Need help with Orpheus? You’re in the right place!
Annotations are saved as a separate layer in the cache so your original chart will be preserved.
Maeve Lander is a software developer by day, trumpeter and arranger by night. She created Orpheus ~10 years ago, when Android was first born. It has gone through iteration over the years, but has always held true to the original vision; a minimalist sheet music reader that just does one thing, really well.
Comments are for discussing this post with other visitors. For technical support please submit a request here.
Stephan Pelletier
Hi Maeve! Your app looks great. I am considering it. Question: is it possible to leave a box of typed-text on the PDF page? (instead of hands-free annotation or the Comments tool which hides the text behind the comments icon) Specifically, I would like to always see some typed-text box(es) to indicate my synthesizer settings (and I’d prefer your tool to do this rather than me adding this info in the PDF doc (as any change is more time-consuming). Thank you!
Maeve Lander
You can leave typed text as a comment using the annotations feature, but as you observed, it requires a tap on the comment icon to reveal. I have made a note of your request as it does sound useful to have a plain text tool. I will look into the possibility of adding this feature in the future. Thanks.
Steve Ashcroft
I’ve discovered that it is possible to annotate with typed text that remains visible. With a score open press on the Annotate icon. Then press and hold on an empty area of the screen. A pop-up menu appears in which one of the icons is for text entry (T|). Select this and a window opens into which you can type or paste text. Close the window by pressing Save and the text appears on the screen and, while still in Annotate mode, can be positioned by pressing and dragging. The text stays visible on the screen.
Catarina
Hi Maeve.
I am new to this app, and am still going through the motions of getting a large screen and a foot page turner.
I was wondering, after seing this section, will a stylus work to make fingering annotations?
Thanks
Catarina
Maeve Lander
Yes, a stylus will work well for annotations. A finger works too – protip: try zooming in for finer control.
Dan Robinson
Hi Maeve,
Very much appreciate the effort you have put into this app. It’s great for me as a drummer often with hand written charts. Love it!
Wondered if I could request the option to save charts as new pdf files after annotations, edits, lines, shapes etc… have been added so that the changes made in orpheus could be shared. Currently if I make any adjustments or edits in orpheus I have no means of sending the pdf file on to other musicians.
Also wondered if you could add into the shapes menu, the option for a stave. (4,5 and 6 line maybe). So that we could add whole new lines and annotate the dots onto the stave? Just some thoughts!
Very grateful for this app. Thank you!!!
Dan
Michael
Hi,
Just getting started with “O”. Thank you! Would you consider typed in annotations? e.g. piano fingering. Type is neater then scribble, and thus smaller. And the ability to fine-adjust the location of the text box.
Michael
Maeve Lander
Thanks for the feedback and feature suggestion Michael. I can certainly register a +1 for that feature and will consider it in the future if there is significant demand.
Jeff
Is there a way to preserve annotations when I move the file to a different folder?
Maeve Lander
Not automatically sorry. But there may be a bit of a manual hack… find the cache directory where the annotation layer is stored and move it to match thew new structure using a file manager app. I haven’t tried it, but theoretically, it might work.
Giuseppe mangia
Is It possibile to cancel single annotations After saving the file, without clearing all of the annotations from the file?
Maeve Lander
Yes. Tap on the annotation to select it, then you should see the trash can icon.
Leo
Was looking for an answer to this question and found it. Great, another plus for this app! Thank you.
LUI DAVID
Hi ! How can I erase the former part of the annotation , not all but only couple corrections ? Thanks !
Maeve Lander
In annotations mode, tap on an existing annotation > trash icon. This will delete just that that annotation, leaving other annotations on the same score in tact. Alternatively, you could use the eraser tool to erase just part of an annotation.
John Sealy
I have been using the app for a year and enjoying it very much. Recently while struggling with updating my folders using dropbox I somehow deleted all my annotations. Is there a way to get these back or are they gone forever?
Thanks!
Maeve Lander
Unfortunately not at this moment in time. When uninstalling an app there is a message asking to confirm to delete all app data. As it says, it will delete all data stored by an app. This is true for any Android app. I am thinking of adding a backup feature, or import/export in the future which would preserve annotations, set lists etc in the case of tablet upgrade, or scenario like this.
Andy
Can I save the annotations from the cache to a file to restore it later?
Thank you for your great tool!
Andy
Maeve Lander
I’m afraid this is not possible at present. But I agree it would be helpful to have a way to save/backup/restore annotations. I will look into that as a future feature. Thanks Andy!
Dieter Cailliau
When a score is located in dropbox, it would make sense to store its annotations in dropbox too (maybe by putting annotation files in a dedicated folder in dropbox). This way, when i use my backup tablet, a still have my annotations.
It would also make sense to synchronize setlists (maybe via a file in dropbox) for the same reason.
I guess we use dropbox more as a way to carry our documents from one personal tablet to the next. We don’t use it to share documents in a band, since each band member typically has a different score for each song.
Thanks!
Maeve Lander
Good news – I’m in the process of a major upgrade that will greatly improve the backup, migration and sync functions so that Orpheus is easier to use across multiple devices, including iOS, Android and Web. ETA early 2025 (it’s a big job 🙂 )
Thanks for being an Orpheus user, and I hope you’ll enjoy the improved syncing options when they arrive.