RickSheets

RickSheets is a desktop editor for turning pasted chord sheets and text-based PDF files into clean, consistent and printable A4 chord sheets.

The application focuses on one workflow: import an imperfect source, review the detected song, correct lyrics and chords, and export a dependable PDF.

RickSheets 0.3.2 is an early release. The interface is available in German and English.

Features

• Import unformatted chord-sheet text.
• Import text-based PDFs using Poppler.
• Remove common website clutter and repeated headings during import.
• Detect title, artist, key, BPM, capo, sections and chord lines.
• Review the original PDF page beside the editable import result.
• Edit the raw arrangement or use visual section and chord editors.
• Keep chords aligned with their lyric positions in proportional print fonts.
• Transpose complete songs using international or German chord notation.
• Preview the final A4 pages while editing.
• Switch automatically to a two-column layout when it reduces the page count.
• Save songs in the open JSON-based .ricksheet format.
• Search a local song library.
• Export PDF files using the same rendering engine as the preview.
• Use light, dark or system appearance.
• Follow the system language or switch instantly between German and English.

Current status

The Linux AppImage and Flatpak bundle are functional. An automated Windows build produces both a portable ZIP and a conventional installer. The core import/edit/export workflow is covered by automated tests and has also been regression-tested locally against 22 different source PDFs. Those source documents and user-created chord sheets are intentionally not part of this public repository.

Current limitations:

• Scanned image-only PDFs require OCR, which is not implemented yet.
• The Windows packages still need a final smoke test on a real Windows system.
• Fine-grained manual control over page and column breaks is still planned.

Building on Linux

Required:

• a C++20 compiler
• CMake 3.24 or newer
• Ninja
• Qt 6 with Core, Gui, Widgets, PrintSupport, Test and LinguistTools
• Poppler command-line tools (pdftotext and pdftoppm)

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
./build/ricksheets

Building the Flatpak

Install flatpak, flatpak-builder and the Flathub remote, then build and install the release manifest:

flatpak-builder --user --install-deps-from=flathub \
  --install --force-clean build-flatpak \
  packaging/flatpak/io.github.erixx_hub.RickSheets.yml
flatpak run io.github.erixx_hub.RickSheets

The package builds RickSheets and the two required Poppler utilities from source. It has no network permission and no broad host-filesystem permission; opening and exporting files uses the desktop file chooser.

Windows

The Windows packages GitHub Actions workflow builds a portable ZIP and an Inno Setup installer on a Windows runner. Both contain Qt and the two Poppler utilities required for PDF import, so end users do not need to install dependencies separately.

A local development build requires Qt 6, CMake, Ninja, a C++20 compiler and Poppler:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
build\ricksheets.exe

Release packages are built manually from the Actions tab or automatically for version tags. Dependencies and build actions are pinned, and the downloaded Poppler archive is verified by SHA-256.

Input format

Section headings use square brackets:

[Intro]
| A | D E | A |

[Verse 1]
    Am             F
A simple lyric line for testing

Inline chords are supported as well:

A simple [Am]lyric line with an [F]inline chord

Layout model

Preview and PDF export share the same renderer. RickSheets starts with a single-column A4 layout and only uses two columns when doing so actually reduces the page count. Column breaks prefer complete song sections, and a chord line stays attached to its corresponding lyric line.

For classic “chords above lyrics” notation, chord positions are bound to the matching lyric segments rather than relying on monospaced spaces. This keeps the musical alignment stable when the page width or print font changes.

Project structure

src/song.*          Open song format
src/chordparser.*   Import cleanup, recognition and transposition
src/renderer.*      Shared preview and PDF layout
src/previewwidget.* A4 page preview and PDF export
src/mainwindow.*    Desktop user interface
tests/              Automated core and UI tests
packaging/          Linux, Flatpak, AppImage and Windows packaging

Roadmap and contributions

The near-term priorities are finer print-layout control, Flatpak packaging and stronger import diagnostics. See ROADMAP.md for the staged plan.

Bug reports and focused pull requests are welcome. Please do not attach or commit copyrighted lyrics, downloaded chord sheets or third-party PDFs. Use short synthetic examples when demonstrating import or rendering issues.

Deutsch

RickSheets ist ein Desktop-Editor, der eingefügten Chordsheet-Text und textbasierte PDFs bereinigt, bearbeitbar macht und als einheitliches A4-Chordsheet exportiert. Die Anwendung befindet sich in einer frühen, aber funktionsfähigen Entwicklungsphase. Die Oberfläche ist vollständig auf Deutsch und Englisch verfügbar.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Erik Heidenreich.

RickSheets is free software licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Modified versions are permitted under the license terms; existing copyright and license notices must be preserved.