Conchord

Notice: I'm preparing the update, so the documentation there is referring to the new version.

conchord (concise chord) is a Typst package to write lyrics with chords and generate colorful fretboard diagram (aka chord diagram). From 0.1.1 there is also experimental tabs support (though quite simple and unstable yet). It is inspired by chordx package and my previous tiny project for generating chord diagrams SVG-s.

Overview

conchord makes it easy to add new chords, both for diagrams and lyrics. Unlike chordx, you don't need to think about layout and pass lots of arrays for drawing barres. Just pass a string with held frets and it will work:

#import "@preview/conchord:0.2.0": new-chordgen, overchord

#let chord = new-chordgen()

#box(chord("x32010", name: "C"))
#box(chord("x33222", name: "F#m/C#"))
#box(chord("x,9,7,8,9,9"))

x means closed string, 0 is open, other number is a fret. In case of frets larger than 9 frets should be separated with commas, otherwise you can list them without any separators.

Chord diagram works like a usual block, so to put them into one line you need to wrap them into boxes. In real code it is recommended to create a wrapper function to customize box margins etc (see larger example below).

It is easy to customize the colors and styles of chords with colors argument and show rules for text. You can also put ! and * marks in the end of the string to force diagram generation. ! forces barre, * removes it:

#let custom-chord = new-chordgen(string-number: 3,
    colors: (shadow-barre: orange,
        grid: gray.darken(30%),
        hold: red,
        barre: purple)
)

#set text(fill: purple)
#box(custom-chord("320", name: "C"))
#box(custom-chord("2,4,4,*", name: "Bm"))
#box(custom-chord("2,2,2, *"))
#box(custom-chord("x,3,2, !"))

NOTE: be careful when using !, if barre cannot be used, it will result into nonsense.

For lyrics, you don't need to add chord to word and specify the number of char in words (unlike chordx). Simply add #overchord to the place you want a chord. Compose with native Typst stylistic things for non-plain look (you don't need to dig into chordx's custom arguments):

#let och(it) = overchord(strong(it))

=== #raw("[Verse 1]")

#och[Em] Another head 
#och[C] hangs lowly \
#och[G] Child is slowly
#och[D] taken

...

Complete example of lyrics with chords (see full source):

Features

I was quite amazed with general idea of chordx, but a bit frustated with implementation, so I decided to quickly rewrite my old js code to Typst. I use cetz there, so code is quite clean.

Note: This package doesn't use any piece of chordx, only the general idea is taken.

Brief comparison may be seen there, some concepts explained below:

Think about frets, not layout

Write frets for chord as you hold it, like a string like "123456" (see examples above). You don't need to think about layouting and subtracting frets, conchord does it for you.

NOTE: I can't guarantee that will be the best chord layout. Moreover, the logic is quite simple: e.g., barre can't be multiple and can't be put anywhere except first bar in the image. However, surprisingly, it works well in almost all of the common cases, so the exceptions are really rare.

If you need to create something too custom/complex ~~(but not concise)~~, maybe it is worth to try chordx. You can also try using core function render-chord for more manual control, but it is still limited by one barre starting from one (but that barre may be shifted). If you think that feature should be supported, you can create issue there.

Shadow barre

Some chord generators put barre only where it ought to be (any less will not hold some strings). Others put it where it can be (sometimes maximal size, sometimes some other logic). I use simple barre where it ought to be, and add shadow barre where it could maximally be. You can easily disable it by either setting use-shadow-barre: false on new-chordgen (only necessary part of barre rendered) or by setting color of shadow-barre the same as barre (maximal possible barre).

Name auto-scaling

Chord name font size is reduced for large chord names, so the name fits well into chord diagram (see example above). That makes it much more pretty to stack several chords together. To achieve chordx-like behavior, you can always use #figure(chord("…"), caption: …).

Easier chords for lyrics

Just add chord labels above lyrics in arbitrary place, don't think about what letter exactly it should be located. By default it aligns the chord label to the left, so it produces pretty results out-of-box. You can pass other alignments to alignment argument, or use the chords straight inside words.

The command is much simpler than chordx (of course, it is a trade-off):

#let overchord(body, align: start, height: 1em, width: -0.25em) = box(place(align, body), height: 1em + height, width: width)

Feel free to use it for your purposes outside of the package.

It takes on default -0.25em width to remove one adjacent space, so

To make it work on monospace/other special fonts, you will need to adjust width argument. The problem is that I can't measure space, but maybe that will be eventually fixed.
To add chord inside word, you have to add one space, like wo #chord[Am]rd.

Colors

Customize the colors of chord elements. new-chordgen accepts the colors dictionary with following possible fields:

grid: color of grid, default is gray.darken(20%)
open: color of circles for open strings, default is black
muted: color of crosses for muted strings, default is black
hold: color of held positions, default is #5d6eaf
barre: color of main barre part, default is #5d6eaf
shadow-barre: color of "unnecessary" barre part, default is #5d6eaf.lighten(30%)

Customizing text

Important: frets are rendered using raw elements. So if you want to customize their font or color, please use #show raw: set text(fill: ...) or similar things.

The chord's name, on the other hand, uses default font, so to set it, just use #set text(font: ...) in the corresponding scope.

Assertions

Currently chordx has almost no checks inside for correctness of passed chords. conchord, on the other side, checks for

Number of passed&parsed frets equal to set string-number
Only numbers and x passed as frets
All frets fitting in the diagram

Tabs

Everything there is highly experimental and unstable

#let chord = new-chordgen(scale-length: 0.6pt)

#let ending(n) = {
    rect(stroke: (left: black, top: black), inset: 0.2em, n + h(3em))
    v(0.5em)
}
*This thing doesn't follow musical notation rules, it is used just for demonstration purposes*:

#tabs.new(```
2/4 2/4-3 2/4-2 2/4-3 |
2/4-2 2/4-3 2/4 2/4 2/4 |
2/4-2 p 0/2-3 3/2-2
|:

0/1+0/6 0/1 0/1-3 2/1 | 3/1+3/5-2 3/1 3/1-3 5/1 | 2/1+0/4-2 2/1 0/1-3 3/2-3 | \ \
3/2-2 `5/2-3
p-2
##
  chord("022000", name: "Em")
##south
0/2-3 3/2 | | ## [...] ## p-4. | | 7/1-3 0/1-2 p-3 0/1 3/1 

##
    ending[1.]
##west

|
2/1-3
2/1
3/1 0/1 2/1-2 p-3 0/2-3 3/2-3
##
  ending[2.]
##west
|
2/1-2 2/1 0/1-3 3/2 :| 0/6-2 | ^0/6-2 || \
1/1 2/1 2/2 2/2 2/3 2/3 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3  2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3
##
[notice there is no manual break]
##east
| 2/3 2/3 8/3 7/3 6/3 5/3 4/3 2/3  5/3 8/3 9/3  7/3 2/3 | 2/3 2/2 2/3 2/4 |
10/1-3 10/1-3 10/1-3 10/1-4 10/1-4 10/1-4 10/1-4 10/1-5. 10/1-5. 10/1-5 10/1-5 10/1-2 \
1/3bfullr+2/5-2 1/2b1/2-1 2/3v-1
```, eval-scope: (chord: chord, ending: ending)
 )


Not a lot customization is available yet, but something is already possible:

#show raw: set text(red.darken(30%), font: "Comic Sans MS")

#tabs.new("0/1+2/5-1 ^0/1+`3/5-2.. 2/3 |: 2/3-1 2/3 2/3 | 3/3 ||",
  scale-length: 0.2cm,
  one-beat-length: 12,
  s-num: 5,
  colors: (
    lines: gradient.linear(yellow, blue),
    bars: green,
    connects: red
  ),
  enable-scale: false
)

As you can see from example, you can use raw strings or code blocks to write tabs, there is no real difference.

The general idea is very simple: to write a number on some line, write <fret number>/<string>.

Spaces are important! All notes and special symbols work well only if properly separated.

Duration

By default they will be quarter notes. To change that, you have to specify the duration: <fret>/<string>-<duration>, where duration is $log_2$ from note duration. So a whole note will be -0, a half: -1 and so on. You can also use as many dots as you want to multiply duration by 1.5, e.g. -2.

Once you change the duration, all the following notes will use it, so you have to specify duration every time it is changed (basically, always, but it really depends on composition). Of course, you can just ignore all that duration staff.

Bars and repetitions

To add simple bar, just add |. To add double bar line, use | |. To add end movement/composition, add ||. To add repetitions, use |: and :| respectively.

Linebreaks

Notes and bars that don't fit in line will be automatically moved to next. However, sometimes it isn't ideal and may be a bit bugged, so it is recommended to do that manually, using \.

The line is autoscaled if it is possible and not too ugly. You can change the maximum and minimum scaling size with scale-max and scale-min. It is also possible to completely disable scaling with enable-scale: false.

Ties and slides

You can tie notes or slide between them. To use ties, you have to add ^ in front of second tied note, like 1/1 ^3/1. To use slides you have to do the same, but with `.

Current limitation: tying and sliding works only on the same string and may work really bad if tied/slided through line break.

Bends and vibratos

Add b after note, but before the duration (e.g. 2/3b-2) to add a bend. After b you can write custom text to be written on top (for example, b1/2). Add r to the end to add a release.

Adding vibratos works the same way, via adding v to the note. The length of vibrato will be the same as the length of the note.

Unfortunately, they are all supported things for now. But wait, there is still one cool thing left!

Custom content

Add any typst code you want between ## … ##. It will be rendered with cetz on top of the line where you wrote it. That means you can write lyrics, chords, add complex things like endings, even draw the elements that are still missing (well, it is still worth to create issue there, I will try to do something).

That code is evaluated with eval, so you will need to pass dictionary to eval-scope with all things you want to use.

You can set align of these elements by writing cetz anchors after the second (e.g., west, south and their combinations, like west-south).

Additionally, if you enjoy drawing missing things, you can also use preamble and extra arguments in tabs.new where you can put any cetz inner things (tabs uses canvas, and that allow you drawing on it) before or after the tabs are drawn.

Plans

Add (optional) "rhythm section" under tabs
Add more signs&lines
Add more built-in things to attach above tabs

It is far from what I want to do, so maybe there will be much more! I will be very glad to receive any feedback, both issues and PR-s are very welcome (though I can't promise I will be able to work on it immediately)!

sitandr / conchord