This page contains information about SMuFL-compliant music fonts.
Bravura
The first SMuFL-compliant music font family is Bravura, designed by Daniel Spreadbury at Steinberg for Dorico, its next-generation music notation application.
Bravura draws on the heritage of the finest European music engraving of the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a bolder and more substantial look than most other music fonts: thin strokes are slightly thicker than in other fonts, improving the overall “blackness” of the font and its legibility when read at a distance.
Bravura is currently at version 1.482, which implements SMuFL 1.4.
The Bravura font family consists of two fonts: Bravura, which is intended for use in scoring applications; and Bravura Text, which is intended for use in text-based applications.
The Bravura font family is available as an OpenType font with PostScript outlines, in SVG font format and in Web Open Font Format (WOFF), implementing all of the glyphs in SMuFL version 1.4, and also implementing all of the glyphs in the Unicode Musical Symbols range (U+1D100–U+1D1DD), of which SMuFL is a superset.
The Bravura font family is made available under the SIL Open Font License, which means that the fonts are free to download, use, embed, redistribute with other software (including commercial software) or to create derivative versions. The only restrictions on its use are that they cannot be sold on their own, any derivative versions cannot use the reserved font name “Bravura”, and any derivative versions must likewise also be licensed under the SIL Open Font License. For more information about the SIL Open Font License, read the answers to these Frequently Asked Questions.
If you make any improvements or additions to Bravura, you are invited to submit those improvements via GitHub for consideration for inclusion in the font. Please consider allowing others in the community to benefit from any improvements you make by allowing Steinberg to improve the core font, rather than choosing to create a derivative font.
November 2.0
The first commercial SMuFL-compliant font is November 2.0, by composer, pianist, software developer and font designer Robert Piéchaud, is available for sale from Klemm Music.
November was one of the first digital music typefaces to mimic the slightly weathered look of traditional music engraving, with its slightly rounded terminals producing a warmer image through its carefully reproduced imperfections, just as the metal punches used in engraving would wear away slightly after years of repeated use. November 2.0 adds hundreds of new symbols, and is now fully SMuFL-compliant.
November 2.0 is available as an OpenType font with PostScript outlines. Note that November 2.0 is sold under a commercial license, with options for single users and multi-user organisations (such as schools). The font may not be freely redistributed, or used to create derivative versions without the express permission of the designer and copyright holder.
More informationPetaluma
Petaluma is a font family with a handwritten appearance, in the style of the hand copyists for Sher Publishing’s Real Book series, Ernie Mansfield and Ann Krinitsky. The font family consists of three fonts: Petaluma itself, a SMuFL-compliant music font with around 1350 glyphs; Petaluma Text, a version of Petaluma designed for mixing with regular text fonts in contexts like dynamics, metronome marks, and so on; and Petaluma Script, a regular alphanumeric script font.
Like Bravura, the Petaluma font family is made available under the SIL Open Font License, which means that the fonts are free to download, use, embed, redistribute with other software (including commercial software) or to create derivative versions. The only restrictions on its use are that they cannot be sold on their own, any derivative versions cannot use the reserved font name “Bravura”, and any derivative versions must likewise also be licensed under the SIL Open Font License. For more information about the SIL Open Font License, read the answers to these Frequently Asked Questions.
Petaluma is included with Dorico Pro and Dorico Elements: to obtain a copy, download the trial version.
Leland
Leland is a font family modeled after the appearance of the symbols produced by the venerable SCORE music publishing application, and named after its creator, Leland Smith, who sadly passed away in 2013. The font was designed by Martin Keary and Simon Smith, and is made available under the SIL Open Font License.
Leland is the default music font in MuseScore 3.6 and later: to obtain a copy, either download and install MuseScore, or visit the font’s GitHub page.
Sebastian
Sebastian is a font family released under the SIL Open Font License that not only provides the font software itself but also the source files in Unified Font Object (UFO) format. Developed by Florian Kretlow and expanded upon by Ben Byram-Wigfield, it provides more than 1200 glyphs.
To obtain a copy of Sebastian, visit the font’s GitHub page.
Eugene
Eugene is a free music font developed and maintained by Mikko Patama, inspired by the hand-engraved scores of Parisian publishers in the early 20th century. It is named after Eugène Fromont, the house that first published Debussy’s Suite bergamasque. Glyphs not yet drawn in Eugene fall back to Bravura. A Sibelius-compatible version is available separately under the name Poinçon.
Eugene is a SMuFL-compliant OpenType font, compatible with Dorico, MuseScore and any other application that supports SMuFL fonts, and is released under the SIL Open Font License.
To obtain a copy, visit the Eugene web site or the font’s GitHub page.
Finale font families
With the release of the SMuFL-compliant Finale v27, MakeMusic made the following SMuFL fonts available:
- Finale Ash - A SMuFL version of the legendary and long-unavailable AshMusic handwritten font.
- Finale Maestro - The SMuFL version of Finale’s Maestro font family, expanded to over 2,700 glyphs
- Finale Broadway - The SMuFL version of Finale’s Broadway Copyist font family
- Finale Engraver - The SMuFL version of Finale’s Engraver font family
- Finale Jazz - The SMuFL version of Finale’s Jazz font family
- Finale Legacy - The SMuFL version of Finale’s Petrucci and Tamburo fonts
All fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font license. The fonts can be downloaded from MakeMusic’s web site here.
Norfonts
Norfonts, from font designer Nor Eddine Bahha, offers a range of commercial SMuFL fonts, sold through Notation Central, at the time of writing including the families:
- Groove, a handwritten music font
- Rhapsody, a Broadway-style handwritten music font
- The Copyist, a handwritten music font in the style of Bert Kosow
- BopMusic, a handwritten music font
- Concerto, an engraved music font
- CapoScore, an engraved music font
- Da Capo, an engraved music font
- Graphira, an engraved music font
- Mezza, an engraved music font
- Mezzo, an engraved music font
- RealScore, a handwritten music font
- Scordatura, an engraved music font
- Scherzo, an engraved music font
- Soli, an engraved music font
- Tutti, an engraved music font, the heavier sister font to Soli
- BlueNotes, a handwritten music font
- The Arranger, a handwritten music font in the Broadway style associated with Bert Kosow’s copyist style
- Vintage BH, an engraved music font inspired by vintage Henle and Peters editions
- Vintage Plate, an engraved music font inspired by vintage Henle and Peters editions
LS Iris
LS Iris is a distinctive handwritten music font with calligraphic roots, originally created by Luís Salgueiro in 2021. It features a bold stroke with little modulation, round terminals and connections that simulate the natural pooling of ink on paper, and an almost complete absence of straight lines, while remaining legible in complex passages and at larger point sizes.
Having disappeared when its original publisher closed, LS Iris has been revived and expanded, and is now sold commercially through Notation Central. One purchase includes four SMuFL music fonts — LS Iris Classic and LS Iris Modern, each with a heavier “Fat” variant — together with matching versions of the Caveat text font for use in text-based applications. LS Iris works in Dorico, MuseScore 4.6 and later, Finale v27 and later, and any other application that supports the SMuFL standard.
More informationMusic Type Foundry
The Music Type Foundry fonts began as designs by Abraham Lee, with early revisions by Dan Kreider, and have since been expanded by Nor Eddine Bahha. They are inspired by hand-engraved scores, and are sold commercially and exclusively through Notation Central. Each font is fully SMuFL-compliant, works on both Mac and Windows, and comes paired with a complementary text font and automatic engraving settings for Dorico. At the time of writing the range includes:
- MTF-Arnold, an engraved music font inspired by music plate engraving from the late 19th to the mid 20th century
- MTF-Beethoven, an engraved music font resembling scores engraved by G. Henle Verlag in the 1950s
- MTF-Cadence, an engraved music font that aims to restore some of the subtleties of hand-engraved scores
- MTF-Gutenberg 1939, an engraved music font designed to mimic an old movable typeset
- MTF-Haydn, an engraved music font inspired by the look of an Edition Peters score
- MTF-Improviso, a handwritten music font in the style of traditional hand copyists, with uniform strokes
- MTF-Ross, an engraved music font derived from specimens in Ted Ross’s The Art of Music Engraving and Processing
- MTF-Scorlatti, an engraved music font reviving the symbols of the SCORE music publishing application
Leipzig
Leipzig is a font developed by Laurent Pugin and is the default font used by Verovio, an open source library for the rendering and manipulation of music in the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) format. The font is made available under the SIL Open Font License.
To obtain a copy, visit the Verovio GitHub page.