Spacing

Spacing issues

---

Adjusting lyrics vertical spacing

This snippet shows how to bring the lyrics line closer to the staff.

% Default layout:
<<
 \new Staff \new Voice = melody \relative c' {
 c4 d e f
 g4 f e d
 c1
 }
 \new Lyrics \lyricsto melody { aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa }
 \new Staff {
 \new Voice = melody \relative c' {
 c4 d e f
 g4 f e d
 c1
 }
 }
 % Reducing the minimum space below the staff and above the lyrics:
 \new Lyrics \with {
 \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing =
 #'((basic-distance . 1))
 }
 \lyricsto melody { aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa aa }
>>

[image of music]

---

Allowing fingerings to be printed inside the staff

By default, vertically oriented fingerings are positioned outside the staff; that behavior, however, may be disabled. Attention needs to be paid to situations where fingerings and stems are in the same direction: by default, fingerings will avoid only beamed stems. That setting can be changed to avoid no stems or all stems; the following example demonstrates these two options, as well as how to go back to the default behavior.

\relative c' {
 <c-1 e-2 g-3 b-5>2
 \override Fingering.staff-padding = #'()
 <c-1 e-2 g-3 b-5>4 g'-0
 a8[-1 b]-2 g-0 r
 \override Fingering.add-stem-support = ##f
 a[-1 b]-2 g-0 r
 \override Fingering.add-stem-support = ##t
 a[-1 b]-2 g-0 r
 \override Fingering.add-stem-support = #only-if-beamed
 a[-1 b]-2 g-0 r
}

[image of music]

---

Page label

Page labels may be placed inside music or at top-level, and referred to in markups.

#(set-default-paper-size "a6")
#(define-markup-command (toc-line layout props label text)
 (symbol? markup?)
 (interpret-markup layout props
 (markup #:fill-line (text #:page-ref label "8" "?"))))
\book {
 \markup \huge \fill-line { \null Title Page \null }
 \pageBreak
 \label #'toc
 \markup \column {
 \large \fill-line { \null Table of contents \null }
 \toc-line #'toc "Table of contents"
 \toc-line #'firstScore "First Score"
 \toc-line #'markA "Mark A"
 \toc-line #'markB "Mark B"
 \toc-line #'markC "Mark C"
 \toc-line #'unknown "Unknown label"
 }
 \pageBreak
 \label #'firstScore
 \score {
 \new Staff \relative c' {
 c2 c
 \mark \markup {
 A (page \concat { \page-ref #'markA "0" "?" ) }
 } \label #'markA
 c2 c
 \pageBreak
 \mark "B" \label #'markB
 d2 d
 d2 d
 \once \override Score.RehearsalMark.break-visibility =
 #begin-of-line-invisible
 \mark "C" \label #'markC
 }
 \header { piece = "First score" }
 }
}

[image of music]

---

Proportional strict notespacing

If strict-note-spacing is set spacing of notes is not influenced by bars or clefs within a system. Rather, they are placed just before the note that occurs at the same time. This may cause collisions.

\relative c'' <<
 \override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
 \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/16)
 \new Staff {
 c8[ c \clef alto c c \grace { d16 } c8 c] c4
 c2 \grace { c16[ c16] } c2
 }
 \new Staff {
 c2 \tuplet 3/2 { c8 \clef bass cis,, c } c4
 c1
 }
>>

[image of music]

---

Vertically aligned dynamics and textscripts

All DynamicLineSpanner objects (hairpins and dynamic texts) are placed with their reference line at least 'staff-padding from the staff, unless other notation forces them to be farther. Setting 'staff-padding to a sufficiently large value aligns the dynamics.

The same idea, together with \textLengthOn, is used to align the text scripts along their baseline.

music = \relative c' {
 a'2\p b\f
 e4\p f\f\> g, b\p
 c2^\markup { \huge gorgeous } c^\markup { \huge fantastic }
}
{
 \music
 \break
 \override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #3
 \textLengthOn
 \override TextScript.staff-padding = #1
 \music
}

[image of music]

---

Vertically aligning ossias and lyrics

This snippet demonstrates the use of the context properties alignBelowContext and alignAboveContext to control the positioning of lyrics and ossias.

\paper {
 ragged-right = ##t
}
\relative c' <<
 \new Staff = "1" { c4 c s2 }
 \new Staff = "2" { c4 c s2 }
 \new Staff = "3" { c4 c s2 }
 { \skip 2
 <<
 \lyrics {
 \set alignBelowContext = #"1"
 lyrics4 below
 }
 \new Staff \with {
 alignAboveContext = #"3"
 fontSize = #-2
 \override StaffSymbol.staff-space = #(magstep -2)
 \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
 } {
 \tuplet 6/4 {
 \override TextScript.padding = #3
 c8[^"ossia above" d e d e f]
 }
 }
 >>
 }
>>

[image of music]

---

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LilyPond — Snippets v2.22.2 (stable-branch).