Power Tab Editor 2.0: a tablature editor written from scratch

Why the project was rewritten from nothing

Power Tab Editor 2.0 is described as a powerful cross platform guitar tablature viewer and editor, inspired by the ceased development and missing source code from the original Power Tab Editor. That is the whole origin story and it shapes the project's character. The original was a well known tabbing platform that stopped being developed and whose source was not available, so the new project was written from scratch with the stated aim that your favorite tabbing platform can continuously grow with your needs. The primary language is C++, the user interface is Qt, and the homepage is powertab.github.io. The table of contents in the README is organised around that story, with sections for the project, the users and the developers, and the developer section carries the full build instructions for three platforms, which is unusual for a desktop application of this kind and suggests the project expects people to build it rather than only download it.

The features that matter to a tabber

The key features list is short. Cross platform support for Windows, Mac and Linux is first. A tabbed layout for opening multiple files at the same time is second, which is the feature a tab player actually lives in, since a set is a set of files rather than one document. A mixer interface for adjusting volumes during playback is third, and it is a real differentiator, because the standard playback model in tablature software is one volume for everything. Complete customization of keyboard shortcuts is fourth, which matters more than it sounds, because a tablature player is a performance tool and the defaults are rarely right. And importing of Guitar Pro tabs is fifth, which is the feature that determines whether you can bring your existing library with you. The interface is not the selling point in the README, which is unusual for a project with a Qt interface, and that restraint is probably a sign of where the effort went.

The file formats it reads

The supported file types are listed plainly. There is the native `.pt2` format, and `.ptb`. Then the Guitar Pro family, with `.gp3`, `.gp4` and `.gp5`, which are the three versions of the format that most of the tab archive on the internet is actually in, plus `.gpx`, the XML-based Guitar Pro format, and `.gp`, the earlier binary format. That combination is the practical case covered. The native formats are what the editor writes, and the Guitar Pro formats are what it reads, which means the editor is a good import path into a working copy of a tab rather than a replacement for the whole Guitar Pro feature set. The new user is pointed at an intro page in the project wiki to learn more, and the download section separates latest stable releases from latest development releases, the latter requiring a GitHub login to download.

The dependency list is long and specific

The build requirements are precise, which is what you want from a project that expects people to compile it. CMake 3.12 or newer, and Boost 1.74 or newer with a specific set of components, namely algorithm, date_time, endian, functional, iostreams, operators, rational, signals2 and stacktrace. Qt 6.2 or greater. nlohmann-json 3.7.3 or newer for JSON handling, RtMidi 4.0 or newer for MIDI input and output, pugixml for XML parsing, minizip for the zip container that Guitar Pro files use, and doctest for the unit tests. On Linux you also need the ALSA library and a MIDI sequencer such as timidity-daemon. And you need a compiler with C++20 support. The C++20 requirement is the one to notice, because it is what makes the boost components list include stacktrace, and it is the constraint most likely to rule out an older toolchain.

Building on Linux

The Linux instructions assume a recent Ubuntu or Debian based system, and the dependency install is a single apt line covering cmake, the Qt 6 base and tools packages, the Qt localisation tools, the Boost development packages, nlohmann-json, ALSA, RtMidi, pugixml, minizip and doctest. You may also need `libglx-dev` and `libgl1-mesa-dev` alongside Qt 6, and the README recommends installing the timidity daemon, which is not required for building but is a good sequencer for MIDI playback. The build itself is a fresh directory, a configure step, and a parallel make:

  * `mkdir build && cd build`
  * `cmake ..`
  * `make -j8` or `ninja`

The configure step has documented switches, including `-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX` to set the install directory, `-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug` for a debug build instead of the default release one, `-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++` to build with Clang, and `-G Ninja` to generate Ninja build files. After building you run `./bin/powertabeditor` for the application and `./bin/pte_tests` for the unit tests, and `make install` installs it. Using Ninja rather than make is an option, and the README links to the Ninja project for that.

Windows and macOS, and a script for the tedious part

The Windows path uses vcpkg, with a command installing the dependency set for the x64-windows triplet, covering the boost components, doctest, minizip, nlohmann-json and pugixml, and a second command for the Qt packages qtbase and qttools, with the note that this may take a while. You can alternatively install a binary release of Qt, or use the aqtinstall project. After that you open the project folder in Visual Studio and build, and if you run CMake manually you set `CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE` to the vcpkg buildsystems path. There is also a PowerShell route for a more automated process, requiring at least PowerShell 5.1 and running in your cloned project directory:

.\scripts\Get-Dependencies.ps1 -vcpkg_exe_path "your/path/to/your/vcpkg.exe" -python_exe_path "your/path/to/your/python.exe";
.\scripts\Run-CMakeBuild.ps1 -vcpkg_dir "your/path/to/your/vcpkg" -qt_path "your/path/to/qt";

The macOS path wants Xcode with its Command Line Tools, then the same dependency set through Homebrew, and it carries an explicit warning that the Qt package from Homebrew does not currently work for building the installer, with aqtinstall given as the alternative.

A project that asks for help

The community signals are unusually visible for a desktop application, and they tell you what kind of project this is. There is a translation status badge pointing at Weblate, and the users section invites you to translate the project into your language. There is a Discord community, and the developer section says development help is very welcome, with a link to a list of good first issues on the tracker that are easier to dive into. Bugs and feature requests go to the issue tracker, and ideas are discussed on the discussions forum. On the packaging side, there are official packages for the Snap Store and for Flathub, so the distribution story is solved for Linux users even if the source build is not trivial. The top level of the repository shows a conventional C++ layout with a `source/` directory, a `test/` directory, a `cmake/` directory, a `installer/` directory, a `scripts/` directory, `translations/` and `xdg/` for desktop integration, alongside a `CMakeLists.txt`, a `COPYING` file and a `.clang-format` file. The licence is GPL-3.0, and the last push was on 2026-10-20 while the newest release is 2.0.22 from 2025-06-29.

Editorial conclusion

Power Tab Editor 2.0 fits a guitarist who has Guitar Pro files, wants to view and edit tablature on Windows, macOS or Linux, and would rather not install a proprietary editor. It is the wrong choice if you need a full arrangement and notation environment, since it is a tablature editor rather than a score editor, and the wrong choice if you cannot install the C++ toolchain, because the Linux build wants Qt 6, Boost, RtMidi and a set of development packages. Before you build it, read the good first issues on the tracker, since the project actively welcomes help, and check the file formats you actually have against the supported list. The last push was on 2026-10-20 with release 2.0.22 published on 2025-06-29, and the code is GPL-3.0 licensed.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: GPL-3.0
2. powertab/powertabeditor on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases