VexTab
Preview and export VexTab guitar tabs (powered by VexFlow) with cursor highlighting and more.
Features
- Live preview for
.vt, .vextab, and .tab files
- Export the current document to a PDF
This extension is built on a fork of the upstream VexTab 4.0 project, with additional parser/editor-focused features:
\ line continuation for multi-line VexTab input- Cursor API (editors can highlight the current position while typing)
tabstave and tuning settings inherit to newly created tabstaves until explicitly overridden- Document header text:
title, subtitle, sidenote (drawn above the first stave)
Usage
- Open a VexTab file (
.vt, .vextab, to use quick syntax .tab).
- Run
Open VexTab Preview from the Command Palette.
- Optional: run
Export VexTab to PDF to save a PDF.
Quick syntax (.tab)
The .tab extension enables a shorthand format that the extension preprocesses before passing it to the VexTab parser.
- A leading
tabstave is optional; the extension inserts it when missing.
- A line that looks like
key=value key=value ... is treated as tabstave <that line> (except tuning=..., which stays as-is).
- An empty line can be used as a quick
tabstave opener.
Same content in regular VexTab vs. quick syntax:
// song.vt (regular VexTab)
title Autumn Leaves
subtitle (lead sheet excerpt)
sidenote capo 2 - swing
tabstave notation=true tablature=true time=4/4 key=A
notes :8 5/6 7/6 8/6 7/6 | :q 5/6
tabstave notation=true tablature=true time=4/4 key=A
notes :8 5/6 7/6 8/6 7/6 | :q 5/6
// song.tab (quick syntax)
title Autumn Leaves
subtitle (lead sheet excerpt)
sidenote capo 2 - swing
notation=true tablature=true time=4/4 key=A
notes :8 5/6 7/6 8/6 7/6 | :q 5/6
notes :8 5/6 7/6 8/6 7/6 | :q 5/6
Commands
vextab.preview: Open VexTab Previewvextab.exportPdf: Export VexTab to PDF
About VexTab
VexTab is a language that allows you to create, edit, and share music notation and guitar tablature. Unlike ASCII tab (optimized for readability), VexTab is optimized for writeability.
Issues
Report bugs and feature requests here:
https://github.com/pmamico/vscode-vextab/issues.
Credits
VexTab 4.0: A VexTab Parser for VexFlow.
