1MSCORE(1) BSD General Commands Manual MSCORE(1)
2
4 mscore, musescore — MuseScore 3 sheet music editor
5
7 mscore [-deFfhIiLmnOPRstvw] [-a | --use-audio driver]
8 [-b | --bitrate bitrate] [-c | --config-folder pathname]
9 [-D | --monitor-resolution DPI]
10 [-E | --install-extension extension file] [-j | --job file.json]
11 [-M | --midi-operations file] [-o | --export-to file]
12 [-p | --plugin name] [-r | --image-resolution DPI]
13 [-S | --style style] [-T | --trim-image margin]
14 [-x | --gui-scaling factor] [--debug] [--diff] [--dump-midi-in]
15 [--dump-midi-out] [--experimental] [--export-score-parts]
16 [--factory-settings] [--force] [--help] [--layout-debug]
17 [--load-icons] [--long-version] [--new-score] [--no-fallback-font]
18 [--no-midi] [--no-synthesizer] [--no-webview] [--raw-diff]
19 [--revert-settings] [--run-test-script] [--save-online]
20 [--score-media] [--highlight-config] [--score-mp3] [--score-parts]
21 [--score-parts-pdf] [--score-transpose] [--source-update]
22 [--template-mode] [--test-mode] [--version] [file ...]
23
25 MuseScore is a Free and Open Source WYSIWYG cross-platform multi-lingual
26 music composition and notation software, released under the GNU General
27 Public Licence (GPLv2).
28 Running mscore without any extra options launches the full graphical Mus‐
30 eScore program and opens any files specified on the command line.
31 The options are as follows:
33 -a | --use-audio driver
35 Use audio driver: one of jack, alsa, portaudio, pulse
36 -b | --bitrate bitrate
38 Set MP3 output bitrate in kbit/s
39 -c | --config-folder pathname
41 Override configuration and settings directory
42 -D | --monitor-resolution DPI
44 Specify monitor resolution (override autodetection)
45 -d | --debug
47 Start MuseScore in debug mode
48 -E | --install-extension extension file
50 Install an extension file; soundfonts are loaded by default
51 unless -e is also specified
52 -e | --experimental
54 Enable experimental features, such as layers
55 -F | --factory-settings
57 Revert all settings, shortcuts, workspaces, extensions, transla‐
58 tions, etc. to factory defaults; compare with the -R option
59 -f | --force
61 Ignore score corruption and version mismatch warnings in
62 “converter mode”
63 -h | --help
65 Display an overview of invocation instructions
66 -I | --dump-midi-in
68 Display all MIDI input on the console
69 -i | --load-icons
71 Load icons from the filesystem; useful if you want to edit the
72 MuseScore icons and preview the changes
73 -j | --job file.json
75 Process a conversion job (see EXAMPLES below)
76 -L | --layout-debug
78 Start MuseScore in layout debug mode
79 -M | --midi-operations file
81 Specify MIDI import operations file (see EXAMPLES below)
82 -m | --no-midi
84 Disable MIDI input
85 -n | --new-score
87 Start with the New Score wizard regardless whether it's enabled
88 or disabled in the user preferences
89 -O | --dump-midi-out
91 Display all MIDI output on the console
92 -o | --export-to file
94 Export the given (or currently opened) file to the specified out‐
95 put file. The file type depends on the extension of the filename
96 given. This option switches to “converter mode” and avoids the
97 graphical user interface.
98 -P | --export-score-parts
100 When converting to PDF with the -o option, append each part's
101 pages to the created PDF file. If the score has no parts, all
102 default parts will temporarily be generated automatically.
103 -p | --plugin name
105 Execute the named plugin
106 -R | --revert-settings
108 Revert user preferences to factory default but retain shortcuts,
109 workspaces, extensions, translations, etc.; compare with -F.
110 -r | --image-resolution DPI
112 Set image resolution for conversion to PNG files.
113 Default: 360 DPI (actually, the value of “Resolution” of the PNG
115 option group in the Export tab of the preferences)
116 -S | --style style
118 Load a style file first; useful for use with the -o option
119 -s | --no-synthesizer
121 Disable the integrated software synthesiser
122 -T | --trim-image margin
124 Trim exported PNG and SVG images to remove whitespace surrounding
125 the score. The specified margin, in pixels, will be retained
126 (use 0 for a tightly cropped image). When exporting to SVG, this
127 option only works with single-page scores.
128 -t | --test-mode
130 Set test mode flag for all files
131 -v | --version
133 Display the name and version of the application without starting
134 the graphical user interface
135 -w | --no-webview
137 Disable the web view component in the Start Centre
138 -x | --gui-scaling factor
140 Scale the score display and other GUI elements by the specified
141 factor; intended for use with high-resolution displays
142 --diff Print a conditioned diff between the given scores
144 --long-version
146 Display the full name, version and git revision of the applica‐
147 tion without starting the graphical user interface
148 --no-fallback-font
150 Don't use a fallback musical font
151 --raw-diff
153 Print a raw diff between the given scores
154 --run-test-script
156 Run script tests listed in the command line arguments
157 --save-online
159 Upload score(s) to its source URL. There must already be an
160 online score at that URL, and the user must be signed-in to the
161 account it belongs to. The online score will be replaced with the
162 uploaded file, but the title and description of the online
163 score's webpage will not change.
164 --score-media
166 Export all media (except MP3) for a given score as a single JSON
167 document to stdout
168 --highlight-config
170 Set highlight to svg, generated from a given score
171 --score-mp3
173 Generate an MP3 for the given score and export it as a single
174 JSON document to stdout
175 --score-parts
177 Generate parts data for the given score and save them to separate
178 mscz files
179 --score-parts-pdf
181 Generate parts data for the given score and export it as a single
182 JSON document to stdout
183 --score-transpose
185 Transpose the given score and export the data to a single JSON
186 file, print it to stdout
187 --source-update
189 Update the source in the given score
190 --template-mode
192 Save files in template mode (e.g. without page sizes)
193 MuseScore supports the automatic Qt command line options (see below).
195 Batch conversion job JSON format
197 The argument to the -j option must be the pathname of a file comprised of
198 a valid JSON document honouring the following specification:
199 · The top-level element must be a JSONArray, which may be empty.
201 · Each array element must be a JSONObject with the following keys:
203 in Value is the name of the input file (score to convert), as
205 JSONString.
206 plugin Value is the filename of a plugin (with the .qml extension),
208 which will be read from either the global or per-user plugin
209 path and executed before the conversion output happens, as
210 JSONString. Optional, but at least one of plugin and out
211 must be given.
212 out Value is the conversion output target, as defined below.
214 Optional, but at least one of plugin and out must be given.
215 · The conversion output target may be a filename (with extension, which
217 decided the format to convert to), as JSONString.
218 · The conversion output target may be a JSONArray of filenames as JSON‐
220 String, as above, which will cause the score to be written to multi‐
221 ple output files (in multiple output formats) sequentially, without
222 being closed, re-opened and re-processed in between.
223 · If the conversion output target is a JSONArray, one or more of its
225 elements may also be, each, a JSONArray of two JSONStrings (called
226 first and second half in the following description). This will cause
227 part extraction: for each such two-tuple, all extant parts of the
228 score will be saved individually, with filenames being composed by
229 concatenating the first half, the name (title) of the part, and the
230 second half. The resulting string must be a valid filename (with
231 extension, determining the output format). If a score has no parts
232 (excerpts) defined, this will be silently ignored without error.
233 · Valid file extensions for output are:
235 flac Free Lossless Audio Codec (compressed audio)
237 metajson various score metadata (JSON)
239 mid standard MIDI file
241 midi standard MIDI file
243 mlog internal file sanity check log (JSON)
245 mp3 MPEG Layer III (lossy compressed audio)
247 mpos measure positions (XML)
249 mscx uncompressed MuseScore file
251 mscz compressed MuseScore file
253 musicxml uncompressed MusicXML file
255 mxl compressed MusicXML file
257 ogg OGG Vorbis (lossy compressed audio)
259 pdf portable document file (print)
261 png portable network graphics (image)
263 Individual files, one per score page, with a hyphen-minus
265 followed by the page number placed before the file exten‐
266 sion, will be generated.
267 spos segment positions (XML)
269 svg scalable vector graphics (image)
271 wav RIFF Waveform (uncompressed audio)
273 xml uncompressed MusicXML file
275 See below for an example.
277
279 SKIP_LIBJACK
280 Set this (the value does not matter) to skip initialisation of
281 the JACK Audio Connection Kit library, in case it causes trouble.
282 XDG_CONFIG_HOME
284 User configuration location; defaults to ~/.config if unset.
285 XDG_DATA_HOME
287 User data location; defaults to ~/.local/share if unset.
288 XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
290 Location of works the user created with the application; defaults
291 to ~/Documents (or a localised version) and can be set in
292 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs.
293 Note that MuseScore also supports the normal Qt environment variables
295 such as QT_QPA_GENERIC_PLUGINS, QT_QPA_PLATFORM, QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME,
296 QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH, QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE, DISPLAY, etc.
297
299 /usr/share/mscore-3.6/ contains the application support data (demos,
300 instruments, localisation, system-wide plugins, soundfonts, styles,
301 chords, templates and wallpapers). In the Debian packages, system-wide
302 soundfonts are installed into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/,
303 /usr/share/sounds/sf3/ or /usr/share/sounds/sfz/, respectively, instead.
304 The per-user data (extensions, plugins, soundfonts, styles, templates)
306 and files (images, scores) are normally installed into subdirectories
307 under $XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR/MuseScore3/ but may be changed in the configura‐
308 tion. Note that snapshot, alpha and beta versions use
309 MuseScore3Development instead of MuseScore3 in all of these paths.
310 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3.ini contains the user preferences,
312 list of recently used files and their locations, window sizes and posi‐
313 tions, etc. See above for development version paths.
314 $XDG_DATA_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3/ contains updated localisation files
316 downloaded from within the program, plugin information, cached scores,
317 credentials for the musescore.com community site, session information,
318 synthesiser settings, custom key and time signatures and shortcuts. See
319 above for development version paths.
320
322 Convert a score to PDF from the command line:
323 mscore -o 'My Score.pdf' 'My Score.mscz'
325 Run a batch job converting multiple documents:
327 mscore -j job.json
329 This requires the file job.json in the current working directory to have
331 content similar to the following:
332 [
334 {
335 "in": "Reunion.mscz",
336 "out": "Reunion-coloured.pdf",
337 "plugin": "colornotes.qml"
338 },
339 {
340 "in": "Reunion.mscz",
341 "out": [
342 "Reunion.pdf",
343 [ "Reunion (part for ", ").pdf" ],
344 "Reunion.musicxml",
345 "Reunion.mid"
346 ]
347 },
348 {
349 "in": "Piece with excerpts.mscz",
350 "out": [
351 "Piece with excerpts (Partitura).pdf",
352 [ "Piece with excerpts (part for ", ").pdf" ],
353 "Piece with excerpts.mid"
354 ]
355 }
356 ]
357 The last part of the job would, for example, cause files like “Piece with
359 excerpts (part for Violin).pdf” to be generated alongside the conductor's
360 partitura and a MIDI file with the full orchestra sound, whereas the
361 equivalent part of the Reunion conversion will be silently ignored
362 (because the Reunion piece (a MuseScore demo) has no excerpts defined).
363 https://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/midi_import_options_0.xml
365 is a sample MIDI import operations file for the -M option.
366
368 The mscore utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
369
371 fluidsynth(1), midicsv(1), timidity(1), qtoptions(7)
372 https://musescore.org/handbook
374 Online Handbook, full user manual
375 https://musescore.org/forum
377 Support Forum
378 https://musescore.org/handbook/command-line-options-0
380 Further documentation of command line options
381 https://musescore.org/handbook/revert-factory-settings-0
383 Reverting to factory settings (troubleshooting)
384 https://musescore.org/project/issues
386 Project Issue Tracker
387 Please check first to if the bug you're encountering has already
389 been reported. If you just need help with something, then please
390 use the support forum (see above) instead.
391 http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qguiapplication.html#supported-command-line-options
393 Documentation of automatic Qt command line options
394
396 MuseScore attempts to implement the following standards:
397 · MusicXML 3.1 (score interchange format)
399 · SF2 (SoundFont 2.01)
401 · SF3 (SoundFont with OGG Vorbis-compressed samples)
403 · SFZ (Sforzato soundfont)
405 · SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout 1.30)
407
409 MuseScore was split off the MusE sequencer in 2002 and has since become
410 the foremost Open Source notation software.
411
413 MuseScore is developed by MuseScore BVBA and others.
414 This manual page was written by mirabilos <tg@debian.org>.
416
418 The automatic Qt command line options are removed from the argument vec‐
419 tor before the application has a chance at option processing; this means
420 that an invocation like
421 mscore -S -reverse
423 has no chance at working because the -reverse is removed by Qt first.
425
427 MuseScore does not honour /etc/papersize.
428 Probably some more; check the project's bug tracker (cf. SEE ALSO).
430MuseScore Janurary 12, 2021 MuseScore