About forScore
forScore was designed as a way to take thousands of pages of score with you on the go. By balancing innovative features like half-page turns with a gorgeous interface and the most robust library organization of any music reader, forScore proves that you really can have an app that’s both powerful and beautiful. Thanks to forScore’s ability to download virtually any PDF file directly from the web, it’s not only the best music reader around—it’s also the world’s most comprehensive library of sheet music in just 1.5 pounds.
Metadata
Forget files and folders—forScore uses dynamic library organization to ensure that your menu listings are always up-to-date. Since one file can have many different pieces of information associated with it like composer, genre, rating, difficulty, or keywords, each score can appear in many different lists simultaneously. That way, you can focus on what you want, not where you left it.
Bookmarks
Don’t worry if you’ve got one long PDF file with multiple individual songs within it—with forScore you can create a bookmark for each piece and it’ll appear in your library just like any other file. Think of it as a virtual score that has its own metadata, annotations, links, and notes, and can even be added to a setlist independently of the PDF it comes from. If the master file has a table of contents, you can also import that information as a starting point for creating your bookmarks.
Menus
Spend more time playing and less time scrolling with forScore’s powerful menu system. Just pick a composer, keyword, or genre to browse through the files that match it. Within each category, you can sort your scores by title, date added, rating, and difficulty.
Setlists
When you need something a little more arbitrary, setlists are a great way to group and arrange scores manually. View and play them in their original order or sorted alphabetically, by least-recently played, or on shuffle. Create as many as you like and share them via email or duplicate them as needed.
Searching
Most of forScore’s menus also include a search function, allowing you to quickly narrow down your lists to find a particular piece. You can also use the app’s global search panel to find a score, action, setlist, or category.
Page Peek
If the title of a score doesn’t jog your memory, just tap and hold the menu item and a thumbnail preview will appear. Tap it to open the file, or tap outside the preview pane to dismiss it and keep browsing. In the main score view, you’ll also see previews of each page as you move the seek bar back and forth across the screen, giving you a great and speedy way to flip through and find a particular spot.
Score Features
Versions
Scores in your library can have a lot of information associated with them: metadata, annotations, links, notes, and more. In some cases, you may prefer to work with the same file but with different sets of information depending on the context—keep different versions of a score for different students, or have one for practice and another for performance.
Annotation
When it comes to annotation, forScore’s flexibility is unparalleled. Create and edit an unlimited number of drawing presets, with full control over hue, saturation, brightness, transparency, and size. Add text to your page with adjustable fonts, colors, and sizes, and leave clumsy controls behind: forScore’s text boxes adjust their height automatically as you type. Place common musical notation symbols on the page with our unique stamps feature, and even draw or import your own designs with our built-in stamp creator. With features like pinch zoom, undo/redo support, and snapshots, it’s easy to see why forScore’s annotation support is simply the best in its class.
Half-page Turns
Use the half-turn option to see the top half of the next page while you finish playing the bottom half of the current one. With zero visual interruption and annotation support, it makes page turn pauses a thing of the past.
Links & Rearranging
Handle repeats with style by creating a link between two pages of a score. Tap a link, and you’ll be taken to the target page where a signal will flash twice, showing you exactly where to begin playing. If you don’t have a free hand or you need to make bigger changes to the overall layout of your score, use the Rearrange tool to reorganize, duplicate, or delete pages of a score and then flip through them in order (perfect if you’re using a page turner).
Cropping
PDF files are just about everywhere these days, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to look great on your iPad. Get rid of equally-sized margins by using the adjustment slider in the metadata panel, or resize each page individually using the intuitive crop tool.
Landscape Support
When you turn your iPad sideways, some apps use the extra width to show you menus that you may not always need. With forScore, you get a better view of your score instead: the page expands so that the width fills the longer side of the screen, and the rest of the page extends down beyond the bottom edge. Drag the page up and down as needed, or tap and swipe like you normally would and the software pages up and down automatically.
Other Features
Browser & DropBox
Adding files to your library is easy when you’re at your computer, but it’s just as easy when you’re on the road. Add PDF files from other apps on the iPad (including Mail attachments), download them directly from the web using forScore’s built-in browser, or import and share them using your DropBox account.
Darkroom
Use forScore’s Darkroom to create PDF files from images in your photo library or taken with your camera (iPad 2 only).
Metronome
Keep your focus on your music with forScore’s intuitive metronome. Auto-turn takes care of page turns for you, and the Visual Metronome feature allows you to see, not hear, the timing. It’s the metronome Beethoven never had.
Sharing
Email your scores, share them with other nearby forScore users via Bluetooth, or print them out with AirPrint. For other forScore users, you can send a special 4SC-format file that contains annotations, metadata, links, notes, and more.
Backups
Losing your information can be anywhere from frustrating to devastating. That’s why forScore has a built-in backup function for saving your library information to a file in the app’s documents directory, right alongside your PDFs. That way, when you’re back at home, you can drag the entire contents of that folder to a safe place on your computer.
Video Output
Use Apple’s VGA or HDMI adapters to present your scores on the big screen. If you’re using an iPad 1, you’ll see the current page complete with annotations, and on an iPad 2 everything will be mirrored.