HELMHOLTZ-ELLIS FONTS
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2009 release

These fonts are designed by Marc Sabat and are intended to provide microtonal accidentals of The Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation in a style compatible with current release notation software Finale and Sibelius.

The notation method is explained in the enclosed pdf files, which includes tables of the harmonic series, undertones, Harry Partch's 43-tone scale & my own list of "intervals tuneable by ear", based on tests with violin and in combinations with other instruments. Further updates, papers and other information can be found at the website www.plainsound.org

In the unzipped folder, along with this "READ ME", you should also find a pdf with a key to the font (based on a Unicode LATIN and LATIN-1 supplement layout). I recommend using a font display utility such as Macility's PopChar (available for Mac & for Windows) to easily work with the font layout. I have generally tried to make frequently used accidentals available through simple typing (alphabet, numbers, < > signs, etc.) Please note symbols often are repeated on different Unicode characters: this is intentional as a possible workaround for various software quirks - escape charaacters, special treatment of ';' and ',' in MaxMSP...

A sample Sibelius 3 file with the first 32 partials of a harmonic series is provided as an example of how the font may be integrated into a notation program. MIDI playback of the accidentals is possible by generating hidden Pitch Bend data of the form ~B 0,64 ... see the Sibelius documentation for details.

The cross-platform WW.ttf (Woodwind and Brass fingering symbols) is also included in this release for notating microtonal fingerings for wind instruments. It is a monospaced font allowing symbols to be easily aligned vertically in one text block. An open request to brass and wind players - please let me know about other symbols you would like to see included in future releases. 

This font is provided as shareware - if you like using it, I would welcome a PayPal donation for future development. You can contact me through the address:

info@plainsound.org

Marc Sabat
Berlin