Native vector drawing with musical anchors — prototype for official MuseScore integration

[brenostoliveira]

Hi everyone,

I would like to present a native vector drawing editor that I have been developing in a modified build of MuseScore Studio 4.7.5, and propose it for review and possible inclusion in an upcoming official update.

The idea is to draw directly on the score and connect those drawings to musical positions. A curve, arrow or other graphic can belong to a note, a rest or a rhythmic subdivision, so it can follow changes to the score layout.

This could be useful for contemporary and experimental notation, technique transitions, graphic instructions and other markings that need more freedom than a fixed symbol provides.

What is implemented

Drawing and editing on the score

• Freehand pencil with adjustable smoothing, Bézier pen, lines, rectangles, ellipses, triangles and several arrow styles.
• Selection and transformation: resize, stretch, rotate, skew, and flip horizontally or vertically. Modifier keys support proportional and symmetric adjustments.
• Point editing: add, delete, move and join points, including endpoints. Selected drawings are highlighted to make their boundaries easier to see.
• Erasing whole drawings, touched portions, or areas inside an eraser shape.
• Importing external SVG artwork.
• SVG selection and editing are integrated exclusively into drawing mode.

Musical anchoring and layout

• Attachments to notes/rests or to a rhythmic subdivision grid.
• Visible attachment guides, with nearby anchors revealed during editing.
• Tools for linking and unlinking points, and changing the staff associated with a drawing.
• Logic for compressing or expanding drawings with measure spacing, splitting them across system breaks, and restoring the source drawing when a break is removed.
• Separate continuation controls for the end of one system and the beginning of the next.

The reflow and continuation tools are implemented, but I would particularly welcome broader testing with different scores and layouts.

Text, symbols and normal score workflow

• Editable text and characters from MuseScore's special/musical character picker, with transformation and a single musical attachment.
• A drawing-mode button at the right end of the note input toolbar, a compact tool panel and contextual options.
• Ctrl+Alt+D to toggle drawing mode and Esc to leave it.
• An optional Keep visible setting for the panel. Its icons fade when drawing mode is inactive; selecting a tool activates the mode again.
• Integration with MuseScore's undo/redo workflow.

SVG selection and editing are handled by the drawing-mode tools. Outside drawing mode, SVG placement does not interfere with the normal score-editing workflow: notes and other score elements behind an SVG can be selected. In drawing mode, transparent or unpainted areas allow selection of drawings behind it.

The native implementation stores the embedded SVG artwork and its editable geometry/attachment metadata in the score's .mscz / .mscx file. It does not require a separate .musedraw project or a separate plugin window.

These drawings are visual notation; they do not automatically create playback instructions.

Video demonstrations

Freehand drawing

Freehand drawing directly on the score, creating strokes and curves across different staves. Guides show the musical positions available for attaching drawings.

01-freehand-drawing.mp4

Layout adaptation

As measures are rearranged across systems, attached drawings adapt to the new layout. This clip shows drawings splitting and continuing across system breaks.

02-system-reflow.mp4

Point editing

Adjusting an existing curve by editing its points. Individual details of the path can be changed without redrawing the entire figure.

03-point-editing.mp4

Normal score editing

Selecting and editing notes while drawings remain on the score. This clip shows switching between the drawing tools and the normal music-editing workflow.

04-normal-score-editing.mp4

Shapes and arrows

Adding geometric shapes and arrows directly to the score. These tools provide graphical markings that complement the musical notation.

05-shapes-and-arrows.mp4

Text and musical characters

Inserting and editing text in drawing mode, followed by use of MuseScore's musical character picker. Text and symbols can be combined with graphical score markings.

06-text-and-symbols.mp4

External feedback and file compatibility

I shared a build with a university professor, who tested it, gave positive feedback, and reported successfully opening a score saved with it in the official MuseScore Studio release.

That is an encouraging initial compatibility result. This external report confirms that the file could be opened; complete rendering and save/reopen compatibility with the official version still need validation.

The native vector editing and musical attachments belong to this modified build. Preservation of that additional metadata through an official-version save/reopen cycle still needs validation.

Current status

This is an experimental implementation with a compiled Windows portable build. A source patch against MuseScore Studio 4.7.5 is also available for evaluation.

Compilation and static QML checks have passed for the latest changes. I have also confirmed that text and characters work correctly in my manual use of this version. Development has included external feedback, but broader release validation is still needed. macOS and Linux builds have not been validated, and translation coverage outside Portuguese is incomplete.

The current output and parts status is:

Workflow	Current result
Score PDF export	Confirmed working in my manual use.
Physical printing	Successful PDF export is encouraging, but physical printing has not been directly confirmed.
Opening individual instrument parts	A compatibility problem remains in the current implementation.
Exporting individual parts to PDF	Not yet validated and may fail because of the parts compatibility problem.

I am preparing an update to fix compatibility with separate instrument parts and to broaden validation of that workflow.

With MuseScore Studio 4.7.6 in development, I can check and adapt the integration of these changes to that version, validating the relevant workflows so the implementation works well on the new codebase. The build currently available is still based on version 4.7.5; compatibility with 4.7.6 has yet to be ported and verified.

Proposal for official integration

Would the maintainers be interested in reviewing this implementation and considering it for the next official update, potentially 4.7.6, if it can meet the project's design, compatibility and quality requirements? I am available to work against the 4.7.6 codebase and verify the integration of these changes.

I would welcome feedback on the interface, the attachment/reflow model and the score-file representation. I would also appreciate guidance on preparing the work as smaller, reviewable contributions and on the appropriate release target.

This may complement the existing contemporary music notation palette proposal (#34929). A flexible drawing and attachment layer could support some related graphical workflows alongside dedicated notation objects.

A Windows portable build and the source patch can be shared with maintainers and interested testers. I would be glad to demonstrate the workflow and discuss how to adapt it for upstream development.

Thank you for considering it.

Breno

[brenostoliveira]

I have continued improving drawing-mode responsiveness and compatibility with separate instrument parts.

Smoother editing: point dragging, transformations, and erasing have been optimized. The latest installed build feels much more responsive in my manual use.
Drawings shared across staves: a drawing attached to multiple staves is now copied into each corresponding instrument part.
Saving and reopening parts: fixes preserve embedded SVGs and staff attachments in separate part files, including piano parts with two staves. Export, save/reopen, and PDF checks have passed in the tested quartet and piano scenarios.
Part switching and layout: pending drawing edits are committed when switching scores or parts, and measures containing drawings are protected from being hidden inside multimeasure rests.
Separate instrument parts now preserve SVG drawings without distortion or unintended shifts in position in my latest manual tests. Part extraction also completes without crashing. This resolves the parts-layout problem described in the original post for the cases I have tested.

The latest corrections preserve drawing proportions and intended placement in the individual parts while retaining the improved drawing-mode responsiveness. Broader testing with different scores and layouts is still welcome.

I will continue refining the implementation and sharing the results.

[brenostoliveira]

Download available

The modified MuseScore build is now available for testing:

Download the modified MuseScore build (Windows)

This is an independent experimental build based on MuseScore Studio 4.7.5. Feedback on drawing tools, musical anchoring, score layout, and separate instrument parts is welcome.