Re: dotted vertical lines between notes

[Henrik Frisk]

Hi,

> Here's a cleaner, jazzier version; and it only took me four months.
> 
Sorry I missed this thread...

I've used dotted lines between notes for some scores. 

For rhytmically unison notes I use GridLines. In the score I set 

gridInterval = #(ly:make-moment 1 16)

and I make the it the default behaviour for the GridLine to be
transparent. Then, each time I want a GridLine I do:

  \override Score.GridLine #'transparent = ##f

Now, for adjacent notes that are not rhythmically unison, or if I want a
vertical line between only two out of three or more staves, I use 'empty'
TextSpanners with the #'rotation property. It's tricky and requires a
lot of tweaking but here's an example (adding only one line to the
example suplied by fairchild):

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\version "2.10.17"

ViolinI = \new Staff {
  \relative c' {
    \override TextSpanner #'edge-text = #'("" . "")
    \override TextSpanner #'dash-fraction = #0.2
    \override TextSpanner #'dash-period = #1
    \override TextSpanner #'thickness = #1
    \override TextSpanner #'Y-offset = #-4
    \override TextSpanner #'rotation = #'(-64 -1 0)
    \override TextSpanner #'extra-offset = #'(0.6 . -0.5)
    g a\startTextSpan
    d, e\stopTextSpan
    f g
    a b
    c d
    e } }
ViolinII = \new Staff {
    \relative c' { e f g a } }
Viola = \new Staff {
    \clef alto \relative c' { e f g a b d, e f g a b c d } }

\score { << \ViolinI \ViolinII \Viola >> }

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I started out using the postscript version, but somehow I feel the
Textspanner is easier. 

At one point I asked the list about how to make GridLines dashed or
dotted for this matter:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2006-08/msg00503.html

but, despite my efforts I haven't succeeded. The work-around is to make
it of a lighter shade of grey and as thin as possible. In a B&W print
out the GridLines are as good as dotted.

  \override Score.GridLine #'thickness = #0.1
  \override Score.GridLine #'color = #grey

If someone knows how to make them dotted (for real) please let me know!

/Henrik Frisk