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Re: Lyric line's vertical position is shifting from one staff systemto t


From: Phil Holmes
Subject: Re: Lyric line's vertical position is shifting from one staff systemto the next.
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2018 08:25:08 +0100

To download the latest 2.19 version, go to http://lilypond.org/downloads/binaries/

--
Phil Holmes
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: dfro
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2018 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: Lyric line's vertical position is shifting from one staff systemto the next.

On 6/10/18 1:16 AM, Aaron Hill wrote:
On 2018-06-09 19:43, dfro wrote:
Dear code wizards,

I still have more to solve on this issue, if possible.

I think I have discovered why most of the shifting is happening: The
skyline rather than the baseline of the lyric line text is being
referenced by LilyPond when calculating vertical placement.

[ . . . ]

Perhaps, stacked lyric lines could look more even in their spacing in
some situations, if a 'reference text baseline' setting were available
within the program for VerticalAxisGroup tweaks.

According to the documentation (Notation Reference 4.4.1), ChordNames and Lyrics already use the baseline as their reference point.  And a Staff uses the vertical center of its StaffSymbol as the reference point.  (If you have set your staff to a single line, then that line will be its reference.)

You should not need any special setting as this is the default behavior.  Now, that is not to say that the maximal extents are not relevant.  From what I can tell, basic-distance and minimum-distance strictly apply to the reference points, whereas padding only considers the extents.  That is, if you set basic-distance/minimum-distance to too small a value, then padding will take precedence to avoid collisions.  On the other hand, if you provide a sufficient value for basic-distance/minimum-distance, then you will see that spacing is consistently relative to the reference points.  An unusually tall element can still result in the whole line shifting to honor the padding, so it takes a bit of work to find a good set of spacing parameters that will work throughout a long piece.

The following is a *very* contrived snippet, but I think it should help demonstrate that lyrics indeed use the baseline as the reference point:

%%%%
\version "2.19.81"
\paper { #(set-paper-size "a7landscape") tagline = ##f }

some-rhythms = \relative b' { \stemUp b4 8 8 4 4 | 4 8 8 2 }
some-lyrics = \lyricmode {
  Here are some \markup \center-column { \char ##x2193 low } words;
  some ve -- ry \markup \scale #'(1 . 2) TALL. }

test-spacing = #(define-void-function (spacing)(list?)
  (add-score #{ \score { << \new Staff {
    \omit Staff.Clef \omit Staff.TimeSignature
    \override Staff.StaffSymbol.line-count = #1
    \some-rhythms } \addlyrics \some-lyrics >>
    \layout { \context { \Lyrics \override
      VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing = $spacing } }
} #}))

\test-spacing #'((basic-distance . 5) (padding . 0))
\test-spacing #'((basic-distance . 0) (padding . 0))
\test-spacing #'((basic-distance . 0) (padding . -5))
%%%%

The first test involves no padding and a basic-distance of five units, which is measured from the staff line to the baseline of the lyrics.  This is sufficient space to account for the tall lyric along with a little breathing room.  But do notice that the five units is unaffected by the low lyric.

The second test zeroes out the spacing and tries to go as tight as possible.  You can see that the tall lyric touches the note on the staff, and the bounding boxes of the staff and lyrics are technically overlapping.

The third test uses a negative padding to permit the layout to overlap.  With a zero basic-distance, you can see the baseline of the lyrics sit right on the staff line.  Note the low lyric still sits below.

I've attached an image with rules manually overlaid so it is easier to count the units of spacing.

-- Aaron Hill


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Aaron,

Thank you for the documentation reference, your explanation, and your code example!

BTW, your code example did not compile in 2.18 on macOS, so I tried to download 2.19 for macOS, but the download link seems to be down. No problem, though. I was able to rewriting it and experiment with it - without the nice Scheme automation that you included.


Below, I have rewritten your example to show how the lines are still shifting and do not seem to be solely using the text baseline and the staff center point. Bounding box/skyline constraints seem to be included by LilyPond in the calculations for all three /test-spacing variations. If the bounding box changes from one staff system to the next (I removed the TALL word in the second system), then there is a shift, even with the 'padding' variation of \test-spacing. If I try to use a negative number for basic-distance (or minimum-distance in my projects) LilyPond logs and error:


programming error: insane spring distance requested, ignoring it

continuing, cross fingers


The padding variable and \override LyricText.extra-offset = #'(0 . .4) are the only means I can find to nest text (chord symbols) inside the barlines of the staff, which is what I want. I also included in my code example an extension of the length of the barlines to show that the bounding box of the barlines constrains the basic-distance variable from nesting the text within the barlines of the staff.


Also, LyricText.extra-offset seems to be the only way to dynamically change the vertical spacing within the \lyricmode block. I cannot get padding to work within the \lyricmode block. I tried including the Lyrics and LyricText contexts before VerticalAxisGroup with no effect.


What I think is needed is some setting where vertical bounding-box/skyline safeguards can be turned off for Lyrics (and ChordNames), thus allowing the rigid positioning of the lyric text baseline and the nesting of the text (chords) withing the staff barlines. I still want the text to avoid barlines in the horizontal dimension! (BTW, I found code in Reference Manual 2.1.2 to make lyrics avoid barlines, so that problem is solved.) If someone knows enough to tweak the VerticalAxisGroup spacing, perhaps the option to turning off bounding-box safeguards/constraints could be allowed as an option, too. Perhaps, that option is already available, or I am still missing something. Or maybe, negative numbers could be allowed for basic-distance and minimum-distance at some point, if that would solve this.


Of course, take or leave my beginner musings. I have only done around 80 manuscript rough drafts, so far, which I am now trying to polish. And, I am only just beginning the chordsheets (I want to make hundreds of these).


I hope I can figure out a way to make this work. Thank your for the help!


Peace,

David




%Code start


\version "2.18.2"

some-rhythms = \relative b' {
     
      \stemUp b4 b8 b8 b4 b4 | b4 b8 b8 b2 \break
      b4 b8 b8 b4 b4 | b4 b8 b8 b2 \break

}
some-lyrics = \lyricmode {
      Here are some \markup \center-column { \char ##x2193 low } words;
      some ve -- ry
      \markup \scale #'(1 . 2) TALL.
     
      Here are some \markup \center-column { \char ##x2193 low } words;
      some ve -- ry
      %If you comment out the TALL text, the lyric line shifts for all three
      %  spacing tests.
     
      %\markup \scale #'(1 . 2) TALL.
}

test-spacing-a = #'((basic-distance . -1) (padding . 0))
test-spacing-b = #'((basic-distance . 0) (padding . 0))
test-spacing-c = #'((basic-distance . 0) (padding . -3))

\score { << \new Staff  {
      \omit Staff.Clef \omit Staff.TimeSignature
      \override Staff.StaffSymbol.line-count = #1
     
      %Staff.BarLine.bar-extent causes /test-spacing-a and -b to shift
      % the lyric line outside the barline bounding box/skyline
      % text cannot be nested within the barlines using basic-distance
      % (or minimum-distance).
     
      %\override Staff.BarLine.bar-extent = #' (-2.5 . 2.5)
     
       \some-rhythms
            }
             \addlyrics \some-lyrics
         >>
         \layout {
              
               ragged-right = ##t

               \context
               { \Lyrics
                
                 %\test-spacing-a, b, or c shift from one line to the next.
                
                 \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing = \test-spacing-a
                 %\override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing = \test-spacing-b
                 %\override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing = \test-spacing-c
               }
         }
}

\paper {
      indent = 0     % don't indent first system
}


%Code end



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