Provided by: musescore3_3.2.3+dfsg2-21_amd64 
NAME
mscore3, musescore3 — MuseScore 3 sheet music editor
SYNOPSIS
mscore3 [-deFfhIiLmnOPRstvw] [-a | --use-audio driver] [-b | --bitrate bitrate]
[-c | --config-folder pathname] [-D | --monitor-resolution DPI]
[-E | --install-extension extension file] [-j | --job file.json] [-M | --midi-operations file]
[-o | --export-to file] [-p | --plugin name] [-r | --image-resolution DPI] [-S | --style style]
[-T | --trim-image margin] [-x | --gui-scaling factor] [--debug] [--diff] [--dump-midi-in]
[--dump-midi-out] [--experimental] [--export-score-parts] [--factory-settings] [--force] [--help]
[--layout-debug] [--load-icons] [--long-version] [--new-score] [--no-fallback-font] [--no-midi]
[--no-synthesizer] [--no-webview] [--raw-diff] [--revert-settings] [--run-test-script]
[--score-media] [--score-mp3] [--score-parts-pdf] [--share-folder dir] [--template-mode]
[--test-mode] [--version] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
MuseScore is a Free and Open Source WYSIWYG cross-platform multi-lingual music composition and notation
software, released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPLv2).
Running mscore3 without any extra options launches the full graphical MuseScore program and opens any
files specified on the command line.
The options are as follows:
-a | --use-audio driver
Use audio driver: one of jack, alsa, portaudio, pulse
-b | --bitrate bitrate
Set MP3 output bitrate in kbit/s
-c | --config-folder pathname
Override configuration and settings directory
-D | --monitor-resolution DPI
Specify monitor resolution (override autodetection)
-d | --debug
Start MuseScore in debug mode
-E | --install-extension extension file
Install an extension file; soundfonts are loaded by default unless -e is also specified
-e | --experimental
Enable experimental features, such as layers
-F | --factory-settings
Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) and delete user preferences; compare
with the -R option
-f | --force
Ignore score corruption and version mismatch warnings in “converter mode”
-h | --help
Display an overview of invocation instructions
-I | --dump-midi-in
Display all MIDI input on the console
-i | --load-icons
Load icons from the filesystem; useful if you want to edit the MuseScore icons and preview the
changes
-j | --job file.json
Process a conversion job (see “EXAMPLES” below)
-L | --layout-debug
Start MuseScore in layout debug mode
-M | --midi-operations file
Specify MIDI import operations file (see “EXAMPLES” below)
-m | --no-midi
Disable MIDI input
-n | --new-score
Start with the New Score wizard regardless whether it's enabled or disabled in the user
preferences
-O | --dump-midi-out
Display all MIDI output on the console
-o | --export-to file
Export the given (or currently opened) file to the specified output file. The file type depends
on the extension of the filename given. This option switches to “converter mode” and avoids the
graphical user interface.
-P | --export-score-parts
When converting to PDF with the -o option, append each part's pages to the created PDF file. If
the score has no parts, all default parts will temporarily be generated automatically.
-p | --plugin name
Execute the named plugin
-R | --revert-settings
Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) but do not delete user preferences;
compare with the -F option
-r | --image-resolution DPI
Set image resolution for conversion to PNG files.
Default: 300 DPI (actually, the value of “Resolution” of the PNG option group in the Export tab
of the preferences)
-S | --style style
Load a style file first; useful for use with the -o option
-s | --no-synthesizer
Disable the integrated software synthesiser
-T | --trim-image margin
Trim exported PNG and SVG images to remove whitespace surrounding the score. The specified
margin, in pixels, will be retained (use 0 for a tightly cropped image). When exporting to SVG,
this option only works with single-page scores.
-t | --test-mode
Set test mode flag for all files
-v | --version
Display the name and version of the application without starting the graphical user interface
-w | --no-webview
Disable the web view component in the Start Centre
-x | --gui-scaling factor
Scale the score display and other GUI elements by the specified factor; intended for use with
high-resolution displays
--diff Print a conditioned diff between the given scores
--long-version
Display the full name, version and git revision of the application without starting the graphical
user interface
--no-fallback-font
Don't use Bravura as fallback musical font
--raw-diff
Print a raw diff between the given scores
--run-test-script
Run script tests listed in the command line arguments
--score-media
Export all media (except MP3) for a given score as a single JSON document to stdout
--score-mp3
Generates an MP3 for the given score and exports it as a single JSON document to stdout
--score-parts-pdf
Generates parts data for the given score and exports it as a single JSON document to stdout
--share-folder dir
If dir is the empty string, show the value of the shared data path (normally
/usr/share/mscore3-3.2/); otherwise, the argument is used as shared data path.
--template-mode
Save files in template mode (e.g. without page sizes)
MuseScore supports the automatic Qt command line options (see below).
Batch conversion job JSON format
The argument to the -j option must be the pathname of a file comprised of a valid JSON document honouring
the following specification:
• The top-level element must be a JSONArray, which may be empty.
• Each array element must be a JSONObject with the following keys:
in Value is the name of the input file (score to convert), as JSONString.
plugin Value is the filename of a plugin (with the .qml extension), which will be read from either
the global or per-user plugin path and executed before the conversion output happens, as
JSONString. Optional, but at least one of plugin and out must be given.
out Value is the conversion output target, as defined below. Optional, but at least one of
plugin and out must be given.
• The conversion output target may be a filename (with extension, which decided the format to convert
to), as JSONString.
• The conversion output target may be a JSONArray of filenames as JSONString, as above, which will
cause the score to be written to multiple output files (in multiple output formats) sequentially,
without being closed, re-opened and re-processed in between.
• If the conversion output target is a JSONArray, one or more of its elements may also be, each, a
JSONArray of two JSONStrings (called first and second half in the following description). This will
cause part extraction: for each such two-tuple, all extant parts of the score will be saved
individually, with filenames being composed by concatenating the first half, the name (title) of the
part, and the second half. The resulting string must be a valid filename (with extension,
determining the output format). If a score has no parts (excerpts) defined, this will be silently
ignored without error.
• Valid file extensions for output are:
flac Free Lossless Audio Codec (compressed audio)
metajson various score metadata (JSON)
mid standard MIDI file
mlog internal file sanity check log (JSON)
mp3 MPEG Layer III (lossy compressed audio)
mpos measure positions (XML)
mscx uncompressed MuseScore file
mscz compressed MuseScore file
musicxml uncompressed MusicXML file
mxl compressed MusicXML file
ogg OGG Vorbis (lossy compressed audio)
pdf portable document file (print)
png portable network graphics (image)
Individual files, one per score page, with a hyphen-minus followed by the page number
placed before the file extension, will be generated.
spos segment positions (XML)
svg scalable vector graphics (image)
wav RIFF Waveform (uncompressed audio)
xml uncompressed MusicXML file
See below for an example.
ENVIRONMENT
MSCORE_ASSERT_ABORT
Assertion failures are fatal if set (the value does not matter).
SKIP_LIBJACK
Set this (the value does not matter) to skip initialisation of the JACK Audio Connection Kit
library, in case it causes trouble.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
User configuration location; defaults to ~/.config if unset.
XDG_DATA_HOME
User data location; defaults to ~/.local/share if unset.
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
Location of works the user created with the application; defaults to ~/Documents (or a localised
version) and can be set in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs.
Note that MuseScore also supports the normal Qt environment variables such as QT_QPA_GENERIC_PLUGINS,
QT_QPA_PLATFORM, QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME, QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH, QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE, DISPLAY, etc.
FILES
/usr/share/mscore3-3.2/ contains the application support data (demos, instruments, localisation, system-
wide plugins, soundfonts, styles, chords, templates and wallpapers). In the Debian packages, system-wide
soundfonts are installed into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/, /usr/share/sounds/sf3/ or /usr/share/sounds/sfz/,
respectively, instead.
The per-user data (extensions, plugins, soundfonts, styles, templates) and files (images, scores) are
normally installed into subdirectories under $XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR/MuseScore3/ but may be changed in the
configuration. Note that snapshot, alpha and beta versions use MuseScore3Development instead of
MuseScore3 in all of these paths.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3.ini contains the user preferences, list of recently used files and
their locations, window sizes and positions, etc. See above for development version paths.
$XDG_DATA_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3/ contains updated localisation files downloaded from within the
program, plugin information, cached scores, credentials for the musescore.com community site, session
information, synthesiser settings, custom key and time signatures and shortcuts. See above for
development version paths.
EXAMPLES
Convert a score to PDF from the command line:
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen; export QT_QPA_PLATFORM # sh
setenv QT_QPA_PLATFORM offscreen # csh
mscore3 -o 'My Score.pdf' 'My Score.mscz'
Run a batch job converting multiple documents:
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen; export QT_QPA_PLATFORM # sh
setenv QT_QPA_PLATFORM offscreen # csh
mscore3 -j job.json
This requires the file job.json in the current working directory to have content similar to the
following:
[
{
"in": "Reunion.mscz",
"out": "Reunion-coloured.pdf",
"plugin": "colornotes.qml"
},
{
"in": "Reunion.mscz",
"out": [
"Reunion.pdf",
[ "Reunion (part for ", ").pdf" ],
"Reunion.musicxml",
"Reunion.mid"
]
},
{
"in": "Piece with excerpts.mscz",
"out": [
"Piece with excerpts (Partitura).pdf",
[ "Piece with excerpts (part for ", ").pdf" ],
"Piece with excerpts.mid"
]
}
]
The last part of the job would, for example, cause files like “Piece with excerpts (part for Violin).pdf”
to be generated alongside the conductor's partitura and a MIDI file with the full orchestra sound,
whereas the equivalent part of the Reunion conversion will be silently ignored (because the Reunion piece
(a MuseScore demo) has no excerpts defined).
https://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/midi_import_options_0.xml is a sample MIDI import
operations file for the -M option.
DIAGNOSTICS
The mscore3 utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
fluidsynth(1), midicsv(1), timidity(1), qtoptions(7)
https://musescore.org/handbook
Online Handbook, full user manual
https://musescore.org/forum
Support Forum
https://musescore.org/handbook/command-line-options-0
Further documentation of command line options
https://musescore.org/handbook/revert-factory-settings-0
Reverting to factory settings (troubleshooting)
https://musescore.org/project/issues
Project Issue Tracker
Please check first to if the bug you're encountering has already been reported. If you just need
help with something, then please use the support forum (see above) instead.
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qguiapplication.html#supported-command-line-options
Documentation of automatic Qt command line options
STANDARDS
MuseScore attempts to implement the following standards:
• MusicXML 3.1 (score interchange format)
• SF2 (SoundFont 2.01)
• SF3 (SoundFont with OGG Vorbis-compressed samples)
• SFZ (Sforzato soundfont)
• SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout 1.20)
HISTORY
MuseScore was split off the MusE sequencer in 2002 and has since become the foremost Open Source notation
software.
AUTHORS
MuseScore is developed by Werner Schweer and others.
This manual page was written by mirabilos <tg@debian.org>.
CAVEATS
The automatic Qt command line options are removed from the argument vector before the application has a
chance at option processing; this means that an invocation like
mscore3 -S -reverse
has no chance at working because the -reverse is removed by Qt first.
BUGS
MuseScore does not honour /etc/papersize.
Probably some more; check the project's bug tracker (cf. “SEE ALSO”).
MuseScore October 7, 2025 MSCORE3(1)