Re: Score spacing.

[Mats Bengtsson]

In my opinion, the biggest problem with the vertical spacing in
LilyPond today, is the use of rectangular boxes around each
stave to determine the spacing. The attached example illustrates
what I have in mind.

Unfortunately, it seems very complicated to improve this situation
(TeX/LaTeX, for example, uses the same basic strategy).

   /Mats

Kieren Richard MacMillan wrote:
> Hello, Ralph:
>
> > If I look at professionally produced stuff,
> > within a system, the staves are always equidistant.
>
>
> Actually, I have found just the opposite: the staves are *rarely* 
> exactly equidistant! And this is especially true from page to page (as 
> opposed to within a block of staves on one page): the staves expand and 
> contract to accommodate the material. (I just confirmed with several 
> scores of different types here at home...)
>
> They may *appear* to be equidistant -- and, of course, they may actually 
> *be* equidistant from time to time -- but from my experience (and 
> double-checking), it seems that the goal of most engravers is to 
> maintain a consistent "colour" of music (i.e., density of musical 
> symbols) throughout a given score.
>
> > I'm sure that a consistently spaced score page is more pleasing to the 
> > eye
> > than one that squeezes and stretches to requirement from page to page.
>
>
> I would agree with this -- for one (extreme) example, I would much 
> rather not use or engrave "condensed" scores (where empty staves are 
> removed altogether), since it often makes it more difficult for the eye 
> to follow individual musical lines, and it can lead to a false sense of 
> performance "density" in the reader.
>
> However, to qualify my agreement: when one must choose, I feel that it 
> is more important to maintain a consistent "colour" to the score than 
> exact spacing of staves.
>
> Regards,
> Kieren.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lilypond-user mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user

--
=============================================
        Mats Bengtsson
        Signal Processing
        Signals, Sensors and Systems
        Royal Institute of Technology
        SE-100 44  STOCKHOLM
        Sweden
        Phone: (+46) 8 790 8463                         
        Fax:   (+46) 8 790 7260
        Email: address@hidden
        WWW: http://www.s3.kth.se/~mabe
=============================================

\version "2.1.7"
          

\score { \notes \context Voice
{ 
  c,,1 | c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | \break
  c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | c''''' | \break
  c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | \break
}
\header{piece = "Default spacing"}
\paper { 
  \translator {
    \ScoreContext
    System \override #'molecule-callback = #box-grob-molecule
  }
}
}

\score { \notes \context Voice
{ 
  \property Staff.verticalExtent = #'#'(-8 . 8)
  c,,1 | c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | \break
  c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | c''''' | \break
  c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | c' | \break
}
\header{piece = "Better (?) spacing"}

}