Trouble getting my page layout just right

[Cameron Horsburgh]

Hi folks,

If you open
http://web.netcall.com.au/horsburgh/Downloads/entertainer.pdf you'll
find a score I did a few years back. I've never been happy with the
way the systems are spaced on each page.

If you look at the pages 4 and 8 you'll notice that the staves are far
more spread out vertically when compared to the other pages. I've
tried playing around with all the ragged-bottom settings as well as
the Staff VerticalAxisGroup #'minimum-Y-extent, all to no avail. I can
get individual pages right, but always at the expense of others. I
can't figure out why it is so---it doesn't seem to have anything to do
with the skylining. For example, compare pages 3 and 4. They're fairly
similar in character and the amount of material outside the five lines
of each staff, yet they take up noticeably different amounts of
personal space.

Unfortunately, it all looks rather odd. Ideally, I would like each
system to comfortably fill a page and be approximately the same
vertical size as each other.

I won't include the whole project for now, but here are the layout and
paper blocks in effect. Does anything look wrong? Have I missed
something I shouldn't have? If anyone wants the full shebang, let me
know and I'll send it off list.

\paper{
  #(set-paper-size "a4" 'landscape)
  between-system-padding = #0
  after-title-space = #0
  ragged-bottom=##f
  ragged-last-bottom=##f
  line-width=10.0 \in
}


\layout {
  indent=0.0 \cm
    \context {
      \Score \override VerticalAlignment #'max-stretch = 
#ly:align-interface::calc-max-stretch
    }
    \context {
      \Staff \override VerticalAxisGroup #'minimum-Y-extent = #'(-2 . 2)
    }
    \context {
      \DrumStaff \override VerticalAxisGroup #'minimum-Y-extent = #'(-2 . 2)
    }
}

Thanks,

-- 

Cameron Horsburgh

Blog: http://spiritcry.wordpress.com/