PDF export

Overview

PDF export turns a chart into a clean, printable page for music stands, rehearsal handouts, and musicians who are not on Akordo.

When to use it

• Your band wants paper copies
• You want a fixed snapshot of a set for a specific gig
• You are sending a chart to a guest musician
• You want a backup in the gig bag in case the venue's connection fails

Export a song

1. Open the song and switch to the arrangement you want to print. The PDF uses that arrangement's chart, key, time signature, and tempo.
2. Choose Export PDF from the Actions menu.
3. A PDF Preview opens showing the exact pages. Tick Use numbers to print Nashville numbers instead of chord letters. This needs a key on the song, and capo is ignored in numbers mode.
4. Choose Download.

The preview reflects the transpose and capo you had selected in View mode, so set them first if you want them printed.

Export a setlist

Choose Export PDF from the setlist's actions menu or from its card on the Setlists page. You get one PDF with every song in setlist order, each using the arrangement and tuning chosen in the set.

Songs that cannot be exported, for example a song with no chart, are skipped and the notification tells you how many. If the setlist is still saving a change, wait a moment and try again.

What the PDF includes

• Song title, with subtitle and artist if set
• The arrangement name
• An info line with key, time signature, and tempo when they are set. Capo is not printed as a separate line. The key shown is the key of the printed chord shapes, so a song in D exported with capo 2 prints as C.
• The chart, with chords above lyrics and section headers set apart by a rule
• Comments, both {c:...} and # lines
• Markup and ink, when annotated export is on in the preview

Page numbers are not printed.

Layout

PDFs use a fixed layout designed for music stands:

• US Letter, portrait
• Two columns with tight margins
• Text scales down automatically, to no less than three quarters of full size, to fit more on each page. Anything that still does not fit continues on the next page.

There are no paper size or font size options.

Column breaks

Put COLUMN_BREAK on its own line to push the following content into the next column. This is the main tool for balancing a chart across the page.

Markup and ink

The preview has a Draw ink button for freehand marks and a markup layer for text notes. Marks are yours: they are saved against the arrangement for your account, follow you between devices, and are not shown to other people who open the same arrangement. When annotated export is on, they print in your PDF. Marks you drew on an iPad with Apple Pencil appear here too. See Songs.

Tips

• Set metadata first. Key, time, and tempo print in the header only if they are set.
• Use section headers. They make the printed chart scannable mid-song.
• Balance columns. Add a column break before a long section that would otherwise straddle the fold.
• Test with one song before exporting a full setlist.
• Very long songs can take longer to generate. Extremely large charts may be rejected by the server's size limits.

Common issues

The PDF looks different from the app

The PDF uses fixed fonts and a fixed page width. Long lines wrap differently than on screen. Shorten lines or add a column break.

The PDF is blank or missing a song

The arrangement has no chart content. Add lyrics and chords, then export again. In a setlist export, songs like this are skipped and counted in the notification.

Numbers is greyed out

The song has no key. Add one in the Key chip, then export again.

Sharing PDFs

A downloaded PDF is a standalone file. Email it, print it, drop it in a shared folder, or send it to a nearby device. Recipients do not need an Akordo account.

Next steps

• Songs to prepare charts for export
• Setlists to export a whole set
• ChordPro reference for column breaks and formatting