OpenSheetMusicDisplay (OSMD)

A MusicXML renderer for the Browser

About OSMD • Demo • Key Features • Limitations • How to Use OSMD • Sponsor OSMD • About Us • Get In Touch

:star: - Star us on Github - It really helps us a lot!
:pray: - Become our Sponsor - Support our work and receive awesome perks!

About OSMD

How OSMD can look in the browser
(Mockup, OSMD on its own does not support playback)

OpenSheetMusicDisplay renders MusicXML sheet music in the browser. It is the missing link between MusicXML and VexFlow. Built upon many years of experience in both sheet music interactivity and engraving, it is the perfect solution for app developers seeking to build digital sheet music services.

MusicXML is the de facto standard for exchanging sheet music between music software.
VexFlow is widely used for rendering sheet music. It features an extensive library of musical elements, but each measure and symbol has to be created and positioned by hand in Javascript.

OpenSheetMusicDisplay brings the two together and offers an open source turnkey solution for your digital sheet music project.

Demo

Try the Public Demo to see what OSMD can do.
Learn more about the demo and OSMD in the OSMD Wiki.

Developers can also run a local development demo (see Wiki):

Key Features

Displays MusicXML sheet music in a browser(less) environment (Javascript, Typescript, server-side: browserless NodeJS script)
Soon: Audio Playback (work in progress, early access build available for Github sponsors)
Uses Vexflow for rendering and (partly) layout
Parses most MusicXML tags and integrates it into an accessible and modifiable data model (e.g. to change a note's color)
Offers many options (OSMDOptions / EngravingRules): Page Format, Font Family, Positioning, not rendering certain elements like the title or lyrics, etc.
Allows modification of the displayed score, like hiding parts or instruments, hiding instrument names, title or composer, a more compact layout, or coloring notes
Outputs SVG or PNG, also via nodejs script in the command line, completely browserless (e.g. for server-side rendering)
Written in Typescript with complete type information, 100% compatible with Javascript (minified build is .js)
Can display tablature (guitar tabs) from MusicXML, including effects like bends and glissandi. Can be combined with treble clef.

OSMD in the Browser OSMD on Mobile (or server-side rendering)

Limitations

Not all MusicXML tags are (fully) supported:

Pedal marks (currently in early access for sponsors)
Glissando lines
Wavy-line (currently in early access for sponsors)
Etc, see OSMD 1.0 Project

Also, OSMD is a renderer, not an interactive sheet music editor. Rendering takes some time, and you can't easily/quickly move notes, place new notes, etc.
(You can, however, manipulate the SVG nodes for instant changes like note re-coloring, see Exploring the Demo | Wiki)

How to Use OSMD

Available as NPM module, can be used with plain javascript or module managers like webpack
Getting Started: Detailed instructions in our Wiki
If you have further technical questions, you can:
- Leave a comment in our Discussions section (especially for questions of understanding)
- Browse through our Issues
- Open a new issue (may be moved to Discussions).

It would be great if free software were sustainable on its own. But to keep on improving and developing OpenSheetMusicDisplay we need your support. Your monthly sponsorship subscription - especially if you are already actively using OSMD - would mean everything to us - it’s a stable way of enabling us to continue our work, and improve and expand OSMD.
Features already available in early access:

OSMD Audio Player
Jianpu Display (Numbered Musical Notation), with playback

Features in the making, potentially available in future:

Native reference implementations / example projects (Kotlin/Android, Swift/iOS, React Native, etc)
Annotations (Add custom text, music symbols, etc. to the score and export to and import from XML)
and more (we're always working on OSMD improvements or additional features, just look at our release history / changelog!)

Besides the early access features, you can get other perks like a personal postcard from the team in Vienna. Check them out at our GitHub sponsors page.

OSMD Sponsor perks like this t-shirt OSMD button sponsor perk

And there are other ways to contribute to the community - we plan on starting a blog and newsletter, and sharing our knowledge. We encourage our sponsors to bring up their desired features and pitch blog post ideas.

Though we highly recommend the sponsor route, you can also donate via Paypal:

Any support is highly appreciated.

About Us

OSMD is made by Phonicscore - a music-tech company based in Vienna. We create solutions for musicians, sheet music publishers, app developers, music stores and researchers:

Open source software
Sheet Music Rendering Software
Native & web apps: PracticeBird for iOS and Android

Our mission is to provide state of the art software solutions for building MusicXML apps and to include the community in a constant thrive for improvement. We want to take away the pain of building music software from scratch and offer a shortcut when it comes to building your next MusicXML sheet music application.

We also want to thank our Github Contributors, who show that with open source many people come together to not only share but improve software.

Get In Touch

To contact us directly, you can:

Use the Contact form on opensheetmusicdisplay.org to send a mail
Send a mail to support@opensheetmusicdisplay.org
Leave a (public) comment in our Discussions section
Join our Discord (chat) Server
Join the chat on Gitter.