Re: centering text on a measure

[Trevor Daniels]

David Nalesnik wrote Saturday, September 03, 2011 6:36 PM

> I've adapted the snippet for centering text on hairpins
> http://lsr.dsi.unimi.it/LSR/Snippet?id=233
> to give an approximation of this.  Basically,  I've replaced the 
> default
> TextSpanner stencil with a blank with the same extents to which I 
> add a
> text.  The argument allows you to position this text using an 
> alignment
> value.  The example shows a few alignments over one-measure groups 
> on the
> first line, two-measure groups on the second.  (Unfortunately, if 
> I don't
> blank out the default stencil, the text appears on top of the 
> extender line,
> and of course the distance between the individual dashes or dots 
> isn't
> adapted to make for a nice fit.  Insert bad memories of another 
> notation
> program here.)

You can kill the extender line by setting
'dash-period negative, if that helps.

> Now, I suppose the text's position is dependent on the NoteColumn 
> grobs to
> which the spanner is attached.  Would it be possible to reset the 
> attachment
> point to another grob? (I could use offsets as in the original 
> function, but
> that will once again bring in the 'extra-offset issue.)

Not sure I understand.  The spanner start and end
points are defined by the positions of \startTextSpanner
and \stopTextSpanner.  ??

> I agree that this would be great feature for LilyPond.  How would 
> I go about
> making a request?

Well, you could add a snippet to the LSR to
show how you've done it.  This might then
find its way into the documentation if others
like it.  Instructions are on the LSR site:
http://lsr.dsi.unimi.it/, see Contributing.

And you could send a request for an enhancement
to address@hidden, explaining why it would
be useful, and, if you have added a snippet to the
LSR, pointing to it.

Trevor