PDF Scores

Add, remaster, edit, timestamp, scroll, and manage PDF score tabs.

Praxis treats PDFs as their own tab type, separate from normal lyrics. That matters because PDF score tabs are meant for sheet music, charts, and other document-style material that you want to view and scroll while practicing.

What A PDF Score Tab Is For

Use a PDF score tab when you want to:

view sheet music or a scanned chart
keep the document attached to the song
add manual scroll timestamps while you rehearse
preserve the original document instead of converting it into lyrics text

PDF score tabs are not lyric tabs. They do not use the lyric editor, chord formatting, or text markup.

Adding A PDF

There are two quick ways to add a PDF score tab:

Use Editor > Add PDF...
Hover the + tab button and hold Option to change the add action to PDF

When you add a PDF, Praxis opens the file picker in your Downloads folder so you can get to recent charts quickly.

What Happens On Import

Praxis imports the PDF as a document tab and keeps it attached to the song.

What Praxis does for you on import:

keeps the PDF as a PDF score tab, not as lyrics text
always preserves the original PDF
stores the PDF alongside the song data so it travels with exports and imports
opens the PDF in Edit mode the first time it is imported so you can start placing timestamps immediately

If Remaster PDFs on import is enabled in Settings > General > Imports, Praxis shows Remastering in Progress… instead of briefly displaying the original. The progress display follows the analysis, light-version, dark-version, and verification stages. When processing finishes, Praxis displays the remastered score. There is no need to cancel because the original remains safe throughout the operation.

If automatic remastering is disabled, Praxis displays the original immediately. You can remaster the active PDF later with Editor > Remaster PDF....

What Remastering Does

PDF remastering is intentionally conservative. Praxis:

joins a multipage score into one continuous page
trims exterior page whitespace and normalizes page joins
removes page numbers and repeated obvious headers or footers
keeps one copy of a repeated footer at the end of the continuous score
uses detected staff anchors to make spacing across former page boundaries resemble spacing within the source
creates light and dark versions for the current theme
retains vector PDF content as vector graphics so zooming does not introduce blur

Each source page is treated as one rigid score region. Praxis does not slice through or rearrange individual music systems, which protects connected staves, braces, slurs, chord diagrams, lyrics, and other notation that may overlap a simple horizontal boundary.

The original PDF is always retained. Remastering does not overwrite it, and an unsafe or failed result falls back to the original.

Scanned Scores And Image Quality

For a scanned or image-based score, Praxis can improve contrast and legibility without enlarging the source raster. It cannot restore detail that is absent from a blurry or low-resolution scan, and it does not recreate or reinterpret the notation as newly typeset music. A higher-quality source scan remains the best way to improve those documents.

Praxis does not auto-read the music or guess measure-perfect sync from the PDF. Timestamp placement is manual and intentional.

Editing PDF Scores

In Edit mode, the right-side panel shows your timestamp list.

The basic workflow is:

Scroll the PDF to the position you want.
Enter or update the section label.
Click Add Timestamp.
Repeat for the next verse, chorus, bridge, or section change.

Each timestamp captures:

the current playback time
the current scroll position
the section label you entered

Praxis also keeps extra scroll metadata under the hood so the document stays resilient even if the layout changes slightly.

You can delete timestamps, rename them, and use the panel to refine the timing over time.

Adding MIDI To A PDF

PDF tabs can carry the same four kinds of song automation as text lyrics: Load, Play, Stop, and timed MIDI. The MIDI plan belongs to the PDF tab and is separate from its scroll timestamps.

Open the PDF tab in the Player and turn on Edit mode.
Choose MIDI in the right-side editor.
Choose Add MIDI under On Load, On Play, or On Stop. New messages start as Program Change; use the message menu to change one to Control Change.
For a timed cue, move playback to the intended position and choose Add Timed MIDI. Inside that timed event, choose Add Message to attach another MIDI message at the same timestamp.
Choose a channel from Default or 1–16, then choose the parameter and value from 0–127.
Choose Send Defaults to send the matching Default Song MIDI followed by the group's custom messages, or Custom Only to send only the custom messages.
Use Test for one group or Apply to send the current Load behavior. Test includes Default Song MIDI when Send Defaults is selected, even when the group has no custom messages.

Each On Load, On Play, and On Stop group either sends Default Song MIDI followed by its custom messages, or sends its custom messages only.

If the song already has MIDI embedded in a text lyrics tab, open Import from: and select that tab. Praxis converts its [midi...] and [offset...] instructions into the PDF's structured MIDI plan. Import replaces existing PDF MIDI only after confirmation. The result is a copy, so later edits to the text tab do not silently change the PDF plan.

PDF remastering and scroll-timestamp editing leave the MIDI plan intact. The plan is also included in .prax archives.

Praxis also embeds the PDF tab's scroll timestamps and MIDI plan when you use Export Lyrics as PDF.... If that exported PDF is later added to a song in Praxis, its scroll timing and MIDI automation are restored automatically. Other PDF readers ignore this private Praxis metadata and display the document normally.

Scrolling Behavior

PDF scores use the same basic scroll timing model as text lyrics when no timestamps have been added:

start scrolling after the configured wait percentage
finish the scroll when the configured end percentage is reached

Once timestamps exist, Praxis uses them to drive scroll positioning during playback.

In Edit mode, PDF scores do not auto-scroll. That gives you room to manually position the document before adding a timestamp.

If the scroll target guide is enabled in settings, Praxis can show horizontal target lines in PDF Edit mode to help you line up the section you want to capture.

During Playback

When you scrub the waveform or click to jump in the song, Praxis updates the PDF scroll position to match the new playback time.

That keeps the waveform, the playhead, and the document view aligned as you move around the song.

Export And Import

PDF score tabs are included in Praxis library exports and imports.

That means:

PDF tabs travel with the song
timestamp metadata travels with the tab
load, play, stop, and timed MIDI plans travel with the tab
the preserved original and valid remastered variants travel with the library package

Tab documents are restored even when the library export does not include audio media. A standalone PDF made with Export Lyrics as PDF... also carries its Praxis scroll and MIDI metadata inside the PDF itself.

If you are backing up or moving a library, use the normal Praxis export flow so the score files and timestamps remain together.

Deleting A PDF Tab

The Confirm deleting lyrics setting also controls confirmation when deleting a PDF score tab. With it enabled, Praxis asks before removing either kind of tab from the song.

Privacy

PDF analysis and remastering happen entirely on this Mac. Praxis does not upload the score or send it to a cloud processing service.