Comparison of scorewriters

This is a comparison of music notation programs.

General information
Name Guitar tablature WYSIWYG editor MIDI entry[lower-alpha 1] Playback File formats Developer(s) Stable release; review date License Cost Operating systems
Import Export
Canorus No Yes MIDI CanorusML,[lower-alpha 2] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] simple LilyPond[lower-alpha 5] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] PDF Reinhard Katzmann, Matevž Jekovec, Georg Rudolph 0.7.3; 18 June 2018 (2018-06-18) Since 0.7.3: GPL-3.0-only
0.1.0 to 0.7.2: GPL-2.0-only		 No cost Linux
Capella Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST, SoundFonts Capella,[lower-alpha 6] CapXML,[lower-alpha 7] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, Truevision TGA, PCX, HTML Capella Software AG 9.0-11; 19 September 2023 (2023-09-19) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Denemo Yes Yes Step-time MIDI Denemo,[lower-alpha 8] limited LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] MusicXML[lower-alpha 3] LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] MusicXML, WAV, Ogg, PDF, PNG, MIDI Jeremiah Benham, Richard Shann 2.6.0; 11 March 2022 (2022-03-11) GPL-3.0-or-later No cost Windows, macOS, Linux
Dorico Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST Dorico,[lower-alpha 9] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] WAV, MP3, PDF, PNG, TIFF, SVG Steinberg 5.0; 24 May 2023 (2023-05-24) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Early Notation Typesetter No Yes No No ENT[lower-alpha 10] ENT,[lower-alpha 10] PDF Samuel Gossner, Daniel West, Dieter Theuns 0.9.6; 20 October 2020 (2020-10-20) Proprietary No charge for single font Windows, macOS, Linux
Encore Yes Yes MIDI Encore,[lower-alpha 11] MusicTime,[lower-alpha 12] Rhapsody,[lower-alpha 13] Compressed MusicXML[lower-alpha 14] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Cakewalk MIDI,[lower-alpha 15] Master Tracks Pro,[lower-alpha 16] PDF Passport Music Software 5.0.4 (Windows); 5.0.7 (macOS); 2015 (2015) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Finale Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST, AU,[lower-alpha 17] Garritan library Finale,[lower-alpha 18] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] WAV, MP3, AIFF, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, EPS, BMP, GIF, PICT[lower-alpha 17] MakeMusic 27.3; 30 November 2022 (2022-11-30) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Forte Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST Forte,[lower-alpha 19] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] CapXML[lower-alpha 7] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] BMP, JPEG Lugert Verlag GmbH 12; 2020 (2020) Proprietary Non-free Windows
Frescobaldi No WYSIWYM MIDI LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] ABC MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] PDF Wilbert Berendsen 3.3.0; 26 March 2023 (2023-03-26) GPL-2.0-or-later No cost Windows, macOS, Linux
Guitar Pro Yes Yes MIDI, RSE Guitar Pro (versions 1–7),[lower-alpha 20] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ASCII tab,[lower-alpha 21] Power Tab,[lower-alpha 22] TablEdit[lower-alpha 23] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ASCII tab,[lower-alpha 21] PNG, PDF, WAV Arobas Music 8.1; 27 March 2023 (2023-03-27) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS, Linux
Impro-Visor No Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI Impro-Visor[lower-alpha 24] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] PDF Bob Keller 10.2; 1 August 2019 (2019-08-01) GPL-2.0-or-later No cost Windows, macOS, Linux
LilyPond Yes No No MIDI LilyPond;[lower-alpha 5] using converters: ABC,[lower-alpha 25] ETF,[lower-alpha 26] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] MusicXML[lower-alpha 3] PDF, PNG, PS, SVG Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen 2.24.2; 12 August 2023 (2023-08-12) GPL-3.0-or-later No cost Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD
MagicScore Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, SoundFonts SFD,[lower-alpha 27] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke,[lower-alpha 28] WAV, MP3 MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke,[lower-alpha 28] WAV, MP3, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, EMF, WMF Maestro Music Software 8.280; 2017 (2017) Proprietary Non-free Windows
Mozart Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI Mozart,[lower-alpha 29] MusicXML[lower-alpha 3] NIFF[lower-alpha 30] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke[lower-alpha 28] ABC[lower-alpha 25] MusicXML[lower-alpha 3] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] ABC,[lower-alpha 25] BMP, EMF, GIF, JPEG, PBM, PNG, TIFF Mozart Music Software 16.1.0; October 2023 (2023-10) Proprietary Non-free Windows
Mus2 No Yes MIDI Mus2[lower-alpha 31] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] AIFF, WAV, PDF, SVG, BMP, JPEG, PNG, Utku Uzmen (Data-Soft Ltd.) 3.2.3; November 2022 (2022-11) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
MuseScore Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, SoundFonts, SFZ MuseScore,[lower-alpha 32] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke,[lower-alpha 28] MuseData,[lower-alpha 33] Bagpipe Music Writer,[lower-alpha 34] Band-in-a-Box,[lower-alpha 35] Overture,[lower-alpha 36] Capella,[lower-alpha 6] CapXML,[lower-alpha 7] Guitar Pro (versions 1–6),[lower-alpha 20] Power Tab (experimental),[lower-alpha 22] PDF (experimental), ABC[lower-alpha 25] (with plugin) MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] PDF, PNG, SVG, MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] WAV, FLAC, Ogg, MP3 The MuseScore developer community 4.1.1; 26 July 2023 (2023-07-26) GPL-3.0-only for desktop tools; online and mobile tools are proprietary and freemium No cost for most tools Windows, macOS, Linux
MusiCAD No Yes MIDI MusiCAD,[lower-alpha 37] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ABC[lower-alpha 25] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ABC,[lower-alpha 25] PDF, JPEG, PNG, BMP Musys Software 4.0; 1 May 2015 (2015-05-01) Proprietary Prompt to purchase license appears when saving[2] Windows
MusicEase Yes Yes MIDI MusicEase,[lower-alpha 38] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ABC,[lower-alpha 25] SongWright[lower-alpha 39] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] PDF MusicEase Software 10.1; 2023 (2023) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Musink No WYSIWYM MIDI Musink[lower-alpha 40] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] PDF, PNG, XPS Lee Reid 1.3.0.1 Proprietary No cost Windows
MusiXTeX Yes No No No TeX (incl. PMX and M-Tx),[lower-alpha 41] MusicXML[lower-alpha 3] (with converters) DVI,[lower-alpha 42] PS, PDF, MIDI[lower-alpha 4] (for PMX input) Daniel Taupin, Ross Mitchell, Andreas Egler 1.37; 7 October 2023 (2023-10-07) GPL-2.0-or-later No cost Windows, macOS, Linux
Notation Composer No Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, SoundFonts Notation,[lower-alpha 43] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke[lower-alpha 28] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] PDF, MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke,[lower-alpha 28] PNG, BMP, JPEG, GIF, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, MP3 Notation Software 4.0.3; 2022 (2022) Proprietary Non-free Windows
NoteWorthy Composer Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI NWC,[lower-alpha 44] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Karaoke[lower-alpha 28] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] NoteWorthy Software 2.75a.2; 2017 (2017) Proprietary Non-free Windows
Notion Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] Compressed MusicXML,[lower-alpha 14] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Guitar Pro[lower-alpha 20] (versions 4–5) MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] WAV PreSonus 6.8.2; 24 August 2021 (2021-08-24) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS, iOS (iPad)
Overture Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST, AU[lower-alpha 17] Overture,[lower-alpha 36] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Score Writer,[lower-alpha 45] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] WAV, MP3 Sonic Scores 5.6.1.1; 2 December 2019 (2019-12-02) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
Philip's Music Writer Yes No No MIDI PMW[lower-alpha 46] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] PS Philip Hazel 5.21; 15 July 2023 (2023-07-15) GPL-2.0-or-later No cost Linux (older versions for RISC OS)
Power Tab Editor Yes Yes MIDI Power Tab,[lower-alpha 22] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] ASCII tab,[lower-alpha 21] BMP, HTML Brad Larsen 1.0.0.175; 26 August 2006 (2006-08-26) Proprietary No cost Windows
Rosegarden No Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI Rosegarden,[lower-alpha 47] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Hydrogen[lower-alpha 48] LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Csound,[lower-alpha 49] Mup,[lower-alpha 50] PDF Chris Cannam, Richard Bown, Guillaume Laurent 23.06; 7 June 2023 (2023-06-07) GPL-2.0-or-later No cost Linux
SCORE Yes No Step-time MIDI SCORE (.mus) EPS Leland Smith,
San Andreas Press		 5.01; 1 November 2013 (2013-11-01) Proprietary Non-free MS-DOS
Windows
ScoreCloud Studio No Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] live audio MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] WAV, PDF Doremir Music Research AB 4.7.9; 2023 (2023) Proprietary Free without file saving Windows, macOS, iOS
Sibelius Yes Yes Step-time and real-time MIDI, VST, AU,[lower-alpha 17] Avid library Sibelius,[lower-alpha 51] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI[lower-alpha 4] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] MP3, PDF, SVG, EPS, PNG, Avid Technology Inc. 2023.8; 31 August 2023 (2023-08-31) Proprietary No cost up to 4 staves[3] Windows, macOS, RISC OS
SmartScore 64 Yes Yes MIDI SmartScore,[lower-alpha 52] scanned images, MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] NIFF[lower-alpha 30] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Finale,[lower-alpha 18] NIFF,[lower-alpha 30] PDF Musitek Corporation 11.5.100; April 2023 (2023-04) Proprietary Non-free Windows, macOS
TuxGuitar Yes Yes MIDI TuxGuitar,[lower-alpha 53] MusicXML,[lower-alpha 3] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Guitar Pro (versions 1–6),[lower-alpha 20] Power Tab,[lower-alpha 22] TablEdit[lower-alpha 23] MIDI,[lower-alpha 4] Guitar Pro (versions 3–5),[lower-alpha 20] LilyPond,[lower-alpha 5] ASCII tab,[lower-alpha 21] PDF Julian Gabriel Casadesus 1.5.6; 28 April 2022 (2022-04-28) LGPL-2.1-only No cost Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD
Name Guitar tablature WYSIWYG editor MIDI entry[lower-alpha 1] Playback Import Export Developer(s) Stable release; review date License Cost Operating systems
File formats

File formats and extensions
  1. When entering notes, "step-time" means one first selects the note duration then enters notes and chords one a time, while "real-time" means one plays the notes to enter with correct rhythm and the software recognizes the note durations.
  2. Canorus native format, .can
  3. MusicXML, open standard XML-based music notation exchange format, .xml or (version 3.1 or later) .musicxml
  4. Standard MIDI file format, .mid or .midi
  5. LilyPond plain text native format, .ly
  6. Capella native format, binary file, .cap
  7. Capella native format, compressed ZIP containing XML, .capx
  8. Denemo native format, .denemo
  9. Dorico native format, .dorico
  10. Early notation typesetter native format, .ent
  11. Encore native format, .enc
  12. MusicTime (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .mto, .mus (different to Finale .mus)
  13. Rhapsody (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .rhp
  14. MusicXML version 2.0 or later, compressed as a ZIP, .mxl
  15. Cakewalk MIDI file format, .mff
  16. Master Tracks Pro (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .mts
  17. Mac version only
  18. Finale native format, .mus (2012 and earlier) or .musx (2014 and later)
  19. Forte native format, .fnf
  20. Guitar Pro native format version 1–2, .gtp; version 3, .gp3; version 4, .gp4; version 5, .gp5; version 6, .gpx; version 7, .gp
  21. ASCII tablature plain text format, .txt, .tab, or .btab
  22. Power Tab Editor native format, .ptb
  23. TablEdit native format, .tef
  24. Impro-Visor native format, .ls
  25. ABC plain text format, .abc
  26. Finale Enigma Transport Format, .etf[1]
  27. Maestro software family native format, .sfd
  28. Standard MIDI file format including standard MIDI lyrics, used for karaoke, .kar
  29. Mozart native format, .mz
  30. Notation Interchange File Format, .nif
  31. Mus2 notation and tuning file format, .mus2, .mu2
  32. MuseScore native format, .mscz; uncompressed XML-based format, .mscx; style sheet, .mss; score album, .album
  33. MuseData project format, .md
  34. Bagpipe Music Writer native format, .bww
  35. Band-in-a-Box native format, .mgu or .sgu
  36. Overture native format, .ove
  37. MusiCAD plain text native format, .mc
  38. MusicEase native format, .mez
  39. SongWright native format, .sw
  40. Musink native format, .musink
  41. PMX, preprocessor language for MusixTeX, .pmx; M-Tx, processor for PMX, .mtx
  42. TeX device independent file format, .dvi
  43. NoteSoft file, Notation Software native format, .not
  44. NoteWorthy Composer native format, .nwc or .nwctxt
  45. Score Writer (by the same developer as Overture) native format, .scw
  46. Philip's Music Writer native format, human-readable text, .pmw
  47. Rosegarden native format, .rg
  48. Hydrogen drum machine song XML file format, .h2song
  49. Csound audio domain-specific language format, without orchestra data, .csd
  50. Music Publisher Score file format, .mup
  51. Sibelius (scorewriter) native format, .sib
  52. SmartScore native format, .enf
  53. TuxGuitar native format, .tg

See also

Notes
  1. "An incomplete description of the Enigma Transport Format". LilyPond.org. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  2. Restrictions
  3. Version Comparison
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