iWriteMusic vs LilyPond
iWriteMusic
iwritemusicapp.comLilyPond
lilypond.orgSide by side
| Figure | iWriteMusic | LilyPond |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Music notation software | 8.3 (#13) | 8.4 (#9) |
| Deployment | desktop | desktop |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The maker says Standard MIDI exports can be imported by other apps such as GarageBand. | The official features page describes integrating music into LaTeX or HTML and adding it to OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice with the OOoLilyPond extension. |
| MIDI support | Yes | Yes |
| MusicXML support | No | Yes |
| Parts extraction | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | iWriteMusic is a music notation app for creating sheet music, lesson materials, lead sheets, scores, and parts. | LilyPond is a music engraving program for producing sheet music. |
Plans
iWriteMusic
- iWriteMusicPrice not published
- iWriteMusic ProPrice not published
- iWriteMusic Free / SEFree
- iWriteMusic (free version / SE)Free
- iWriteMusic Pro (US App Store)$12.99, paid once
In their own words
iWriteMusic
iWriteMusic has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.