Re: ChoirStaff: system, staff, and measure number spacing

[Mats Bengtsson]

Quoting Benedict Singer <address@hidden>:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been using LilyPond for a while now, and am starting to reach 
> the point where I need to tweak things slightly more than the manual 
> makes clear. Specifically, I have an SATB vocal piece layed out on a 
> ChoirStaff, and I'd like to tweak the following things:
>
> 1) Currently LilyPond lays out 2 systems per page, one at the top and 
> one at the bottom. I'd prefer them spaced a little more evenly on the 
> page (ie about the same amount of space between them as is below the 
> second one).

Take a look at the settings described in "Page Formatting" in the manual.

> 2) I'd like a little more space between lines in the same system; I 
> also suspect I'll need this when I start putting dynamics in.

LilyPond will automatically increase the spacing when you add the 
dynamics, if it's necessary. Otherwise, read about "Vertical
Spacing".

> 3) I like the look of the ChoirStaff bracketing the parts together, 
> but the problem is that the bracket collides with the measure numbers 
> at the beginning of each line. This could be solved by tweaking them 
> up a bit, but again, not sure how.

Popular question today! To quote an answer I sent some minutes ago:
See the last lines of the section on Bar Numbers in the manual.
If you need more details, search the mailing list archives for
BarNumber padding
which will provide lots of examples (just make sure to look at a
recent answer since the syntax has changed over the years).


> I started looking up how to override/tweak properties, but I'm 
> unclear on things such as determining the contexts, and exactly where 
> in the source file these tweaks should be placed. Even seeing how to 
> do just one of these things would probably enable me to get them all.

Probably not, since the paper variables (question 1) are fairly 
different. However, you can find lots of examples in the LilyPond 
Snippet Repository (see www.lilypond.org -> Documentation)
which is an extended version of the examples in the "Tips and Tricks"
document and the "Regression Tests" document. Another good source
of examples is the mailing list archives, of course.

  /Mats