes but there's mention of… by drummerMan

@drummerMan...
You said you have the trial version and could only convert one page.
Then...
Jojo quoted from the pdftomusic site:
https://myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusic.htm
look under "Purchase".

drummerMan

• Dec 29, 2021 - 16:41

In reply to @drummerMan...You said you… by Jm6stringer

oooo sorry jojo when it said this site, thought was referring to musescore LOL. Yes i have thr free download thankx and sorry for my confusion

Jm6stringer

• Dec 29, 2021 - 15:31

Other considerations...

I don't know how savvy most OMR's (optical music recognition) are when it comes to drum notation, which "looks" different from standard musical notation for other instruments. Related to this is Tablature (e.g., for guitar) which can also be problematic depending on the OMR's ability.

Also, for actual lyrics "recognition", see:
https://musescore.org/en/node/18638#comment-79851

drummerMan

• Jan 4, 2022 - 15:06

In reply to Other considerations...I… by Jm6stringer

Thought I share my experience dealing with Myriad - pdfToMusic app.

Downloaded the macOs trial version. Although exported to xml, Musescore didn't read the file correctly. Got a measure followed by numerous empty measures, another measure followed but empty measures, etc... see attached files 4-6.

Then I tried the Windows trial version. but, they purposely disabled exporting xml. Why? They said because that's why it;s a trial version.. unreal baloney...

So I was able to get a forum response from i guess the admin to read the pdf file and export to xml. He shared the xml file with me to test. Musescore opened the file, and got an error message indicated the file was corrupt. I disregarded the message anyway to see if it could still be read. It sure did, but not very readable. see attached files 1-3

So bottom line although xml is a standard, is it possible Musescore is not interpreting the xml file correctly or is it Myriad not abiding to xml?

Musescore is running on my Imacs and powerbook all up to date MacOS.

Attachment	Size
B.B. King - Eyesight To The Blind.pdf	457.12 KB
B.B._King_-_Eyesight_To_The_Blind.xml	1.78 MB
Musescore - mryiad Windows trial.png	595.89 KB
Myriad - macos - GUI of pdf.png	914.62 KB
Musescore - macos Myriad of xml.png	328.93 KB
B.B. King - Eyesight To The Blind.xml	524.02 KB

drummerMan

• Jan 4, 2022 - 15:25

In reply to Thought I share my… by drummerMan

I also tried a saving a .mscx file to pdf, opening in Myriad and exporting to xml. Musescore also had issues.
Couldn't open the xml file and terminated. see musescore .mscx, pdf, and converted .xml from Myriad

Attachment	Size
Solo - Swing Independance.mscz	27.63 KB
Solo - Swing Independance.pdf	82.68 KB
Solo - Swing Independance.xml	136.64 KB

Marc Sabatella

• Jan 4, 2022 - 15:30

In reply to Thought I share my… by drummerMan

The corruption messages mean that the scanning software wasn't able to correctly understand the notated rhythms and put too many or too few beats in a measure. You'd need to fix those as described in https://musescore.org/en/node/54721

It's pretty normal than these programs will not be able to sort everything out correctly, and it will take considerable effort to fix. I thought I posted a response here quite a while ago, but apparently I didn't. What I meant to post went something like this:

If you're interested in checking out what's possible as an intellectual exercise, go ahead, it can definitely be interesting.

But if the goal is to actually get music into MuseScore, it's usually much simpler to just enter it normally. AI technology just hasn't progressed to the point where computer programs can do a reliable job of turning pictures of scores into actual scores. Some do better than others, but normally a ton of work is required to fix the errors and corruptions, and that work is usually far more difficult and requires far more program expertise than simply entering the notes normally.

drummerMan

• Jan 4, 2022 - 15:39

In reply to The corruption messages mean… by Marc Sabatella

ok Marc thankx. I'll check it out. I was hoping to circumvent time adding to musescore myself by using a tool. But, although I"m retired, and don't mind inputting, definitely time consuming since I have done alot of this in the past.

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