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SPECIFICTION
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Canorus vs LilyPond

Canorus

github.com

LilyPond

lilypond.org

Side by side

FigureCanorusLilyPond
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Plans published11
Spec score · Music notation software8.2 (#15)8.4 (#9)
Deploymentdesktopdesktop
Free planYesYes
LicenseThe project README says Canorus is licensed under GPLv3 and makes its source code publicly available.LilyPond is published under the GNU General Public License, and the official Freedom page also identifies the GNU Free Documentation License.
MIDI supportYesYes
MusicXML supportYesYes
PurposeCanorus is a free music score editor for writing and editing musical notation.LilyPond is a music engraving program for producing sheet music.
SupportThe opened project pages provide a user guide reference and a GitHub issue tracker for project questions and reports.The lilypond-user mailing list is the main place for users to discuss the program and help one another; some support is also available on IRC.

Plans

Canorus

  • CanorusFree

Canorus pricing →

LilyPond

  • LilyPondFree

LilyPond pricing →

In their own words

Canorus

Canorus has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit github.com

LilyPond

LilyPond is a desktop music-engraving program for producing sheet music, from classical and early music to modern scores, tablature, vocal music, lead sheets, educational materials, and orchestral projects. You enter score information as human-readable text; LilyPond then handles spacing, page and line breaks, clashes among lyrics, notes, and chords, and the shaping of slurs and beams. Layout settings can be changed, with text-based style sheets and functions written in the built-in Scheme language. Programs or scripts can edit or generate input files, and the command-line tool can be called from other applications. The site describes integrations for LaTeX and HTML, plus an extension for OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. User-developed editors include Frescobaldi, Denemo, and Spontini-Editor; they are separate from LilyPond’s core. The text workflow can be used with speech recognition and screen readers. LilyPond is free software under the GNU General Public License, with GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows desktop support. Windows binaries do not support Windows 7 or 8; macOS binaries require version 10.15 or later.

Visit lilypond.org