Why digitize sheet music at all?
Paper tears, disappears and cannot be searched — a digital library fixes all three at once.
PDF: the digital sheet
A PDF is an exact image of the page: perfect for reading, but it knows nothing about the music itself.
MusicXML: notation as structured data
MusicXML describes every note, bar and voice as data — enabling transposition and reflow.
PDF vs. MusicXML at a glance
Both formats have clear strengths — the choice depends on whether you want to read or edit.
From scan to MusicXML (OMR with Audiveris)
Optical music recognition turns scanned pages into editable data — with limits worth knowing.
In practice: both formats in one library
The most practical setup keeps PDFs and MusicXML side by side, picking the right format per piece.
Conclusion: which format when?
In short: PDF for reading and archiving, MusicXML for editing and transposing.
Note
This article is coming soon.