From time to time, PopChar users ask whether it’s possible to insert musical symbols into their documents.
The answer is yes — but with an important detail to keep in mind:
PopChar doesn’t include any symbols by itself. Instead, it helps you find and insert symbols that are already available in the fonts installed on your computer. So, to use musical symbols, you need fonts that actually contain them.
Musical symbols in Unicode
The Unicode standard includes a few musical characters — such as single notes or basic notation marks — in the “Miscellaneous Symbols” block, alongside other symbols.
However, Unicode also defines a much larger section called “Musical Symbols”, which contains 256 dedicated music notation characters.
Unfortunately, most standard fonts don’t support all of these symbols.
For example, Apple’s “Apple Symbols” font includes only about 30 of them — far from the full set.
Fonts that contain musical symbols
Because of these limitations, you’ll need to use specialized musical fonts. Here are a few options:
Bach
- A free font created by Yo Tomita.
- Includes a variety of noteheads, clefs, rests, and other musical notation symbols.
- Works well with PopChar.
Maestro
- Comes with Finale, a professional music notation program.
- Also available as a standalone download from µfonts.
- Contains many traditional music symbols.
Bravura
- Designed by Steinberg and based on the SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout) specification.
- Available from the official SMuFL project.
- Covers an extensive range of musical symbols in the Private Use Area of Unicode.
Note: The “Private Use Area” is a part of Unicode reserved for font designers. Characters placed here don’t have official Unicode names.
As a result, PopChar can’t find them by name — for example, searching for “quarter note” won’t show results from Bravura or Maestro. You’ll need to browse these fonts manually within PopChar.
Here is a screenshot of Bach, as it appears in PopChar: