Purpose
This library makes it easy to incorporate sheet music into your websites. It is primarily aimed at javascript developers. The amount of javascript required for simple uses is very small, though, so one doesn't need to be an expert.
Uses
Draw arbitrary sheet music.
Instantly modify the music.
Do animation effects with the drawn music.
Style the music using CSS.
Create synthesized audio for the music.
Search for ABC formatted strings on a webpage (for instance in post or comments on a blog) and turn them into sheet music.
Allow the user to modify the music instantly by typing an ABC string.
NOT
- It does not provide a visual editor (although it could be used as a basis if you want to write one.)
Open Source Apps that require no programming
If you just want to render your abc but aren't trying to make an entire website, there are a number of openly accessible apps that you can use.
For working with tunes in the browser, see the Editor.
Also see Michael Eskin's ABC Tools for a much more fully-featured editor.
If you are using VSCode, there is an extension that you install. Get to the extension panel with shift-cmd-X, then search for "abcjs". Once you install that you can see the notation rendered as you type in a file. To use it, open your tune file (ending in
.abc) and type shift-cmd-P to get the command pallet. Search for "abcjs" to open the preview pane.
Browser/device support
The visual part of this library is supported from IE9 and newer, Safari 5.1 and newer, and all modern browsers.
This synth audio part of this library does not work on IE, but works on any system that supports
AudioContext.resumeandPromises. That is, any browser newer than Firefox 40, Safari 9.1, Edge 13, and Chrome 43.
Supported by BrowserStack
If you aren't using the same browser and machine that I use, you can thank BrowserStack for their support of this open-source project.
