Re: Vertical spacing

[Joe Neeman]

On Wed, 2009-10-07 at 14:28 +0200, Francisco Vila wrote:
> For any vertical spacing problem, please use 2.12 instead; Joe Neeman
> has been responsible of a rework of vertical spacing, but he is too
> much occupied these days, we all are.  See below
> 
> 2009/10/7 Thomas Scharkowski <address@hidden>:
> > I hav eadded two pngs to clarify:
> > With 2.13.3 "between-system-padding" and  "\override
> > Staff.VerticalAxisGroup" work as expected, in 2.13.4 there is no effect.
> 
> 2009/8/4 Joe Neeman <address@hidden>:
> > The interaction between the different xxx-spacing variables is a little
> > complex and I need to document it properly. In this case, the problem is
> > that Lyrics are unaffected by between-staff-spacing (because they are
> > non-spaceable) and so your override only forces there to be one staff
> > unit of padding between adjacent _staves_, which is satisfied by your
> > example. Unfortunately, there is not yet any way to control the spacing
> > between Lyrics and the staff below it, which is where you really want
> > the extra padding AFAICT.
> 
> Joe: is this already documented? Hot to control spacing from a lyrics
> line and the staff below it?  Simple lyrics seem to almost collide.

No, this isn't done yet. I'll try to do it this weekend.

> 
> << \new Staff { a } \addlyrics { pain }
> \new Staff { f' }
> >>
> 
> %%%%%%%%
> 
> Joe: I hate to bug you again, but several users are asking vertical
> spacing to have usable defaults and a documentation.  Just give us a
> hint about when do you think this feature will be finished.

The documentation should be usable. There are two places to look: the
variables that control spacing within a staff are given as grob
properties and documented in the IR. The variables that control spacing
between staves are given as \paper block properties and documented in
the NR with the other paper block variables. What's missing is a broad
overview of how these fit together. This isn't near the top of my TODO
list right now, so I don't know when I'll write it. However, there are
some emails in the archive (mainly to Reinhold, I think) which give a
reasonably detailed description.

As for usable defaults, it would help tremendously if users (especially
now that devel releases are coming out again) could suggest usable
defaults. I don't work a lot with choral, orchestral or piano music, so
I don't have a strong opinion about what looks good. I'm happy to answer
questions and to help people find defaults, but I'm unlikely to find
good ones by myself.

Regarding lyrics, however, it might be a good idea to hold off on
experimenting with defaults until I fix the padding issue (soon...)

Cheers,
Joe