Re: Possible bug in lyrics mode

[Alexander Kobel]

On 2010-07-13 16:48, Arle Lommel wrote:

> Line height for lyrics (at least in 2.13.24) is determined by the
> postscript bounding box for the characters in the line (or at least
> that's what it seems), *not* the em-square, which is the basic unit
> for almost all typographic measurements. This means that if a line
> has no descenders (j, p, or y), it loses height at the bottom [...]
> Similarly, if the line contains no ascenders [...], the spacing
> between lines is figured from the x-height of the text rather than
> the cap height. [...]
> I would argue that the layout engine should work based on the
> em-square of the font, which would result in consistent and
> predictable spacing. The way it is in 2.13.24 though is essentially
> unpredictable since you can’t know what the output is unless you know
> in advance what the lyrics text will be.

[still not on -bug for the moment]

+1, though the workaround by specifying VerticalAxisGroup 
'inter-loose-line-spacing 'minimum-distance is easy and straightforward 
once you know it.  There also was a discussion about the optimal value 
on the LilyPond-devel mailing list a few months ago: 
<http://old.nabble.com/%28bug-%29-irregular-lyrics-distance-in-2.13.10-td27145106.html>. 
 Not sure though whether Joe pushed the value of 3.2 we seemed to agree 
on.  Joe?

In addition, there's something I always wondered about - why is a 
special markup used as the LyricHyphen?  Doesn't it make more sense to 
just use the ordinary "-" of the LyricText font?  Even if nothing else, 
it'd make workarounds for repeated hyphens, using a manual "- syllable" 
text, look better.  For now, neither height nor strength of the dash 
correspond to the "-".


Cheers,
Alexander