abcjs

Javascript library for rendering standard music notation in a browser.

This library makes it easy to incorporate sheet music into your websites. You can also turn visible ABC text into sheet music on websites that you don’t own using a greasemonkey script, or change your own website that contains ABC text with no other changes than the addition of one javascript file. You can also generate MIDI files or play them directly in your browser.

List of Examples

Full documentation is here: abcjs documentation

There is an organization that has a collection of useful projects related to abcjs called abcjs-music. See some examples there. If you have a project that you think would be of general interest and would like to add it to that organization, contact me.

Announcement: version 6.7.0

This is a mostly small bug fix release, but I removed the files under test, which I doubt anyone was using except me. If you were importing like this:

import abcjs from "abcjs/test"

That will no longer work. Please contact me for a workaround.

Announcement: version 6.6.0

This has the new feature chordGrid, which is a view of the chords similar to some of the trad jazz lead sheets. If you have chordGrid: "noMusic" then only the chords will show, if you have chordGrid: "withMusic" then the chords will print above the standard music.

There is also completely new handling for the repeated sections that can handle more complicated repeating patterns. This should make more charts play correctly but it might cause an issue if you are counting on the old behavior.

Announcement: version 6.4.0

The method for creating chord accompaniment has changed. Hopefully there aren’t any regressions but if you have an example that doesn’t match what it used to be, please open an issue.

Announcement: version 6.3.0

Most users won’t see any difference, but there was some changes to the underlying SVG structure for the top (the title, etc.) and bottom (the notes, etc.) text, so if your code depends on particular classes then this might be a breaking change. Hopefully the new structure will be clearer and will allow css to target particular parts easier.

Announcement: version 6.2.2

There was a major bug in Firefox 112 that causes some lines to disappear. That is supposed to be fixed in Firefox 113 but in the meantime this update will take care of the problem.

Announcement: version 6.1.2

There is a little difference in the generated SVG: Now each line is surrounded with a <g> element. This probably won’t affect your program unless you are doing very specific manipulation of the SVG.

Announcement: version 6.1.0

There is a brand new transposing feature. This allows you to input an ABC string and get a new ABC back in a different key. See the documentation for details. I’m sure there are ways to expand this - let me know if your use case is missing.

Announcement: version 6.0.0

After way too long, abcjs 6.0.0 is now out of beta.

There are only a few bug fixes since the last beta.

The current plan is to continue doing bug fixes and minor features to the 6.x.x branch, but version 7 is already in planning.

There are some minor features that will still be added to the version 6 branch, along with fixing transposition.

Informal roadmap for version 7.0.0

There will be some architecture changes which will go in a 7.0.0 release:

• Improve the API for controlling the synth. That is, make the parameters less confusing.
• Create a plugin architecture so that large features that are not widely used can be added without bloating this library.
• Change the build to use typescript while still maintaining legacy browser capability.
• Reduce the size of the library by optimizing code.
• Control the spacing of the elements on the line better: support equal size measures, and support allowing control of the spacing between notes.
• Improved documentation, particularly for synth.
• Bug fixes.

I anticipate that for a user that wants the most common functionality, the size of the library might be cut in half.

Thanks, Paul

Major New Feature! 6.0.0-beta.36

String tablature is now available by adding an option to the renderAbc parameters. See tablature documentation

Fix to audio in octave clefs 6.0.0-beta.31

If you are using an octave clef (for instance K:C clef=treble-8) it will now sound an octave different. The octave calculation was happening twice.

Last version supporting midi.js is 6.0.0-beta.28

The file abcjs version supporting midi.js is the last version of the old style of sound production that will receive updates.

Rename the default branch to main

The default branch is now named main. If you have cloned this repo previously, you can change it with:

git branch -m master main
git fetch origin
git branch -u origin/main main

New css for audio control 6.0.0-beta.27

Be sure to download the latest abcjs-audio.css file if you are using it. If you are styling the audio control with your own css, add the rule:

.abcjs-css-warning {
	display: none;
}

Historical abcjs Packages 6.0.0-beta.27

Old versions of abcjs have been removed from this repo. If you are looking for them, you can find them here: Historical Versions

Breaking change when using midi.js for 6.0.0-beta.26

The midi.js package is no longer a direct dependency, it is now a peerDependency so it is not included by default. That way, users who aren’t using the old style of sound generation won’t need to load the package. If you are using the old style that uses midi.js, include this line in your package.json file:

"midi": "https://github.com/paulrosen/MIDI.js.git#abcjs"

Note that if you are using the minified version of the library with a <script> tag this does not apply to you.

Change in wrapping behavior for 6.0.0-beta.25

There have been some tweaks to the way wrapping is calculated. Hopefully this will make your music layout a little better. If you start seeing odd results, let me know.

Change in output folders for 6.0.0-beta.25

The files in /bin are being phased out. You can get the executables from /dist and the file names will not have the version number attached.

Many of the old versions that were in /bin are no longer kept in the active branches. If you need a particular old version then you can go to the branch with that tag to get it.

The last version in each major version number is still available in the active branch as well as many recent versions.

Default soundfont change for 6.0.0-beta.21

In this beta the default soundfont was changed to https://paulrosen.github.io/midi-js-soundfonts/abcjs/ Hopefully you will find that sounds better. If you set the soundfont directly then you won’t notice any change. If you prefer the old soundfont, use the soundFontUrl: "https://paulrosen.github.io/midi-js-soundfonts/FluidR3_GM/" option when calling the synth functions.

Issues

Thanks so much for the bug reports and feature requests that are pouring into the issues. I appreciate you taking the time to help improve abcjs. This is not a full time project, though, so I can’t promise a quick turn around on the issues. I am going to attempt to be caught up on responding once a week at least.

And I would love some help on this project, including documentation, bug fixes, testing, refactoring, modernizing tools, and adding features. If you are so inclined, please get in touch.

Supported by BrowserStack

If you aren’t using the same browser and machine that I use, you can thank BrowserStack for their support of this open-source project.