While SmartScore's recognition can recognize high quality hand-written scores, there is no guarantee you will get the same kind of accuracy you would obtain with printed sheet music. The closer the manuscript resembles printed music, the better the recognition will be. The greatest variable in recognition accuracy is the quality of the printed music to be scanned. Larger fonts with crisper, more detailed printing will have better accuracy than smaller, faded scores or copies out of multiple generations. The next greatest variable is the quality of the scanner used.
Most flatbed scanners are adequate.
Never use hand scanners if at all possible. The best thing is to leave SmartScore s Auto Deskew checked on or open your scans in the Image Editor prior to Recognition and manually straighten the image.