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CHORD5 is a ChordPro editor and renderer, useful for formatting and printing song sheets ("lead sheets"). Written in Java, it will run on any OS that has Java version 8 or higher installed.
This version of the CHORD program (based on CHORD4) has been modified to add functionality that enables it to cooperate with the ChordSmith program (available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/chordsmith/). CHORD5's MacOS interface has been standardized to use the Command key instead of Ctrl, as well as moving the About and Quit menu selections to the standard MacOS locations on the screen menu bar. The help docs have been updated and some bugs eliminated. This modified version has been renamed to CHORD5. The original CHORD4 distribution is available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/chord4/.
Although it was originally revised to work with ChordSmith, CHORD5 also works well as a standalone program.
As of 8/4/2026, ChordSmith no longer needs the separate CHORD5 program.
Features
- CHORD5 will read an ascii file containing songs lyrics and ChordPro directives that describe the chords and tablature needed to play a song on the guitar plus formatting information. CHORD5 will then generate a professional looking sheet-music version of your input file on your printer.
- CHORD5 Can combine many songs into one printable songbook, with index.
- CHORD5 now works on the Mac with the native Mac Look and Feel.
- Added a server process that accepts song filenames from a ChordSmith client and passes them to CHORD5's renderer for display and printing.
- CHORD5 Can display/print guitar chord grids on each song.
- You can add new guitar chord grids to CHORD5's database.
- CHORD5 is written in Java and runs on any OS that has the Java JRE installed (available at java.com).
Project Samples
