Gnometab 0.7.4 review

Gnometab aims to be a WYSIWYG guitar tablature editor

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 102K Developer: Bill Guelker

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Gnometab aims to be a WYSIWYG guitar tablature editor. Its features include copying and pasting of tablature passages, a chord library (which the user must fill), the ability to create a variety of tablature symbols specific to the guitar, and clean-looking printed output. It does not attempt to be "smart", i.e. it does not know how many beats are in a measure, nor does it know an E chord from an Am chord. Instead, the emphasis exists on the appearance of the output.


Here are some key features of "Gnometab":
Gnometab's features include copying and pasting of tablature passages, a chord library (which the user must fill with chords), professional-looking rhythm notation (not perfect yet), the ability to create a variety of tablature symbols specific to the guitar -- bends, slurs (hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc.), etc. -- and, of course, clean-looking printed output, given any postscript-compatible printer. Gnometab does not attempt to be "smart", i.e., it does not know how many beats are in a measure, nor does it know an E chord from an Am chord. Instead, the emphasis has been on the appearance of the output.
Gnometab was designed by me, for me. Consequently, it reflects the kind of guitar player that I am. It has a heavy emphasis on fingerstyle guitar. Note that chords can be printed directly on the staff rather than over it. This may prove helpful for teaching -- the student's progress across the staff is interrupted by the chord, making overlooked chord changes less frequent. Gnometab lacks some features peculiar to "rock" guitar, most especially a method for creating complex bends or for notating wild whammy-bar pyrotechnics.... Please feel free to add these features and send me a patch!
Gnometab is released under the GNU General Public License.

Requirements:
Gnometab requires GNOME2, an open-source desktop environment for UNIX-like systems. Gnometab is written for the GNOME2 libraries, and depends on libgnomeprint for printing.
Gnometab uses an xml file format, and requires libxml2. These should be included with any GNOME2 installation. A sample file for use with Gnometab can be found here.
Binary RPM packages are available for x86 RedHat 8.0. To build source packages, you will need a C compiler and all associated GNOME2 "devel" packages. Feel free to contribute binary packages for your platform by contacting me at the address below.