MakeMusic (http://www.makemusic.com) has released Finale PrintMusic 2011 for Mac OS X 10.5 and higher. This updated version of the music notation software includes new features and provides compatibility with current operating systems and files created with Finale 2011, MakeMusic’s flagship software package.

With a list price of US$119.95, PrintMusic is targeted to songwriters, teachers, band and choir directors, church musicians, students and other musicians. With it you can arrange pieces of up to 24 staves and extract individual parts from the score. Notes can be entered with a computer keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, with the exclusive MicNotator or by scanning existing music.

PrintMusic tools include Drum Groove and Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing. Music plays back using hundreds of built-in sounds or additional external sound libraries (sold separately), and can be shared with others using the free downloadable Finale Reader and by creating .MP3 files for use on iPods and beyond.

With Finale PrintMusic 2011, lyrics are more easily entered and instantly appear exactly as they’ll print out and are automatically spaced with greater precision. New Staff Layout capabilities simplify the moving and editing of staves.

New Music Fonts, including the Finale Percussion font and the Finale Mallets font, are provided. These fonts facilitate the use of icons to represent standard percussion instruments used in scores as well as various mallet usages. PrintMusic 2011 also includes more than 150 music education worksheets and flashcards, improved pickup measures, updated folder reorganization and more.