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Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?

30 Jan 16 - 09:20 AM (#3769327)
Subject: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST,Joseph Moran

I want to make pdf files of some of my guitar arrangements, in such a way that I could send them via email.
Where do I start?


30 Jan 16 - 11:24 AM (#3769372)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Will Fly

I would acquire a program that allows you to create tablature (and music and chords, if need be), and then save them as PDFs.

I use a French program called Harmony Assistant - a sort of junior Sibelius - but there are many others out there.


30 Jan 16 - 01:40 PM (#3769407)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST

What form are they in at the moment?

Written? In which case a scanner would probably be ok

Plus (and Will is great at this) a video is a hugely useful thing.

I learn from watching people's fingers and how they play something much quicker than tab or dots. Tab and dots are useful to fill in the bits that I can't get.


30 Jan 16 - 01:50 PM (#3769412)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST,Joseph Moran

Yes, I'll definitely do a video.
Any, tips on that?


30 Jan 16 - 03:27 PM (#3769429)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST

Joseph,

You really need to give people a bit more information.

What hardware and software do you have? As the earlier Guest says, what form are they currently in, and what exactly do you want to finish with?

Just saying that you want .pdf files and a video without further explanation makes decent advice tricky.

Any detail, please?


30 Jan 16 - 04:09 PM (#3769436)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST,Grishka

Have you thought about a notation programme, such as MuseScore (free)? Dots and digits are conventional guitar notation, and MuseScore can do these all right. And of course, it can produce PDF files.


30 Jan 16 - 04:31 PM (#3769444)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Stanron

Yes Musescore is a good choice. If you get version 2+ you can produce guitar tablature. You can then save it as a .pdf file. It was originally a notation editor and I first produce notation and then get the tablature from that. It should be possible to write straight to tablature but you will have to learn the software. There is a very good online manual.


31 Jan 16 - 08:01 AM (#3769577)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: GUEST,Joseph Moran

Basically, I intend to do a Youtube video based upon guitar arrangements of trad tunes.
The approach to playing these tunes needs a bit of explanation, and so I want to back up the video with a written explanation and tabs.
Presently, I just have the explanation written out on a word-processor, and hand-written tabs.


31 Jan 16 - 08:03 AM (#3769579)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Jack Campin

There's a lot of tab out there done on a typewriter.

Won't any text editor do it with a fixed-width font?


31 Jan 16 - 10:01 AM (#3769618)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Mooh

http://www.finalemusic.com/blog/creating-pdf-files-from-finale-scores/

I like Finale a lot.

Peace, Mooh.


31 Jan 16 - 10:08 AM (#3769620)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Stilly River Sage

If you are using a word processor you may be able to simply "save as PDF" when you save the file. If you don't see "save as," you might also want to try selecting "Print," then in the options of sending to a printer or other form of software, it may also let you choose "Print to Adobe PDF" or another software that has a PDF printer (in looking at my printer choices I see Quicken also has one).

If you don't have this functionality in your word processor you may need to download a PDF maker. I haven't used Adobe Reader for a long time, but I'd start with Adobe and see if having that in your system allows you to save as PDF. (I can't test Reader for you because I have the full Adobe Acrobat software, and if I load Reader, it messes up my settings.)


31 Jan 16 - 10:12 AM (#3769621)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Stanron



This was written in a text editor.
A lot easier than learning new software but it must be saved with
Unicode encoding and not Ansi or it will all revert to dashes.


Constant Billy (session Key) (South UK Morris tune)

A part

E╓───╥─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────╖R
B╟───╫─────3───────┼─1───────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢E
G╟───╫─0─────4h2p0─┼─────2─────2─┼─4p2─0───────┼───────0─────╢P
D╟─0─╫─────────────┼───────4h5───┼─0─────2h4─2─┼─0h2─4─────0─╢E
A╟───╫───────2─────┼─3─────0─────┼───────3─────┼─────────────╢A
E╙───╨─3───────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─2─────3─────╜T

. + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + +

B part

╓───────0───0─┬─────────────┬───────0h2─0─┬───────────2─┐
╟─0h1─3───────┼───────3───3─┼─0h1─3───────┼───────3h5───┤
╟───────────0─┼─2h4─5───────┼───────────0─┼─2h4─5─────2─┤
╟─────────────┼─────0─────0─┼─────────────┼─────2─0─────┤
╟─────2─3─────┼───────2─────┼─────2─3─────┼─0───────────┤
╙─3───────────┴─2───────────┴─3───────────┴─────────────┘

.1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + +


┌─3───────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────╖
├─────3───────┼─1───────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢
├───────4h2─0─┼─────2─────2─┼─4p2─0───────┼───────0─────╢
├─────────────┼───────4h5───┼───────2h4─2─┼─0h2─4─────0─╢
├───────2─────┼─3─────0─────┼───────3─────┼─────────────╢
└─3───────────┴─────────────┴─3───────────┴─2─────3─────╜

.1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + +


31 Jan 16 - 01:40 PM (#3769674)
Subject: RE: Creating pdfs of Guitar tab?
From: Tattie Bogle

I just orint a copy of anything I've written in Finale, then scan it to pdf: Ok, 2 stages, but works for me. My old Dell all-in-one didn't do pdfs, just joegs, but most modern ones do.