Maestrale is a paradigm-breaking new take on calligraphy, built around a compact, serif-style core and outrageously long, flamboyant extenders. At large sizes, its confident, charismatic lettershapes are ideally suited for branding and decorative uses, whereas longer texts at smaller sizes naturally weave themselves into a flowing texture. The font comprises 1299 glyphs, including many stylistic alternates, ligatures, small capitals, and initial, terminal, and linking forms, and offers extensive OpenType programming to support them. The calligraphic form of Maestrale is complemented by a matching text font (Maestrale Text) with short extenders, available in three cuts (a serif-style Roman, an upright Cursive, and a tilted Italic). Maestrale is all about the lowercase; its capitals are deliberately understated so as not to steal the limelight. In fact, the font works very well when set exclusively in lowercase. Maestrale�s small capitals are fitted into the core space of the lowercase, allowing them to be freely interspersed with lowercase characters. Alternately, an OpenType feature is available to replace a and e in small-caps text with their lowercase equivalents for a fresh unicase look. Since alternates and ligatures play such an important role, Maestrale offers three different modes of use. The most straightforward approach is simply to start typing using Maestrale Pro � the extensive OpenType programming will ensure that collisions between extenders are avoided and attractive ligatures are substituted for common glyph combinations. A more interactive approach is provided by the font Maestrale Manual, which allows the user to manually select alternate forms and ligatures even in typographically unsavvy applications, such as PowerPoint (as long as standard ligatures are supported). Stylistic alternates are simply represented as ligatures of their base forms with one or more instances of the rarely-used by easily-accessed characters "~" (ASCII tilde) and "`" (spacing grave accent); linking forms are built with �_� (underscore), multi-character ligatures with "|" (pipe), and initial and terminal forms with the �less than� and �greater than� characters. For instance, the Maestrale wordmark in the posters above was simply typeset with the string (`ma`est|r_a```l```e)| in Maestrale Manual (The parentheses represent �less than� and �greater than� characters here.) Feel free to type this string into the test line below and see what happens! Make sure Standard Ligatures are enabled. An instruction sheet listing all alternate forms and their accessibility is available from the Gallery tab on this page. The third mode of usage is aimed at professional designers, who make use of sophisticated software with extensive OpenType support. These power users are advised to use the font Maestrale Pro again, where all glyphs are accessible as stylistic alternates. Maestrale Text is a less extravagant but more versatile variation on the design of Maestrale, replacing Maestrale�s swashes with efficiently compact extenders. It is intended to serve as a perfectly matching text companion to Maestrale calligraphy, but constitutes a full-fledged typeface in its own right. It is equally at home at display sizes as it is in pull quotes, titles, and high-impact blocks of text. Maestrale Text comes in three complementary faces: A serif-style Roman, an upright Cursive, and a tilted Italic. Maestrale is the Italian word for �masterful�. It is also the traditional Italian name for the northwesterly mediterranean wind, better known by its French name, Mistral. Acknowledgements: I am grateful to the helpful souls on the Typophile forums for extensive feedback and encouragement on Maestrale, and to the TypeDrawers forum for feedback on Maestrale Text. This font is dedicated to Simone.

Blank Manuscript allows you to produce sophisticated musical scoresheets even on basic Word Processors - anything from simple plain staves to complex full-page orchestral scores of your own design, to write in the notation yourself. The basic stuff is really easy and straightforward, but there's some quite advanced things you can do as well. So Copy and Save these Instructions. • The main stuff is simple and tends to follow the initial letter. Treble, Bass and Alto clefs are on upper case T B A (there are more clefs, below). The 5 Lines for the clefs are on L or l. • A small v will give a small vertical line (like a bar line) and a Big U will give a Big Upright - these can start or end a line or piece. • Time Signatures - type the following letters: Think of W for Waltz and it's easy to remember that 3/4 time is on W. Then from that they go up or down together like this: V=2/4 W=3/4 X=4/4 Y=5/4 Z=6/4 Compound Times are on H I J K like this: H=3/8 I=6/8 J=9/8 K=12/8 Common Time and Cut Common symbols can be found on semi-colon and colon respectively (all begin with Co- ). 2/2 3/2 are on lower case a and b, 7/4 and 7/8 are on lower case c and d, 5/8 is on small k (think POL-k-A) • Flat signs are on the numbers. Flat signs on LINES 1 to 5 are on numbers 1 to 5. Flat signs on SPACES 1 to 5 are on numbers 6 to 0 (space 1 being above line 1, space 5 being above the top line of the stave). Sharp signs are on the letters BELOW the long-row numbers. Which is q w e r t for the sharp signs on Lines 1 to 5, and y u i o p for sharp signs on spaces 1 to 5. Doing it this way means it works the same for all clefs, whether Treble, Bass, Alto, Tenor or any other. Sharp and Flat Signs always go in this order, depending on how many sharps or flats your key signature requires: Treble Clef Sharps t i p r u o e Flats 3 9 7 4 2 8 6 Bass Clef Sharps r u o e t i w Flats 2 8 6 3 1 7 = Alto Clef Sharps o e t i w r u Flats 7 4 2 8 6 3 1 • Guitar Chord Boxes are on G and g (G for Guitar) Upper Case G has a thick line across the top Lower case g has an open top, for chords up the fretboard TAB symbols are available: Six-string Tablature is on s & S for Six. Four-string Tablature is on f & F for Four. (Lower case has the "TAB" symbol on it, Upper Case has just the lines to continue.) Five-string tablature, is on lower case "j" (as in BAN-j-O) and of course L or l will continue the 5 lines. •RARE CLEF SIGNS including Tenor Clef, are on various punctuation marks, i.e. dollar, percent, circumflex, ampersand & asterisk, above the numbers 4 to 8. NOTE: The important symbols were kept on the letter and number keys, which are fairly standard all over, but some of the less important symbols are on various punctuation keys, which in different countries are not the same as on my keyboard. If it comes out wrong on your system, all I can say is it's right on the systems we've tried, and they'll be in here somewhere, probably on a different key. CLOSING THE ENDS OF THE LINES and BAR-LINES is done with the 3 varieties of brackets - brackets, brace and parentheses - Left/Right for the Left/Right end of the line. Parentheses L/R () which are above 9, 0 give a clef with a small vertical upright (the same as a bar line). Brace L/R and Brackets L/R (both on the 2 keys to the right of P on my keyboard) will close off a staff line with tall upright bars. Brace gives a double upright - one thick, one thin. Brackets give a single tall upright. A Big Upright is on Big U, (Big U for Big Upright) and a small vertical line is on small v (small v for small vertical). The Big Upright is the maximum height, and the small vertical is exactly the same height as a stave. And there's a tall upright Bar, on Bar (which is to the left of z on my keyboard, with Shift,) which is the same height as the bar on upper case U but twice as broad. • There's a staff intended for writing melodies, which is a little bit higher up than an ordinary treble clef giving a space underneath to put lyrics in - on m and M for Melody line. Lower case has the Treble Clef on, Upper case M has just the higher-up staff lines with no clef. (Use mMMMMMMM etc.) However this clef will be in the wrong place to put in sharp and flat signs, key signatures and so on, so if you use this clef you'll have to write the sharps, flats and key signature yourself. There's also a clef that's smaller (less tall) than the ordinary clef, but with the same horizontal spacing so it will align with other standard-sized clefs - on slash (a plain clef) and backslash (with a Treble Clef). • There are some large brackets for enclosing groups of staves, such as you'd use on large orchestral scores, on Upper Case N O P Q R, which can aid clarity. N and O on the left, Q and R on the right. P is a Perpendicular line to be used on both sides to increase the height of the enclosure, in this way but with the staff lines in between: N Q P P P P P P O R OTHERS —————————————— • Repeat marks are on comma (left) and period/full stop (right). • Hyphen is left as a sort of hyphen - it's a thin line like a single staff line, with the same horizontal spacing as ordinary staff lines - in case you want to draw a line across for a Percussion Instrument, or a Title or Lyric Line. • Space is a Space, but with HALF the width or horizontal spacing as ordinary staff lines, so 2 space symbols will be the same width as a clef symbol or line. • Grave (to the left of 1 on the long row, or hold down Alt and type 0096 then let go) gives a staff line that is one eighth the width of an ordinary staff line. • If you want manuscript in a clef and key which requires a flat or sharp sign in the space underneath the 5 lines, they’re on = equals and + plus . SYMBOLS • Many of these symbols will only be useful if you have worked out in advance which bars will need them, but they are here in case you've done that and wish to include them. • Symbols for p and f (piano and forte) are on 'less than' and 'greater than' < > (above comma and full stop) and m for mezzo is on Question, next to them. They can be combined to make mp, mf, ff, pp, etc. These signs -- and other signs and symbols like Pedal Sign, Coda Sign and so on -- can be found on various punctuation mark keys, including above 1, 2, 3 in the long row, and others around the keyboard. There's a sort of logic to their layout, but in different countries the keys are likely to give different results to what is stated here, so it's probably best to just try the punctuation and see if there's any you might want to use. (But on my keyboard a Coda sign is on circumflex - because of the visual similarity. Pedal sign is on underscore. A "Sign" symbol is on exclamation mark.) They were only included in case you really need them to be printed rather than handwritten. • However, a Copyright symbol is deemed necessary, and also included are a "Registered" symbol and a TradeMark symbol. They are found in the conventional places, and can be accessed by holding down ALT and typing 0169, 0174 or 0153 respectively in the numberpad section and letting go. • Staff lines with arco and pizz. above are on capital C and D respectively ---C for ar-C-o. • An empty circle above a staff line (to indicate sections by writing letters A, B, C or 1,2,3 inside for rehearsal marks) is on n. The actual signs for an A, B, C and D in a circle above the staff line can be produced by holding down ALT and typing 0188, 0189, 0190 and 0191 respectively and letting go. • The word "Page", for indicating page numbers, is on the numbersign key. • The two quotes keys, (quote single and quote double) have symbols representing "Tempo is", and "play as triplets", respectively. • INSTRUMENT NAMES There's a whole lot of Instrument Names built in (over a hundred) which can be printed out above the clef, and you do it like this. Hold down Alt and type in the given number in the numberpad section, then let go. For Piccolo it's 0130, for Flute it's 0131, Cornet is on 0154, Violin is on 0193, and the numbers go up to over 0250, it's a fairly complete set. There's also a blank which is used to align un-named clefs on 0096. Put them at the very beginning of the line for the best results. Here they are: WOODWIND Piccolo 0130 Flute 0131 Oboe 0132 Clarinet 0133 Eng Horn 0134 Bassoon 0135 Soprano Sax 0137 Alto Sax 0138 Tenor Sax 0139 Baritone Sax 0140 Saxophone 0142 Contrabassoon 0145 Recorder 0146 Alto Flute 0147 Bass Flute 0148 Oboe d'Amore 0149 Cor anglais 0152 Pipes 0241 Whistle 0242 BRASS Cornet 0154 Trumpet 0155 Flugelhorn 0156 Trombone 0158 Euphonium 0159 Tuba 0161 French Horn 0162 Horn 0163 Tenor Trombone 0164 Bass Trombone 0165 Alto Trombone 0166 Piccolo Cornet 0167 Piccolo Trumpet 0168 Bass Trumpet 0170 Bass Tuba 0171 Brass 0172 VOICES Vocal 0175 Melody 0176 Solo 0177 Harmony 0178 Soprano 0179 Alto 0180 Tenor 0181 Baritone 0182 Treble 0183 Bass 0197 (see also PLUCKED STRINGS) Descant 0184 Mezzo Soprano 0185 Contralto 0186 Counter Tenor 0187 Lead 0206 BOWED STRINGS Strings 0192 Violin 0193 Viola 0194 Cello 0195 Contrabass 0196 Bass 0197 Double Bass 0198 Violoncello 0199 Violin 1 0200 Violin 2 0201 Fiddle 0252 PLUCKED STRINGS Harp 0202 Guitar 0203 Ac. Gtr 0204 El. Gtr 0205 Lead 0206 Bass 0197 Ac. Bass 0207 El. Bass 0208 Slide Gtr 0209 Mandolin 0210 Banjo 0211 Ukelele 0212 Zither 0213 Sitar 0214 Lute 0215 Pedal Steel 0216 Nylon Gtr. 0238 Koto 0239 Fretless 0244 KEYBOARDS + ORGAN Piano 0217 El. Piano 0218 Organ 0219 El. Organ 0220 Harpsichord 0221 Celesta 0222 Accordion 0223 Clavinet 0224 Harmonium 0225 Synth 0226 Synth Bass 0227 Keyboards 0228 Sampler 0249 PERCUSSION and TUNED PERCUSSION Percussion 0229 Drums 0230 Vibes 0231 Marimba 0232 Glockenspiel 0233 Xylophone 0234 Bass marimba 0235 Tubular Bells 0236 Steel Drums 0237 Kalimba 0240 OTHERS Harmonica 0246 Mouth Organ 0247 FX 0251 Intro 0243 Verse 0245 Refrain 0248 Chorus 0250 un-named 0096 (this is a small spacer stave for aligning clefs without a name) ALSO copyright 0169 registered 0174 TradeMark 0153 Rehearsal marks 0188-0191 (giving A, B, C, D in a circle, an empty circle is on n ) Clef signs for Treble Bass Alto without any staff lines 0253-0255 An Alphabetic List of all signs: a 2/2 time b 3/2 time c 7/4 time d 7/8 time e sharp sign, centre line f Tab sign for 4-string tab g Guitar Chord Box, no nut h half-width stave I sharp sign, third space up j Tab sign for 5-string tab k 5/8 time l Lines - 5 horizontal lines for a stave m Melody Clef - a standard clef but placed higher up, with Treble sign n Stave with an empty circle above o sharp sign, fourth space up p sharp sign, space above stave q sharp sign, bottom line r sharp sign, fourth line up s Tab sign for 6-string tab t sharp sign, top line (fifth line up) u sharp sign, second space up v vertical line (bar-line) w sharp sign, second line up x Fretboard, four strings y sharp sign, first space up z Fretboard, five strings A Alto Clef B Bass Clef C “arco” above stave D “pizz.” above stave E Double Vertical Lines F Four Horizontal lines (for 4-string tab) G Guitar Chord Box with nut H 3/8 time I 6/8 time J 9/8 time K 12/8 time L Lines - 5 horizontal lines for a stave M Melody Clef - a standard clef but placed higher up, plain N Bounding Line for grouping clefs - top left O Bounding Line for grouping clefs - bottom left P Bounding Line for grouping clefs - Perpendicular Q Bounding Line for grouping clefs - top right R Bounding Line for grouping clefs - bottom right S Six Horizontal lines (for 6-string tab) T Treble Clef U tall, thin Upright line V 2/4 time W 3 / 4 time X 4/4 time Y 5/4 time Z 6/4 time 1 flat sign, first line up (the lowest line) 2 flat sign, second line up 3 flat sign, third line up 4 flat sign, fourth line up 5 flat sign, fifth line up (the top line) 6 flat sign, first space up (the lowest space) 7 flat sign, second space up 8 flat sign, third space up 9 flat sign, fourth space up 0 flat sign, space above stave