VexTab

Preview and export VexTab guitar tabs (powered by VexFlow) with cursor highlighting and more.

Install

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MicoPapp.vextab

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

1. Open a VexTab file (.vt, .vextab, to use quick syntax .tab).
2. Run Open VexTab Preview from the Command Palette.
3. 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 Preview
• vextab.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.

• Tutorial: http://vexflow.com/vextab/tutorial.html.

Issues

Report bugs and feature requests here:
https://github.com/pmamico/vscode-vextab/issues.

Credits

VexTab 4.0: A VexTab Parser for VexFlow.