# Making a bundle Start to finish: a score PDF in, one `.zip` out that noteman can open. Fifteen minutes for a typical four-page song, most of it spent nudging cuts. ## Install ``` uv tool install --editable . ``` That puts `noteman-slicer` on PATH; it runs from any directory. Everything it needs is a wheel — no system packages. LilyPond is optional and only enables re-engraving (below); without it the tool works the same minus that pane. ## The one command you need ``` noteman-slicer edit my-song.pdf ``` The editor opens on page 1 with detection's guesses already drawn: horizontal **cuts** between the systems, a **skew** correction, and a blue **content rectangle** marking what is music rather than page margin. All of it is a starting point — detection is an accelerator, not an authority. Fix whatever is wrong. Your work is saved to `my-song.slicer.json` next to the PDF, automatically on export and with Ctrl+S any time. Closing and reopening picks up where you left off. ## What you do on each page 1. **Straighten it.** If the staff lines slope, turn the *Skew* dial until they are level. The preview updates live. 2. **Fix the cuts.** One cut line per boundary between systems. Double-click to add one, drag to move it, right-click to delete it. A cut is a polyline, not a straight line — Ctrl-click on a cut adds a vertex, so it can bend around a low-hanging lyric or a slur that crosses the gap. Right-click a vertex to drop it. 3. **Discard what isn't music.** Page headers, footers, page numbers and title blocks are slices too, and they should not reach the tablet. Click the slice, press D. Discarded slices show hatched. D again brings one back. 4. **Set the content rectangle.** Drag the blue edges so they hold the music and nothing else. This is the horizontal crop for every slice on the page. 5. **Set black and white points.** Pull the *White point* down until the paper goes pure white and its texture disappears; pull *Black point* up until the notes are solid black rather than grey mush. Scans need this; clean digital PDFs usually don't. Page Up / Page Down move between pages. Levels carry over from the previous page, so a consistent scan only needs setting once. ## Markers Markers are the navigation symbols noteman uses to jump around the score: rehearsal letters, section labels, segno, coda, fine, repeats, voltas, and the D.S./D.C. instructions. They belong to a slice. Select the slice, pick the type, type a label if the type takes one (rehearsal letters, section labels and voltas do), and press **Add**. Jump markers — *to coda*, *D.S. al coda*, *D.C. al fine* and friends — also need a destination. After adding one, press **Set target…** and click the slice it jumps to, on any page. That is what lets noteman follow the repeat structure instead of just scrolling. ## The title block Fill in the *Song* section. **Title is required** — export refuses without one. The rest (subtitle, composer, original artist, arranger, lyricist, translator, voices) is optional and travels with the bundle into noteman's library. *Tempo* is beats per minute, a number, because a number can drive a metronome and "Andante" cannot. ## Export **Export bundle…**, choose where the `.zip` goes, done. Inside are the slice images in order, their markers, the song metadata, and the original PDF as the archive copy. That zip is the whole interface to noteman; hand it over and open it there. Two things worth knowing: - **Shrink the original PDF…** offers to store the archived PDF as bilevel, which is dramatically smaller for scans. It shows you a before/after crop first — check that the staff lines survived. It never touches the slices. - **An exported project is spent.** Reopening the same PDF starts fresh from detection rather than resuming decisions that already shipped. If you really want the old cuts back, `noteman-slicer edit my-song.pdf --resume`. ## Re-engraving a slice (optional, needs LilyPond) When a system is beyond rescue — a bad scan, a wrong transposition, a passage you want rewritten — shift-double-click it. A window opens where you enter the music as LilyPond, one block per voice, render, and compare against the original. Accept and the rendered version replaces that slice in the bundle. The LilyPond you typed travels in the bundle alongside the image, so the passage can be corrected and re-engraved later, or played, without the project file. ## Mouse and keyboard | | | |---|---| | Double-click | add a cut | | Drag a cut | move it | | Ctrl-click a cut | add a vertex | | Right-click | delete the cut or vertex under the cursor | | Click a slice, then D | discard it (or bring it back) | | Drag the blue edges | resize the content rectangle | | Shift-double-click a slice | re-engrave it | | Page Up / Page Down | previous / next page | | Ctrl+S | save the project | ## What the tool won't do Erasing a previous owner's pencil marks, chord letters and breath marks. Do that in GIMP before slicing — with a stylus it is quick, and no amount of thresholding substitutes for it. ## When something looks wrong | | | |---|---| | Detection found no systems, or one giant one | The score has no bracket joining the staves; add the cuts by hand. | | "The PDF has changed since these cuts were made" | The file was edited or replaced under an existing project. The cuts probably no longer line up — re-cut. | | Export says a title is required | Fill in *Song → Title*. | | Slices look grey and washed out | The white point is too high. | | Notes have holes in them | The black point is too high. | ## The command line The editor is the tool; these exist for checking things quickly. ``` noteman-slicer info my-song.pdf # source type and page rasters noteman-slicer detect my-song.pdf # detection results + debug overlays noteman-slicer project my-song.pdf # what the project file currently holds noteman-slicer export my-song.pdf # export without opening the editor ``` Every command takes `--type raster|vector` to override source-type detection.