A.2 ABC Fields

A: Area. A:Liverpool
B: Book. B:Groovy Songs
C: Composer. C:The Beatles
D: Discography. D:The Beatles Complete Collection
d: Decorations. d:!pp! * * !mf! * !ff!
F: File name. F:http://www.beatles.org/help.abc
G: Group. G:guitar
H: History. H:This song was written...
I: Information. I:lowered by a semitone
I: Meta-command. I:MIDI program 2 32
K: Key. K:C (needs to be last field in tune header) 
L: Note length. L:1/4
M: Metre. M:3/4
N: Notes. N:See also...
O: Origin. O:English
P: Part. P:Start
Q: Tempo. Q:1/2=120
R: Rhythm. R:Reel
S: Source. S:Collected in Liverpool
s: Decorations. s:!pp! * * !mf! * !ff!
T: Title. T:Help!   (second in header)
U: User defined. U:T=!trill!
V: Voice. V:1
W: Lyrics at end. W:Help! I need...
w: inline lyrics. w:Help! I need...
X: Index number. X:1  (at start of tune header)
Z: Transcription notes. Z:Transcribed by ear

A.5.1 Page Format
These commands set the page geometry.
%%botmargin hlengthi: sets the page bottom margin to hlengthi.
%%footer htexti: sets the text to be printed as footer on each page.
%%header htexti: sets the text to be printed as header on each page.
%%indent hlengthi: sets the indentation for the first line or system to hlengthi.
%%landscape hlogicali: if 1, sets the page layout as landscape.
%%leftmargin hlengthi: sets the page left margin to hlengthi.
%%multicol hcommandi: defines columns. hcommandi may be start, new, and end. See
Section 4.1.5 for details.
%%pageheight hlengthi: sets the page height to hlengthi. For European A4 paper, the right
value is 29.7cm; for US Letter, 11in.
%%pagewidth hlengthi: sets the page width to hlengthi. For European A4 paper, the right
value is 21cm; for US Letter, 8.5in.
%%rightmargin hlengthi: sets the page right margin to hlengthi.
%%staffwidth hlengthi: used as an alternative to the commands %%pageheight and %%pagewidth.
%%topmargin hlengthi: sets the page top margin to hlengthi.
A.5.2 Text
These commands are used to write text lines within a tune and between tunes. Fonts and
spacing are set with other commands that we will examine later on.
%%begintext...%%endtext : the pair %%begintext and %%endtext includes a group
of text lines. These lines will be printed. If no text follows %%, the line is a paragraph
separator. For example:
%%begintext
%%Spanish folk song, usually
%%accompanied by guitar and cymbals.
%%endtext
The command %%begintext can be given a parameter to change the text alignment:
%%begintext obeylines prints text as is;
%%begintext fill (or ragged) formats the text to the page margins;
%%begintext justify (or align) as above, but aligns to the page right margin;
%%begintext skip ignores the following lines.
%%center htexti: centers the following text.
%%text htexti: writes the following text. For example:
%%text Spanish folk song
%%textoption hinti: sets the default text option to be used between %%begintext and
 %%endtext, or in %%EPS files. The parameter can be a digit or a corresponding string: 0
or obeylines), 1 (justify), 2 (fill), 3 (center), 4 (skip), 5 (right). If the option is
4 (skip), no text or EPS is output.
A.5.3 Fonts
These commands specify the character fonts used in various parts of a score. Please note that
the common True Type fonts used by Windows are not the same fonts used by abcm2ps. In
fact, abcm2ps uses the PostScript fonts, provided for and managed by Ghostscript.
Standard fonts are shown in Appendix A.7. I remind you that indications for adding new fonts
are given in Section 4.5.4.
%%annotationfont hstringi: font of annotations.
%%composerfont hstringi: C: field font.
%%footerfont hstringi: font of %%footer lines.
%%font hstringi: declares a font for later usage.
%%gchordfont hstringi: guitar chords font.
%%headerfont hstringi: font of %%header lines.
%%historyfont hstringi: font of H: field.
%%infofont hstringi: text font in I: fields.
%%measurefont hstringi [box]: text font of measure numbers. If the word box is present,
a box is drawn around the measure number.
106 APPENDIX A. BITS & PIECES
%%partsfont hstringi: P: fields font.
%%repeatfont hstringi: font of repeat numbers or text.
%%setfont-hinti hstringi hinti: sets an alternate font for strings. In most strings, the current
font may be changed by $n (n = 1, 2, 3, 4). $0 resets the font to the default value.
%%subtitlefont hstringi: font of the second T: field.
%%tempofont hstringi: tempo font.
%%textfont hstringi: text font in %%text lines.
%%titlecaps hlogicali: if true, writes the title in capital letters.
%%titlefont hstringi: font of the first T: field.
%%titleformat hstringi: defines the format of the tune title. This format overrides %%titleleft,
%%infoline, and %%composerspace. See Section 4.1.6 for examples.
%%titleleft hlogicali: if true, writes the title left-aligned instead of centered.
%%voicefont hstringi: font of voice names.
%%vocalfont hstringi: font of the text in w: lines.
%%wordsfont hstringi: font of the text in W: lines.
A.5.4 Spacing
These commands specify spacing between score elements.
%%barsperstaff hinti: tries to typeset the score with hinti bars on each line.
%%breakoneoln hlogicali: if true, treats an end of line as if it were a space (i.e. breaks note
beams).
%%composerspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the composer to hlengthi.
%%gracespace hfloati hfloati hfloati: defines the space before, within and after grace notes.
%%infospace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the infoline to hlengthi.
%%lineskipfac hfloati: sets the factor for spacing between lines of text to hfloati.
%%maxshrink hfloati: sets how much to compress horizontally when staff breaks are chosen
automatically. hfloati must be between 0 (don’t shrink) and 1 (full shrink).
%%maxstaffsep hlengthi: sets the maximum vertical space between staves.
%%maxsysstaffsep hlengthi: sets the maximum vertical space between systems.
%%musicspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the first staff to hlengthi.
%%newpage: sets a page break.
%%notespacingfactor hfloati: sets the proportional spacing of notes. The default value
is 1.414 (
p
2); 1 makes all notes equally spaced.
%%parskipfac hfloati: sets the factor for spacing between parts to hfloati.
%%partsspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before a new part to hlengthi.
%%scale hfloati: sets the music scale factor to hfloati.
%%sep: prints a centered separator (a short line).
%%sep hlength1i hlength2i hlength3i: prints a separator of length hlength3i, with spacing
hlength1i above and hlength2i below.
%%slurheight hfloati: sets the slur height factor; lesser than 1 flattens the slur, greater than
1 expands it.
%%staffbreak hlengthi [“f”]: sets a hlengthi-long break (gap) in the current staff. If the
letter “f” is present, the staff break is forced even if it occurs at the beginning or end of
a line.
%%staffsep hlengthi: sets the vertical space between different systems to hlengthi.
%%stretchlast hlogicali: stretches the last staff of the tune when underfull.
%%stretchstaff hlogicali: stretches underfull staves across page.
%%subtitlespace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the subtitle to hlengthi.
%%sysstaffsep hlengthi: sets the vertical space between staves in the same system to
hlengthi.
%%textspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before texts to hlengthi.
%%titlespace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the title to hlengthi.
%%topspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space at the top of a tune to hlengthi. Note that a
tune may begin with %%text commands before the title.
%%vocalspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the lyrics under staves to hlengthi.
%%vskip hhi: adds hhi vertical space. hhi may be a negative value.
%%wordsspace hlengthi: sets the vertical space before the lyrics at end of the tune to hlength
i.
108 APPENDIX A. BITS & PIECES
A.5.5 Other Commands
Miscellaneous commands are grouped in this section.
%%abc2pscompat hlogicali : if true, reverts to the old metod of dealing with notes in bass
and other clefs. Please see Section 2.2.1.
%%alignbars hinti: aligns the bars of the next hinti lines of music. It only works on singlevoice
tunes.
%%aligncomposer hinti: specifies where to print the composer field. A negative value means
‘on the left’, 0 means ‘centre’, and a positive value means ‘on the right’.
%%autoclef hlogicali: if true, prints clefs and possibly clef changes when no clef is defined
in K: or V:.
%%barnumbers hinti: same as %%measurenb, see below.
%%beginps–%%endps: start/end of a PostScript sequence.
%%bstemdown hlogicali: if true, the stem of the note on the middle of the staff goes downwards.
Otherwise, it goes upwards or downwards according to the previous note.
%%comball hlogicali: if true and %%combinevoices is set, combines voices in all cases.
%%combinevoices hlogicali: if true, notes of same duration that belong to voices of the
same staff are combined producing chords. It does not apply when note pitches are in
unison, inverted or differ by a second.
%%continueall hlogicali: ignores the line breaks in tune if true. It’s the equivalent of the
-c command line flag.
%%contbarnb hlogicali: if true, the bar number of the second repeat(s) is reset to the number
of the first repeat. If false, bars are sequentially numbered.
%%dateformat hstringi: defines the format of date and time. Default is %b %e, %Y %H:%M.
The fields specify, respectively: abbreviated month name (Jan–Dec), day of month (1–
31), year, hour (0–23), minute (0–59).
%%deco hstring1i hint1i hstring2i hint2i hint3i hint4i hstring3i: adds a new decoration. Details
are explained in Section 4.5.
%%dynalign hlogicali: if true, horizontally aligns the dynamic marks.
%%EPS hstring3i: includes an external EPS file in the score.
%%encoding hinti: (for expert users) sets the language encoding to ISO-Latinhinti, which
may range from 0 to 6. The value 0 is the same as 1, but the PostScript encoding table is
not output.
%%exprabove hlogicali: draws the expression decorations above the staff. If neither exprabove
nor exprbelow are true, the expression decorations are drawn above the staff if
there are lyrics on the staff, below otherwise. exprabove takes precedence over exprbelow.
A.5. FORMATTING COMMANDS 109
%%exprbelow hlogicali: draws the expression decorations below the staff.
%%flatbeams hlogicali: if true, forces flat beams in bagpipe tunes (K:HP).
%%freegchord hlogicali: if true, prevents the characters # , b and = from being displayed
as sharp, flat and natural sign in guitar chords. When this flag is set, displaying
accidental may be forced escaping the characters (e.g. n# .)
%%format hstringi: reads the format file specified as parameter.
%%gchordbox hlogicali: draws a box around accompaniment chords.
%%graceslurs hlogicali: draws slurs on grace notes.
%%hyphencont hlogicali: if true and if lyrics under the staff end with a hyphen, puts a
hyphen in the next line.
%%infoline hlogicali: if true, displays the rhythm and the origin on the same line, plus the A: field.
%%infoname hstringi hstringi: defines the fields to be printed when %%writehistory is
true.
%%measurenb hinti: draws the measure number every hinti bars.
%%measurebox hlogicali: draws a box around measure numbers.
%%measurefirst hinti: starts numbering the measures from hinti.
%%musiconly hlogicali: if true, doesn’t output the lyrics.
%%oneperpage hlogicali: outputs one tune per page.
%%partsbox hlogicali: draws a box around part names.
%%postscript hstringi: a series of these commands lets the user add a new PostScript
routine, or change an existing one.
%%printparts hlogicali: prints the part indications (P:).
%%printtempo hlogicali: prints the tempo indications (Q:).
%%pslevel hinti: specifies the PostScript level (1, 2, or 3).
%%repbra hlogicali: if false, prevents displaying repeat brackets for the current voice.
%%score hstringi: like %%staves, but with a different behaviour regarding bars. See Section
3.1.2 for details.
%%setbarnb hinti: sets the number of the next measure.
%%setdefl hlogicali: if true, outputs some indications about the note/chord and/or decorations
for customization purposes. These indications are stored in the PostScript variable
‘defl’.
110 APPENDIX A. BITS & PIECES
%%shifthnote hlogicali: in multivoice tunes, when voices go to unison with a white and
a black note (say, a half and a quarter note), only the black note head is printed. When
this flag is set, a note shift is done and both are printed.
%%shiftunisson hlogicali: if true, shifts note heads that belong to different voices that
are in unison. It applies to dotted notes and notes shorter than minim.
%%splittune hlogicali: if true, splits tunes that do not fit in a single page.
%%squarebreve hlogicali: displays ‘brevis’ notes in square format.
%%straightflags hlogicali: prints straight flags on stems in bagpipe tunes.
%%staff hinti: prints the next symbols of the current voice on the hinti-th staff.
%%staffnonote hlogicali: if false, staves with no notes are not printed.
%%staves hstringi: defines how staves are to be printed. See Section 3.1.2 for details.
%%stemheight hfloati: sets the stem height to hfloati.
%%tablature : TO BE WRITTEN
%%timewarn hlogicali: if true, if a time signature occurs at the beginning of a music line, a
cautionary time signature is added at the end of the previous line.
%%titletrim hlogicali: if true, move the last word of a title to the head if it starts with a
capital letter and it’s preceded by a space and a comma.
%%tuplets hint1i hint2i hint3i: defines how tuplets are to be drawn. See Section 4.5.5 for
details.
%%vocalabove hlogicali: draws the vocals above the staff.
%%withxrefs hlogicali: prints the X: number in the title.
%%writehistory hlogicali: outputs notes, history, etc.
A.6 MIDI commands
Some of these commands will only make sense to advanced users who have some experience
with MIDI files. In a few cases, explanations are taken from the abcguide.txt file included
in the abcMIDI archive.
%%MIDI barlines: turns off %%nobarlines.
%%MIDI bassprog hinti: sets the MIDI instrument for the bass notes in accompaniment
chords to hinti (0–127).
%%MIDI bassvol hinti: sets the velocity (i.e., volume) of the bass notes to hinti (0–127).
A.6. ABCMIDI COMMANDS 111
%%MIDI beat hint1i hint2i hint3i hint4i: controls the volumes of the notes in a measure.
The first note in a bar has volume hint1i; other ‘strong’ notes have volume hint2i and
all the rest have volume hint3i. These values must be in the range 0–127. The parameter
hint4i determines which notes are ‘strong’. If the time signature is x/y, then each note is
given a position number k = 0, 1, 2. . . x-1 within each bar. If k is a multiple of hint4i,
then the note is ‘strong’.
%%MIDI beataccents: reverts to normally emphasised notes. See also %%MIDI nobeataccents.
%%MIDI beatmod hinti: increments the velocities as defined by %%MIDI beat
%%MIDI beatstring hstringi: similar to %%MIDI beat, but indicated with an fmp string.
%%MIDI c hinti: specifies the MIDI pitch which corresponds to C . The default is 60. This
number should normally be a multiple of 12.
%%MIDI channel hinti: selects the melody channel hinti (1–16).
%%MIDI chordattack hinti: delays the start of chord notes by hinti MIDI units.
%%MIDI chordname hstring int1 int2 int3 int4 int5 int6i: defines new chords or redefines
existing ones as was seen in Section 5.1.9.
%%MIDI chordprog hinti: sets the MIDI instrument for accompaniment chords to hinti
(0–127).
%%MIDI chordvol hinti: sets the volume (velocity) of the chord notes to hinti (0–127).
%%MIDI control hbass/chordi hint1 int2i: generates a MIDI control event. If %%control
is followed by hbassi or hchordi, the event apply to the bass or chord channel, otherwise
it will be applied to the melody channel. hint1i is the MIDI control number (0–127) and
hint2i the value (0–127).
%%MIDI deltaloudness hinti: by default, !crescendo! and !dimuendo! modify the
beat variables hvol1i hvol2i hvol3i 15 volume units. This command allows the user to
change this default.
%%MIDI drone hint1 int2 int3 int4 int5i: specifies a two-note drone accompaniment. hint1i
is the drone MIDI instrument, hint2i the MIDI pitch 1, hint3i the MIDI pitch 2, hint4i
the MIDI volume 1, hint5i the MIDI volume 2. Default values are 70 45 33 80 80.
%%MIDI droneoff: turns the drone accompaniment off.
%%MIDI droneon: turns the drone accompaniment on.
%%MIDI drumbars hinti: specifies the number of bars over which a drum pattern string is
spread. Default is 1.
%%MIDI drum hstri hint1 int2 int3 int4 int5 int6 int7 int8i: generates a drum accompaniment
pattern, as described in Section 5.1.11.
%%MIDI drummap hstri hinti: associates the note hstri (in ABC notation) to the a percussion
instrument, as listed in Section A.8.2.
112 APPENDIX A. BITS & PIECES
%%MIDI drumoff turns drum accompaniment off.
%%MIDI drumon turns drum accompaniment on.
%%MIDI fermatafixed: expands a !fermata! by one unit length; that is, HC3 becomes
C4.
%%MIDI fermataproportional: doubles the length of a note preceded by !fermata!;
that is, HC3 becomes C6. abc2midi does this by default.
%%MIDI gchordbars hstri: spreads the gchord string over hni consecutive bars of equal
length. The gchord string should be evenly divisible by hni or else the gchords will not
work properly.
%%MIDI gchord hstri: sets up how guitar chords are generated. Please see Section 5.1.6.
%%MIDI gchordoff: turns guitar chords off.
%%MIDI gchordon: turns guitar chords on.
%%MIDI grace hfloati: sets the fraction of the next note that grace notes will take up. hfloati
must be a fraction such as 1/6.
%%MIDI gracedivider hinti: sets the grace note length as 1/hintith of the following
note.
%%MIDI makechordchannels hinti: this is a very complex command used in chords
containing microtones. Please consult the abcMIDI documentation.
%%MIDI nobarlines: normally, an accidental applied to a note also applies to other equal
notes until the next bar. By using this command, the accidental will apply to the following
note only.
%%MIDI nobeataccents: forces the hint2i volume (see %%MIDI beat) for each note in
a bar, regardless of their position.
%%MIDI noportamento: turns off the portamento controller on the current channel.
%%MIDI pitchbend hbass/chordi hint1 int2i: generates a pitchbend event on the current
channel, or on the bass or chord channel as specified. The value given by the following
two bytes indicates the pitch change. This option is not well documented.
%%MIDI portamento hinti: turns on the portamento controller on the current channel and
set it to hinti. Experts only.
%%MIDI program [int1] hint2i: selects the program (instrument) hint2i (0–127) for channel
hint1i. If this is not specified, the instrument will apply to the current channel.
%%MIDI randomchordattack: delays the start of chord notes by a random number of
MIDI units.
%%MIDI ratio hint1 int2i: sets the ratio of note lengths in broken rhythm. Normally c>c
will make the first note three times as long as the second; this ratio can be changed with
%%ratio 2 1.
A.7. POSTSCRIPT FONTS 113
%%MIDI rtranspose hint1i: transposes relatively to a prior %%transpose command by
hint1i semitones; the total transposition will be hint1 + int2i semitones.
%%MIDI snt hinti hfloati: alters the standard MIDI pitch of a note h0–127i; e.g. %%MIDI
snt 60 60.5 alters the pitch of C.
%%MIDI temperament hint1i hint2i: TO BE WRITTEN
%%MIDI temperamentlinear hfloat1 float2i: changes the temperament of the scale. hfloat1
i specifies the size of an octave in cents of a semitone, or 1/1200 of an octave.
hfloat2i specifies in the size of a fifth (normally 700 cents).
%%MIDI temperamentnormal: restores normal temperament.
%%MIDI transpose hint1i: transposes the output by hint1i semitones. hint1i may be positive
or negative.
%%MIDI trim hint1i hint2i: controls the articulation of notes and chords by placing silent
gaps between the notes. The length of these gaps is determined by hint1i/hint2i and the
unit length is specified by the L: command. These gaps are produced by shortening the
notes by the same amount. If the note is already shorter than the specified gap, then the
gap is set to half the length of the note. It is recommended that hint1i/hint2i be a fraction
close to zero. Trimming is disabled inside slurs as indicated by parentheses. Trimming
is disabled by setting hint1i to 0.