Finger Diagram Fonts and Images

Flutopedia offers several resources for people who would like to write out sheet music with finger diagrams:

• SNAFT — A simple, character-based way of typing finger diagrams, such as <xox|ooo. This is described on the SNAFT web page.
• Finger Diagram Fonts (this page) — A set of TrueType fonts that have high-quality finger diagrams in the place of letters. You install these on your system and use them in an application program such as Microsoft Word or Finale. Fonts are currently available for Native American flutes (six-hole, five-hole, and Hopi flutes) as well as for the Fujara.
• Finger Diagram Images (this page) — A set of GIF image files with finger diagrams. These are available in various orientations (vertical, horizontal, inverted), several sizes, and with a white or transparent background. These image files are new with version 1.06.

If you are just typing an email, SNAFT will probably suffice. The Finger Diagram Images are ideal for displaying finger diagrams on web pages. For serious scoring of music, especially if you expect to do a fair number of transcriptions, you probably want to invest the time to install the Finger Diagram Fonts.

I have used the Finger Diagram Fonts to score three Mary Youngblood song books ([Youngblood 2003]. [Youngblood 2003a]. and [Youngblood 2004]) as well as all the images and PDF files containing sheet music on Flutopedia. The Finger Diagram Images are used on Flutopedia's web pages.

The finger diagram fonts and images generally look like this: for six-hole flutes. There are also diagrams for five-hole flutes and Anasazi-style five-hole flutes , six-hole flutes with a thumb hole , four-hole flutes in Mojave style, Yuma style, and four-hole flutes with an uneven spacing , and Papago-style three-hole flutes (without a thumb hole) and (with a thumb hole), seven-hole flutes in 3-4 configuration, 4-3 configuration, and with a thumb hole, eight hole flutes, Baroque / English Recorders , the Chinese Xiao , as well as the Slovakian Fujara .

As you can see in the paragraph above, using the vertical version of the finger diagram fonts tends to disturb the line spacing on a typeset page. To allow a more streamlined version of the text, horizontal versions of many fonts are provided. For example: for six-hole flutes, for five-hole flutes, for Xiao flutes, and and for Papago flutes.

An Example

Here is a reduced-size example of a page scored with these finger diagram fonts, typeset in Finale 2004:

The fonts are in TrueType format (.TTF) and have been tested on Microsoft Windows^®. Use on Mac systems is not specifically supported, but people seem to have no problems with them.

These fonts are freely distributable. However, any document (printed, electronic, or otherwise) that makes use of any of these fonts must carry the inscription:

Finger diagrams courtesy of Clint Goss, www.Flutopedia.com

Composite Finger Diagram Fonts

In the finger diagram fonts shown above on this page, each character of the font represents a particular finger pattern (combination of open and closed holes) on the flute. Each font has all of the common finger patterns and as many alternate and unusual finger patterns for that instrument. However, it is not possible using this strategy to represent all the possible finger patterns in a single finger diagram font. This leads to problems for users who wish to represent a finger pattern in their publications that is not included in the finger diagram font.

To address this issue, a set of Composite Finger Diagram Fonts were introduced in version 1.22 of the font package (July 2016). As opposed to the “Classic Finger Diagram Fonts” described above:

• each character in a Composite Finger Diagram Font describes a single finger hole. Some examples:
• typing a character in a composite finger diagram font does not move the cursor forward.

This arrangement lets you type a “stack” of characters that lay on top of each other and create virtually any finger pattern you need. This entry method is slower for typical work (it usually takes six characters to represent one finger pattern on a six hole flute) and typing can get tricky since the cursor does not move, but at least you can have confidence that it is possibly to get virtually any finger pattern you need without requesting additions to the font.

The Fonts

Twenty one TrueType fonts are provided in the distribution package:

NAFTracks Six Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SixHole.ttf

A full set of finger diagrams for six-hole Native American flutes, including half-hole diagrams, smaller diagrams for grace notes, and diagrams for the drone side of a double flute. This font can also be used for diatonic flutes as well as Anasazi flutes.

This font also has finger diagrams for five-hole Native American flutes, so if you need the occasional five-hole finger diagram in a document that has primarily six-hole finger diagrams, you don't have to switch fonts.

NAFTracks Six Hole Inverted

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SixHoleInverted.ttf

The same as the NAFTracks Six Hole font, with the mouth end of the flute at the bottom. I call these “inverted”, although you may consider these the normal direction for finger diagrams.

NAFTracks Six Hole Horizontal

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SixHoleHorizontal.ttf

The same as the NAFTracks Six Hole font, with the mouth end of the flute to the left. These are particularly useful in-line with text.

NAFTracks Six Hole Thumb

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SixHoleThumb.ttf

The same as the NAFTracks Six Hole font, with the top hole shown off to the side to indicate a thumb hole.

NAFTracks Seven Hole 34

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SevenHole_34.ttf

Finger diagrams for seven hole flutes with groups of 3 upper fingers and 4 lower fingers.

NAFTracks Seven Hole 43

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SevenHole_43.ttf

Finger diagrams for seven hole flutes with groups of 4 upper fingers and 3 lower fingers.

NAFTracks Seven Hole Thumb

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SevenHole_T33.ttf

Finger diagrams for seven hole flutes with a thumb hole and two groups of 3 fingers on the front.

NAFTracks Eight Hole 44

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_EightHole_44.ttf

Finger diagrams for eight hole flutes with two groups of 4 fingers.

NAFTracks Five Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_FiveHole.ttf

A full set of finger diagrams for five-hole Native American flutes, including half-hole diagrams, smaller diagrams for grace notes, and diagrams for the drone side of a double flute.

NAFTracks Five Hole Inverted

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_FiveHoleInverted.ttf

The same as the NAFTracks Five Hole font, with the mouth end of the flute at the bottom.

NAFTracks Five Hole Horizontal

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_FiveHoleHorizontal.ttf

The same as the NAFTracks Five Hole font, with the mouth end of the flute at the left. These are particularly useful in-line with text.

NAFTracks Hopi Five Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_HopiFiveHole.ttf

A full set of finger diagrams for five-hole Hopi-style flutes.

NAFTracks Mojave Four Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_MojaveFourHole.ttf

NAFTracks Yuma Four Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_YumaFourHole.ttf

NAFTracks Uneven Four Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_UnevenFourHole.ttf

NAFTracks Papago Three Hole

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_PapagoThreeHole.ttf

A full set of finger diagrams for three-hole Papago-style and similar Pima style flutes. Even though this font is called “Three Hole”, it does have four-hole versions of the finger diagrams that show a thumb hole.

NAFTracks Papago Three Hole Horizontal

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_PapagoThreeHoleHorizontal.ttf

A horizontal version of the Papago Three Hole font, ideal for use in-line with text.

NAFTracks Recorder

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_Recorder.ttf

A full set of finger diagrams for Baroque / English recorders based on [Dolmetsch 2001] .

NAFTracks Six Hole to Diatonic

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_SixHoleToDiatonic.ttf

A special-purpose font that allows fast conversion from a document scored with the NAFTracks Six Hole font to be re-scored for a diatonic flute simply by swapping the underlying font for the finger diagrams.

This font should probably not be used for general-purpose use — use the NAFTracks Six Hole font instead.

NAFTracks Fujara

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_Fujara.ttf

A font for the Slovakian Fujara.

NAFTracks Xiao

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_Xiao.ttf

A font for the Xiao, a traditional Chinese instrument. First released with version 1.18 of the font package on June 10, 2015. This font was developed in collaboration with Scott August.

Notice that it is narrower than most of the other fonts: 18 pixels wide rather than 20 pixels in the “medium” size.

NAFTracks Xiao Horizontal

TrueType font file: NAFTracks_XiaoHorizontal.ttf

A horizontal version of the Xiao font, ideal for use in-line with text.

Examples of the Fonts

The fonts have full-size finger diagrams such as and as well as smaller diagrams to represent grace notes. Here is an example of a grace note preceding a regular note: … A bark on a Native Flute might be represented like this:

Fonts also have diagrams to represent a drone portion of a flute, in two forms (“open” and “closed”): and

There are some specialized finger diagrams in the Six Hole font to indicate overblow into the second register and the third register:

Indicators are provided for half-holing and shading a hole. For example, for the SNAFT "h" (half), for the SNAFT "c" (cracked), and for the SNAFT "q" (quarter-closed).

Indicators are also privided for trilling. For example:

Here are examples of the Five Hole font: the Hopi Five Hole font: the Mojave Four Hole font: the Yuma Four Hole font: the Uneven Four Hole font: and the Papago Three Hole font:

The fujara font has finger diagrams that look like this: … There are also diagrams to represent effects that are specific to the Slovakian fujara: a scatter before the note: … and a woosh after the note:

Blank Staff Paper

Blank Staff Paper is available in PDF format for all the fonts provided on this page. See the Blank Native American flute Tablature page.

Conversion Between Fonts

The fonts for Native American flutes are designed to let you easily convert between Six Hole and Five Hole versions of the same transcription. If you have a transcription which uses the Six Hole font, simply change the font of all the finger diagrams to Five Hole. This would be done the way you might change text from Times Roman to Arial. Then your transcription would have diagrams for five-hole Native Flutes.

The same applies to changing to a diatonic flute … the Six Hole To Diatonic font is specifically designed for this purpose.

You can convert directly between the upright and inverted versions of the Five Hole and Six Hole fonts.

If you publish music with these finger diagrams, I encourage you to include versions with six-hole and five-hole finger diagrams, both the upright and inverted, to allow use by as many people as possible.

Typing the Finger Diagrams

When using these finger diagram fonts, you will typically be typing a single keyboard letter to get one finger diagram. However, the correspondence between the letters on the keyboard and the finger diagrams is not obvious.

Before getting into the font keys (described below) that tell you how to get every variant of every finger diagram in each font, here's a quick primer on what to type to get the basic characters:

NAFTracks Six Hole

Typing keyboard characters  1   3   4   5   7   8  in the NAFTracks Six Hole font will get you the pentatonic minor scale:

Adding the additional digits will get you a more complete scale. So  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   0  gives you:

For even more notes, start adding the shifted versions of the digits:  ! ,  @ ,  # ,  $ ,  % ,  ^ ,  & ,  * ,  ( , and  ) . They will get you the intermediate notes between these basic notes. For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

NAFTracks Five Hole

Typing keyboard characters  1   3   4   5   7   8  in the NAFTracks Five Hole font will get you the pentatonic minor scale:

Adding the additional digits will get you a more complete scale. So  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   0  gives you:

For even more notes, start adding the shifted versions of the digits:  ! ,  @ ,  # ,  $ ,  % ,  ^ ,  & ,  * ,  ( , and  ) . They will get you the intermediate notes between these basic notes. For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

NAFTracks Recorder

Because recorders are adept at playing the full chromatic scale, the NAFTracks Recorder font is laid out in an approximation of the piano keyboard. The keyboard characters  q   w   e   r   t   y   u  in the NAFTracks Recorder font get you the basic (all-white-keys) sequence: . The character  z  begins the next higher octave. Refer to the FontKey_Recorder.pdf document (or the comprehensive FingerDiagramImages.pdf document which contains the Font Key for the Recorder font) for a key that shows the layout of all characters in this font.

NAFTracks Mojave Four Hole

Typing keyboard characters  0   1   3   7   F  in the NAFTracks Mojave Four Hole font will get you the basic sequence:

For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

NAFTracks Yuma Four Hole

Typing keyboard characters  0   1   3   7   F  in the NAFTracks Yuma Four Hole font will get you the basic sequence:

For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

NAFTracks Uneven Four Hole

Typing keyboard characters  0   1   3   7   F  in the NAFTracks Uneven Four Hole font will get you the basic sequence:

For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

NAFTracks Papago Three Hole

Typing keyboard characters  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  in the NAFTracks Papago Three Hole font will get you the basic sequence:

To get the version of the finger diagrams that show a thumb hole, type the keyboard characters A B C D … for full-size images and a b c d … for grace notes:

…

For more finger diagrams, including half-holed notes and grace notes, see the Font Keys section below.

Font Keys

To help you map keyboard characters to the finger diagram you want, several types of font keys are included with the distribution package. Before working with any of these fonts, it is a good idea to print out the appropriate Font Key for that font to have alongside your work for reference. At first, it might not seem like there is a coherent layout to the finger diagrams, but after you work with them for a while you will begin to see the pattern.

Pick the type of font key that best works for you:

FontDiagrams.pdf

This file contains a complete listing of all characters in all fonts. It is a PDF export from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

The fonts are sorted based on their binary bit representation, which may or may not be ideal for your use. However, every single character/finger diagram is displayed on these sheets, so it is a complete listing. This document might also be useful as the source of a cut-and-paste, especially on Apple operating systems that do not provide easy access to all of the extended characters.

Here is a direct link to the FontDiagrams.pdf document.

FingerDiagramImages.pdf

Another approach to font keys. It is a PDF export from a Corel Draw file that I use to generate the finger diagram images.

This font key is probably more straightforward to use, but has less complete and less detailed information. Note that the grace notes are not shown in this font key.

Some finger diagrams in this font key are show in red. They can be used just like any other finger diagram — the red simply indicates that they are copies of other finger diagrams show earlier in that font.

Here is a direct link to the FingerDiagramImages.pdf document.

There is also a specific font key for the Recorder font in the FontKey_Recorder.pdf document.

Finale Font Keys (Historical)

The PDF files in the distribution package with names like FontKey_NAFTracks_<FontName>.pdf were done in Finale. They show the various finger diagrams as they relate to modern music notation.

NOTE: These files are no longer maintained after version 1.05 of these fonts!! They are just too cumbersome too work with. They are still included in the distribution package, because some people find them useful, but do not have any updates starting from version 1.06 (eg. the Papago Three Hole font is not represented).

Extended Characters

Many of the fonts in this package have more finger diagrams than a typical keyboard has keys. To access all the finger diagrams, you need to be able to generate extended characters. This is the case with a finger diagram in the Font Key documents that says (for example) “123” or “Alt+123” — these typically need to be accessed by some keyboard input sequence that produces that extended character.

The keyboard input sequences to access the correct extended character vary (widely) among operating systems. Microsoft Windows^® operating systems use a relatively clumsy system, but it does allow access to all the extended characters in all of the fonts in this package. Operating systems by Apple^® tend to be more straightforward, but (sadly) do not allow you to access the full set of extended characters. Unix^® operating systems have not been tested.

Note that this section applies if you wish to type the finger diagram characters. Another system is being explored that allows you to cut-and-paste finger diagrams. Please see the Cut-and-Paste Finger Diagram page to see if this works for you.

Microsoft Windows^® Operating Systems

Here is a brief description of how to get an extended character on a Microsoft Windows^® system, assuming that the sequence indicated is “Alt+123”:

• Ensure that  NumLock  mode is engaged on your keyboard. This will typically be indicated by a light or on-screen indication that will flip when you press the  NumLock  key.

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NumLock feature on an ISO Qwerty Keyboard layout (typical on Microsoft Windows® systems)

• Hold down the  ALT  key.
• On the numeric key pad, press  0  (the digit zero) …
• Then press the three digits of the ALT sequence ( 1 then  2  then  3  in this example).
• Release the  ALT  key.

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Alt and numeric keypad on an ISO Qwerty Keyboard layout (typical on Microsoft Windows® systems)

You should then see the desired character in your document.

Note: If you do not have a numeric key pad on your keyboard (often absent on laptop computers), then you may be able to get the equivalent characters with some combination of function keys. See the next section ...

Laptops

Embedded numeric keypad on a typical laptop

Smaller personal computers (laptops and notebooks) often do not have a separate numeric keypad. However, they usually have:

• an embedded numberic keypad that is contained within the keys of the central keyboard (see the image at the right), and
• a Function key, often marked  Fn . It often is in a different color, typically blue.

These steps provided below are a general approach to accessing ALT key sequences under Microsoft Windows^® on a computer without a numeric keypad. If possible, check your computer's documentation. Although I have received reports that some laptops do not have this functionality, I suspect that every manufacturer has provide some method to access this functionality on Microsoft Windows^® system.

The photo at the right shows the embedded numeric keypad with the small numbers highted. If you enable NumLock, those keys will act as keypad keys when you press  Fn . The keypad keys are  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  u ,  i ,  o ,  j ,  k ,  l , and  m .

Another thing that might work is to press press  Fn +  F11 . It may open an on-screen keypad.

Steps:

• Ensure that  NumLock  mode is engaged on your keyboard. If the laptop does not have a  NumLock  key, you may need to use  Fn + ScrLock.
• Hold down the  ALT  key. Some laptops require you to hold down both the the  ALT  key and the  Fn  keys.
• On the embedded numeric key pad, press  0  (the digit zero) …
• Then press the three digits of the ALT sequence ( 1 then  2  then  3  in this example).
• Release all keys.

Apple^® Operating Systems

Operating systems by Apple^® use the  Option  key to access the extended character set. This system tends to be more straightforward for commonly used extended characters (such as á, â, and å), but (sadly) does not allow you to access the full set of extended characters.

® keyboard">

Option key on a typical Apple® keyboard

Work with Scott August on development of the Xiao font during December 2014 — March 2015 revealed these substantial issues with the finger diagram fonts and extended character sets. The Xiao font itself has been designed to avoid the issues (by avoiding extended characters), but other fonts (which typically have a larger number of finger diagrams) are problematic.

Since I do not have consistent access to test on Apple operating systems, I cannot provide assistance for Apple users. However, there are two potential approaches that might work:

A. Try using the FontDiagrams.pdf document as the source of characters that can be cut and pasted into your document. You might try cutting the finger diagram itself, or cutting and pasting the smaller ascii character to the right of the finger diagram (and then changing the font in your document to the appropriate NAFTracks font).

B. I am providing an Apple Extended Keyboard Mapping document that might be helpful. It is based on a concordance of four source which might be a good starting point. It shows all the extended charactes (ALT+128 and above) and potential mappings suggested from those sources. You will note entries with question marks that are generally considered “inaccessible” by those sources:

Apple Extended Keyboard Mapping document

Linux — Unicode

I am not aware of any work that has been done on these fonts on Unix systems. If you have additional information, please contect me.

This information might be helpful. It was obtained from Wikipedia's Entering special characters Help page on June 2, 2015:

On Linux, one of three methods should work:
 
• Hold  Ctrl + Shift  and type  U , followed by up to eight hex digits (on main keyboard or numpad). Then release  Ctrl + Shift .
 
• Hold  Ctrl + Shift + U , and type up to eight hex digits, then release  Ctrl + Shift + U .
 
• Type  Ctrl + Shift + U , then type up to eight hex digits, then type  Enter .

In LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org and Inkscape, for example, only the second method works. In GTK only the third method works.

The “hex digits” that are mentioned can be found in the “Hex” column of the FontDiagrams.pdf document.

Microsoft Word

An easy way to write down your songs is to use a word processor such as Microsoft Word^® and simply write out the finger diagrams to the song. You could also include lyrics if the song has them.

Here's a sample of a very straightforward transcription done by Ellie Lehota Ma'ayan:

The lines of lyrics are in a regular 16-point Georgia font, and the lines of finger diagrams are in 72-point NAFTracks Six Hole font.

If you plan on sending such a transcription to another person using Microsoft Word, you will need to embed the fonts into the document. This allows the person receiving the document to view it, even if they do not have the finger diagram fonts installed on their machine.

To embed fonts into a Microsoft Word document:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save tab.
2. Select the Embed TrueType fonts check box.
3. Save the document.

Here is the Microsoft Word Document of Then Came The Rain for you to test out on your system.

Finger Diagram Image Files

As of version 1.06 (mid-2010), the distribtution package includes an extensive set of GIF format image files. Each finger diagram image is in a separate GIF file. The name of the file indicates the finger diagram. As an example:

NAFTracks_h6mw_oxx_xxh.gif =

The h6mw portion of the file name tells you the orientation, font, size, and background for that image. The first character tells you the orientation, the second character the font, the third character the size, and the last character the background. Here is a key that tells the complete story:

Note the Finger Pattern portion of the file name uses a convention similar to SNAFT, except the “|” vertical bar character is replace with an “_” underscore.

These image files are ideal for use on web pages. However, please see the discussion of the accessibility issues relating to using finger diagrams on web pages, in order to assist blind and limited-sight players.

Sizes

The size indicator described above (for example, the third character “m” above) tells you the dimensions of the finger diagram image. Each size has standard pixel dimensions that holds for most finger diagram images of that size:

Size letter	Meaning	Sample	Standard pixel dimensions		Export DPI
			Vertical	Horizontal
e	Exceptionally large		128 wide × 564 high	564 wide × 128 high	784
f	Fantastically large		64 wide × 282 high	282 wide × 64 high	392
g	Gigantic		32 wide × 141 high	141 wide × 32 high	196
h	Huge		28 wide × 123 high	123 wide × 28 high	170
l	Large		24 wide × 106 high	106 wide × 24 high	148
m	Medium		20 wide × 88 high (Xiao font is 18 wide)	88 wide × 20 high	120
s	Small		16 wide × 70 high	70 wide × 16 high	100
t	Tiny		12 wide × 53 high	53 wide × 12 high	72

Note that a few of the image files, such as drone add-on images, will have a different size from these standard sizes.

Coverage

As of version 1.22, the package includes 1,358 finger diagram images in .GIF format that cover many of the commonly-used finger patterns and sizes. In general, the grace notes that are part of the Finger Diagram Fonts are not included in the set of Finger Diagram Images.

This table provides a roster of the specific images that are currently uncluded in the distribution package:

Orientation	Font	Size	Background	Sample	File Name Leader	Images	Description
Horizontal	Six Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_h6mw_	95	full font, including trills, half-holes, and second octave (except grace notes)
			Transparent		NAFTracks_h6mt_	26	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Six Hole Thumb	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hTmw_	28	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Seven Hole Thumb	Medium	White		NAFTracks_h7mw_	19	the primary scale
	Recorder	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hRmw_	14	the primary scale in the low register
	Five Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_h5mw_	12	the extended scale
	Hopi Five Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hHmw_	14	the extended scale
			Transparent		NAFTracks_hHmt_	14	the extended scale
	Mohave Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hMmw_	16	all finger combination except half-holing
			Transparent		NAFTracks_hMmt_	16	all finger combination except half-holing
	Yuma Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hYmw_	21	the extended scale
			Transparent		NAFTracks_hYmt_	21	the extended scale
	Uneven Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hUmw_	5	the primary scale
			Transparent		NAFTracks_hUmt_	5	the primary scale
	Papago Three Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hPmw_	11	the primary scale
			Transparent		NAFTracks_hPmt_	11	the primary scale
	Xiao	Medium	White		NAFTracks_hXmw_	20	the primary scale. Note that the width of these images is 18 pixels rather than the standard 20 pixels.
Vertical	Six Hole	Gigantic	White		NAFTracks_v6gw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
		Huge	White		NAFTracks_v6hw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
		Large	White		NAFTracks_v6lw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
		Medium	White		NAFTracks_v6mw_	97	full font (except grace notes)
			Transparent		NAFTracks_v6mt_	10	the hexatonic scale
		Small	White		NAFTracks_v6sw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
		Tiny	White		NAFTracks_v6tw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Six Hole Thumb	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vTmw_	29	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Seven Hole 34	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vAmw_	16	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Seven Hole 43	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vBmw_	16	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Seven Hole Thumb	Medium	White		NAFTracks_v7mw_	59	the full font
	Eight Hole 44	Medium	White		NAFTracks_v8mw_	10	the hexatonic and diatonic scales
	Recorder	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vRmw_	15	the chromatic scale in the first octave
	Five Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_v5mw_	68	full font (except grace notes)
	Hopi Five Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vHmw_	28	full font (except grace notes)
	Mojave Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vMmw_	37	full font (except grace notes)
	Yuma Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vYmw_	55	full font (except grace notes)
	Uneven Four Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vUmw_	38	full font (except grace notes)
	Papago Three Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vPmw_	30	full font, including three-hole and four-hole diagrams with a thumb hole
	Fujara	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vFmw_	15	full font
	Xiao	Medium	White		NAFTracks_vXmw_	64	full font. Note that the width of these images is 18 pixels rather than the standard 20 pixels.
Inverted	Six Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_i6mw_	92	full font (except grace notes)
			Transparent		NAFTracks_i6mt_	7	the hexatonic scales
	Five Hole	Medium	White		NAFTracks_i5mw_	48	full font (except grace notes)

Technical Details on Finger Diagram Image files

The finger diagram image files are in GIF format (Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format). They are all 8-bit, non-interlaced, greyscale images.

Note that encoding and decoding GIF format images involves use of the LZW (Lempel–Ziv–Welch) compression algorithm, which is the subject of U.S. Patent 4,464,650 as well as a massive amount of intellectual property litigation. While I am not offering authoritative legal advice, I do believe that use of these images is allowed under the license terms of the patent holder at the time these images were produced (i.e. I believe you can use them for personal non-commercial use, without paying royalties).

Transparent Images

Using the transparent images can be tricky. They were developed against a white background, so the anti-aliasing algorithm that I use tends to fade solid black lines out to white. GIF files are designed so that a single color is designated as the transparent color, and that color is pure white, However, there are greyscale colors in the image that are not pure white, so they are not transparent. (This problem would be solved by using an image format that has an Alpha channel, which specifies a degree of transparancy, but that's another story).

The end result is that the transparent finger diagram images work well over a very light background, such as a very light tan, and less well over darker backgrounds. What you will see is a white halo or “jaggies”; around the borders of the black parts of the image. Here are examples of a transparent finger diagram image against various backgrounds:

Download and Installation

Here is a general outline of how to access and install the fonts on Windows systems:

1. Click on the “Download the ZIP file ...” link below. You should see a dialog box similar to this:
    
   
    
   
2. Click on [Save].
   
   
3. On the “Save As”, navigate to the desktop (or some other location you prefer) and save the ZIP file there.
   
   
4. Locate the file on your desktop (or other saved location) and open the ZIP file you have just saved (typically by double-clicking on it).
   
   
5. You should see a display of all the files contained within the ZIP file. You can now open any of the files from within the ZIP file or copy them from the ZIP file to other locations.
   
   
6. You generally install fonts on Windows by copying the font files (with extension .TTF) to your Fonts directory. On most windows systems this is located at C:/Windows/Fonts.
   
   
7. After installation, the NAFTracks fonts should show up in any font-list in any program that allows you to change fonts. For transcriptions in Finale, I simply set the lyrics font to be the font for the appropriate finger diagram.

Since I am not a Macintosh user, I can't offer specific directions for the Mac. However, here are two items of feedback that I have received from Mac folks:

From Gary Cope:

I have a Mac — a powerbook PPC with Leopard installed (the latest version). I have MS Office 2008 for Mac. I went into Font Book and installed the fonts and then validated them — then I opened Word 2008 and formated the font. They showed up and they worked the way I suspect you wanted them to.

 

From James Bonacci:

Just tried these fonts out on a Mac (running OS 10.5). The work fine with MS Office for Mac! Mac users can use the FontBook application to install these fonts to the system after unzipping the file. FontBook does not display the fonts, but it does recognized them. Once the fonts are installed to the system, they can be used in MS Office and other Mac applications that use fonts.

Support

The fonts are distributed free of charge, but do not come with support. There are many Web resources that describe the process of installing and using fonts on various operating systems.

Version Information and Revision History

Version 1.01

Fonts developed in 2002 for production of the Mary Youngblood transcription books.

August 26, 2008 at 7AM EDT: Phone call from Roderick Zeig in Switzerland about fonts for the Fujara finally nudges me to organize the Native American flute and Fujara fonts for initial public distribution.

Version 1.02

Publicly released August 26, 2008 for general use, including 5 fonts.

Version 1.03 — August 29, 2008

Added inverted fonts for showing Six Hole and Five Hole Native American flute finger diagrams with the breath hole at the bottom.

Also added NAFTracks_FontKeys_*.pdf files which are PDF version of the Finale font keys.

Version 1.04 — September 30, 2009

Added several finger diagrams to the Six Hole, Six Hole Inverted, Five Hole, and Five Hole Inverted fonts.

Also included FontsReadMe.pdf file which is a PDF version of this page. The FontsReadMe.pdf file was removed from the distribution archive as of version 1.18 since it is no longer maintained and badly out of date.

Version 1.05 — October 23, 2009

Added several more finger diagrams to the Six Hole and Six Hole Inverted fonts to handle the upper register fingering of flutes by Richard Dubé of Northern Spirit Flutes (<oox|oxx).

Also added FontDiagrams.pdf, which is a PDF version of the my FontDiagrams.xls Excel Spreadsheet, showing each character location in each of the fonts.

Version 1.06 — June 24 — October 6, 2010

Major upgrade along with Flutopedia development.

Exported Finger Diagram Images to go with the font distribution package.

Added the NAFTracks Papago Three Hole font.

Added three finger diagrams to the Six Hole and Six Hole Inverted fonts (<xox|xox needed by Scott August for his Anasazi minor 6th fingering, <cxx|xxx, and <xxx|oox).

Added <cx|xxx to the Five Hole and Five Hole Inverted fonts.

Added yet another printable font key, FontDiagramImages.pdf, which is exported from the Corel Draw FontDiagramImages.cdr (used to generate the GIF files). This might be more helpful to people than the Excel or the Finale versions.

September 10, 2010

Added six-hole diagrams <qxx|xxx, <hxx|xxx, <cxx|xxx, and <xox|oxo to SixHole and SixHoleInverted.

Added five-hole diagrams <xo|oxo, <xo|oxx, <cx|xxx, and <qx|xxx to FiveHole and FiveHoleInverted.

September 12, 2010

Added Mojave Four Hole, Yuma Four Hole, and Uneven Four Hole fonts.

September 15, 2010

Added diagrams with overblow indicators to SixHole and SixHoleInverted.

September 16, 2010

Added diagrams with a thumb hole to the Papago Three Hole font. So the Papago Three Hole font now has finger diagrams with four holes. Hmmm .. bad planning.

Version 1.07 — November 2, 2010

Added four finger diagrams to Five Hole fonts <xx|oox, <oo|oxo, <hx|xxh, and <ox|xxh.

Generate the full set of finger diagram images for Five Hole Inverted medium white.

Version 1.08 — December 8, 2010

Add one missing Finger Diagram Image for h6mt ().

Version 1.09 — October 8, 2011

Add Six Hole Thumb (), Seven Hole 34 (), Seven Hole 43 (), Seven Hole T33 (), and Eight Hole 44 () fonts.

Version 1.10 — October 9, 2011

Added four finger diagrams to Six Hole fonts to accommodate the new Mode 2/5 chart <xxo|oxo, <xoo|oxo, <oxo|oxo, and <ooo|oxo.

Version 1.11 — October 11, 2011

Added 10 horizontal finger diagram images for the Seven-hole T33 font, such as .

Added the NAFTracks Recorder font for Baroque / English recorders based on [Dolmetsch 2001] .

Version 1.12 — released February 11, 2012

October 14, 2011

Added the <hxxx|xox! finger diagram to the Seven-hole T33 font to get a quarter-tone in the upper register — used for scoring Hon Shirabe.

Provided several more finger diagram images for the Seven-hole T33 font.

Update the Recorder font to add <oooo|oooo — needed for the Blank Tablature pages.

February 12, 2012

Add <ooo|oox to the Six-hole fonts as requested by Hal Kacanek.

Add 18 new diagrams to the Yuma Four-Hole to support the Breckenridge flute fingerings.

Add 54 additional finger diagram images.

Version 1.13 — released November 26, 2012

The start of a major release cycle spurred by suggestions from Scott Scheiman (aka “NAF Lover”) as well as pending requests from others. This initial test release affects only the six-hole, five-hole, and Hopi five-hole fonts. Also, the only finger diagram images that have been updated are for medium-sized, vertical, six-hole, white-background variant. If things go well, the changes will be propoagated across the font series.

Major change in the six-hole and Hopi five-hole fonts: the “convenience” five-hole characters in the six-hole font and the “convenience” four-hole characters in the Hopi five-hole font have been removed. This was needed to get more font space without having to expand the font beyond an 8-bit encoding space. I am thinking that it is doubtful that anyone used these features — if you did and do not wish to use the appropriate font for the deleted characters, you'll need to use a font prior to this release. This change will propagate to the other fonts in the future, including the six-hole inverted and six-hole-to-diatonic fonts.

Change the format for half-holing to a more readable “pac-man” style. Examples are: from to for the SNAFT "h" (half), from to for the SNAFT "c" (cracked), and from to for the SNAFT "q" (quarter-closed).

Add <xxx|xxc to the six-hole, five-hole, and Hopi five-hole fonts.

Add a blank finger diagram — — for use when indicating a special case or a “no fingering” situation.

Version 1.14 — released December 2, 2012

Refinement of indicators for half-hole, quater-hole, and “cracked”-hole, based on tests by Scott Scheiman (aka “NAF Lover”). Modification of all fonts for the new style of those indicators.

Addition of a full set of “trill” fonts, such as , including unusual trills appropriate to the Native American flute, such as the bark: .

Addition of many finger diagrams to the Seven Hole T33 () for Steve Petermann flutes, including fingerings to support quarter-tone charts.

Version 1.15 — not released

On 5/11/2014 added new sizes for finger diagram images of “f” for 64 × 282 and “e” for 128 × 564. This was for typeset publications such as Overtones that require higher quality images. Finger diagram images for vertical and horizontal, five-hole and six-hole, “e” and “f” sizes. No release was done at this time.

Since they are not yet part of the delivery package, these new finger diagrams images are not yet shown in the coverage table above.

Version 1.16 — not released

On 8/7/2014 added the finger diagram <xxo|xxx (Alt+0186) — needed for the Bob Grealish tuning method. NAFTracks_SixHole.ttf, NAFTracks_SixHoleInverted.ttf, and NAFTracks_SixHoleHorizontal.ttf were updated and new font diagram images generated. Unfortunately, after all the work updating three fonts for a single glyph, I found that this finger diagram was already in the six-hole fonts (Alt+0248). Drats.

This version was not officially released.

Version 1.17 — not released

On 12/22/2014, added a new Xiao font at the request of (and developed with the help of) Scott August. Involved narrowing the existing font outline to better suit the look of the Xiao. Also involved massive work with how to input alternate fonts in the Apple environment — rather a problem!

This version was not officially released.

Version 1.18 — released June 10, 2015

On 3/9/2015 the code point for  8  in the Xiao font was changed from <xxxx|xxxx+ to <oxxx|xxxx+ at Scott August's request. Finger diagram image updated to match.

This package also includes the new AppleMappings PDF.

Version 1.19 — released July 5, 2015

Added and to the NAFTracks Six Hole and NAFTracks Six Hole Inverted fonts at Scott August's request. Repair various missing and broken finger diagram images.

Version 1.20 — not released

On 9/25/2015, rotated glyphs needed for the Native Flute Handbook in the NAFTracks Six Hole Horizontal font. Note that all small (grace note) glyphs were removed from the font, since a horizontal grace note does not make much sense. Each glyph is rotated (in Detail Mode → View → Toolbars → Transformations → Rotation), repositioned to 0,0 (in Detail Mode → … → Position), and has it's advance distance (in Overview Mode, R-Click → Properties) set to 2200. Many of these glyphs still need rotation!

This version was not officially released.

Version 1.21 — released April 18, 2016

Major update to generally handle the addition of second-register fonts with all holes closed except for a cracked top hole, such as . Also completed rotation of all glyphs in the Six-hole Horizontal, Five-hole Horizontal, and Papago Three-hole Horizontal fonts.

The specific updates are:

• In Six-hole, change Alt+0222 from to . Likewise for the grace-note version at Alt+0223.
• In Six-hole Inverted, change Alt+0222 from to . Likewise for the grace-note version at Alt+0223.
• In Six-hole Horizontal, change Alt+0222 from to . Rotate all glyphs to horizontal orientation.
• In Six-hole Thumb, change Alt+0222 from to . Likewise for the grace-note version at Alt+0222. Copy these glyphs from Six-Hole and set the thumb hole appropriately: Alt+034 (quotedbl), Alt+039 (quotesingle), Alt+0152 through Alt+0170, Alt+0213, Alt+0241, Alt+0243, Alt+0245, Alt+0247, and Alt+0249 through Alt+0254.
• In Five-hole, Five-hole Inverted, Five-hole Horizontal, and Papago Three Hole, add Alt+0222 for , , and . Likewise for the grace-note version at Alt+0223.
• In Five-hole Horizontal and Papago Three-hole Horizontal, delete all grace notes, and rotate all remaining glyphs to horizontal orientation.
• In Hopi Five-hole, change Alt+0222 to add a second register indicator: .
• In Mohave, Yuma, and Uneven four-hole fonts, add Alt+0222 to show the second register with top hole cracked and all other finger holes closed: , , and .
• In the Seven-hole T33 font, add two glyphs as well as four vertical finger diagram images for tunings specific to John Ranier: , , , and . Note that these new glyphs were added just before release and do not appear in the Finger Diagrams and Finger Diagram Images PDF documents. These will appear automatically in the next release.

Version 1.22 — released August 9, 2016

Add Blue color GIF finger diagram images on April 24, 2016 for the primary scale for h6mw, v6mw, and v7mw.

Modification of the Xiao font on 7/10/2016 at the request of Scott August:

• changed letter 'U' from <oxxx|oxoo+ to <oxxx|xxxo+;
• changed letter '{' from <oxxx|ooxo+ to <oxxx|xxxo+;
• added the code point 'z': <oxxx|oxoo+ (the old 'U');
• added the code point 'x': <oxxx|ooxo+ (the old '{').
• one new finger diagram image for <oxxx|xxxo+ in vXmw.

Create new Xiao Horizontal font on 7/11/2016. Add 20 hXmw finger diagram images for the common fingerings.

Add code points for A, B, C, D, and F to the NAFTracks Six Hole, Six Hole Horizontal, Six Hole Inverted, and Six Hole Thumb fonts for various half-hole fingerings.
For Six Hole: A = ; B = ; C = ; D = ; F = .
For Six Hole Thumb: A = ; B = ; C = ; D = ; F = .
Add v6mw, i6mw, h6mw, vTmw, and hTmw finger diagram images for all new code points.

Add code point 0239 = to the NAFTracks Six Hole, Six Hole Horizontal, Six Hole Inverted, and Six Hole Thumb fonts. Add v6mw, i6mw, h6mw, vTmw, and hTmw finger diagram images for the new code point.

Add code points 0239 = , 0240 = , 0242 = , 0244 = , and 0246 = to the NAFTracks Five Hole, Five Hole Horizontal, and Five Hole Inverted fonts. Add v5mw, i5mw, and h5mw finger diagram images for the new code points.

Repair 11 finger diagram images that had (slightly) non-standard dimensions.

Major reorganization and expansion of the FingerDiagramImages.pdf document on July 20, 2016.

Develop the new composite flute fonts. Composite Six Hole and Composite Six Hole Horizontal, together with all v6mw and h6mw finger diagram images.

Version 1.23 — not released

Added <ooxo|oxoo and <ooxo|oxoo+ to the NAFTracks Xiao and Xiao Horizontal fonts (keys "|" and "\") on September 22, 2016 at Scott August's request.

Download

Here is a link to a ZIP file that contains all the needed TTF font files, Font Key PDF files, and JPG image files. Please remember that any document (printed, electronic, or otherwise) that makes use of any of these fonts must carry the inscription:

Finger diagrams courtesy of Clint Goss, www.Flutopedia.com

«Download the Current Version of the ZIP File — Version 1.22»

Older Versions

ZIP File Version 1.02

ZIP File Version 1.03

ZIP File Version 1.04

ZIP File Version 1.05

ZIP File Version 1.06

ZIP File Version 1.07

ZIP File Version 1.09

ZIP File Version 1.10

ZIP File Version 1.11

ZIP File Version 1.12 (last version with the “convenience” five-hole characters in the six-hole font and the “convenience” four-hole characters in the Hopi five-hole font).

ZIP File Version 1.13

ZIP File Version 1.14

ZIP File Version 1.18

ZIP File Version 1.19

ZIP File Version 1.21