Re: default margins

[Carl D. Sorensen]

On 3/19/09 7:53 AM, "Graham Percival" <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 10:03:42PM -0700, Mark Polesky wrote:
>> 
>> I have! At one point I was frustrated by this very issue
>> and went through my score library with a ruler. Valentin
>> mentioned "precise" measurements, but to my surprise,
>> measured values from any one publisher deviated quite a
>> lot from score to score, sometimes from page to page.
> 
> I think that's part of how page turns work out much nicer in
> printed manuscripts than by default in LilyPond.  I was
> complaining to my brother about how difficult it was to work out
> page turns in one particular piece of mine, and he pointed out
> that I was probably using the same margins for every page.
> 
> A priori, I would say that changing margins are **not** a good
> idea... but since professional typesetters do it, and I never
> noticed myself in 25 years of music-playing, I have to admit that
> maybe it's a good idea.
> 
> 
> This would require the ability to change margins in lilypond
> on-the-fly, of course.  I doubt that's possible in current page
> settings... and in any case, it would mix up content and
> presentation a fair amount.  Unless we defined something like:
> \paper {
>   line-width = 180mm
>   \page #2 {
>     line-width = 150mm
>   }
> }
> 
> 

It would seem to me that it would be better to set maximum-line-width and
minimum-line-width properties.   This would then allow the LilyPond spacing
engine to try adjusting line-width between those limits to see if it could
get better spacing.

And by setting maximum-line-width and minimum-line-width to the same values,
you would have exactly the current behavior.

Carl