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I am working on a document about shape note singing. This is music notation that is developed off of the solfège scale, where each note is given its respective shape. (Do is an equilateral triangle.)

I've been looking at some Google Docs add-ons which might be useful for inserting music notation, but I didn't find anything for shape notes.

Also, searching online brings up no results for shape notes. I suppose that shape notes are not near as common as its solfège counterpart.

Is there a good way for me to include the shape notes in my Google Document without using images?

C major scale notated in shape notes

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    Word processing applications are poorly suited for notating music. Embedding images is almost always the best option.
    – Andy Bonner
    Aug 9, 2022 at 2:20
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    A note to voters: this question regards a process clearly related to notating music; it is not a direct request for "equipment", even though such a recommendation may comprise an answer.
    – Aaron
    Aug 9, 2022 at 3:17
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    @Aaron (... and comparable, to my mind, to "how do you do ___ in Lilypond," even if the answer is simpler.)
    – Andy Bonner
    Aug 9, 2022 at 14:45
  • @Aaron What do you mean by a "direct request for equipment"? Are you not supposed to ask for the best equipment to help you do music related tasks?
    – Nathan Cochran
    Aug 10, 2022 at 13:44
  • There are certain types of questions considered "off topic" on this site, including "recommendations for specific hardware or software". Your question, however, avoids asking for a specific recommendation and focuses on a process you're trying to accomplish. That type of question is encouraged here. For more see What topics can I ask about here? in the Help center. (And if you haven't taken the site tour, I recommend it. It was quite helpful to me when I joined.
    – Aaron
    Aug 10, 2022 at 13:50

1 Answer 1

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To add shape notes (or any glyph) to a Google Doc, a font supporting those glyphs is required. Google Docs only use Google Fonts, and Google Fonts supports only one music font, Noto Music, which does not include shape notes.

The only option is to embed an image.

What is needed are SMuFL-compliant fonts; however, none are available for Google Docs as of this writing.

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  • Thanks for the help! That is unfortunate, but I'll work it out with images.
    – Nathan Cochran
    Aug 10, 2022 at 13:43

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