New Hampshire Old-Time Fiddle Web Site

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abc Software

There is abc software for various purposes. Most people who use abc notation use at least one application that facilitates editing abc code. Probably it also displays the tune as standard notation and can play back the tune. There is software to take abc code and turn it into high-quality output, suitable for printing. There is software for special purposes like turning abc code into tablature or pipe notation.

Here is a small representation of available software. As I use a Mac I know very little about PC-only software, so I won't try to cover it.

• abc Software at the abc Home Page. This is probably the most comprehensive list available and always is worth consulting.
  • Guide to abc Software. This is a Very Helpful List of abc software that Chris Walshaw (inventor of abc notation) finds useful.
• EasyABC. Mac, Linux and Windows. This is the editor I use nearly all the time. It was started by Nils Liberg whose site is a good source of information. He is no longer developing it, and it's become an open source project. The initial link is good for the current version. There is good documentation available as well.
• abcm2ps & abc2svg. Software from Jean-François Moine that produces high-quality output for printing. This is used by many/most abc editors for printing, and is thus very important for the abc standard. See the entry elsewhere on this page concerning its documentation.
• Tunebook and the Craic. These are what I use on my iPhone and iPad. Both are fairly complete editors with display and playback capabilities. Tunebook has been around longer and has some features that are missing from the Craic; but the Craic is from the same person who wrote BarFly. Allthough not compatible with OS X that was one of the best abc editors available for any computer. I expect the Craic will follow in its footsteps.
• abcConverter. This is a web-based abc interpreter. It can produce standard notation in PDF format and playable midi files.

That's the end of the tutorial on abc notation and the section on abc links. You can use the links pages to find much additional information about abc notation as well as thousands of tunes in abc format.

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