Re: New fonts for chords

[Carl D. Sorensen]

On 4/25/09 12:52 PM, "Pekka Siponen" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Here are some thoughts about the default chords in LilyPond:
> 
> 1. The suffixes should not be scaled (see attachment). The weight of the
> smaller character gets too light if it is simply scaled down from the
> original font.

Thanks for making a pdf that shows what you mean.  Perhaps we could make the
7 symbol bold as well as raising it.

> 2. The suffix should be top-aligned with the preceding characted.

Is this an engraving standard or just a personal preference?  I'm not
disagreeing with you, but we try to make changes to LilyPond only in
response to music engraving standards.

Every book I've been able to find in my (admittedly limited) collection just
keeps everything on the same line -- no raising of suffixes.  I've read
about different standards in different regions, but have no personal
knowledge of that.

> 3. The sharps should be centered and the flats should be aligned with
> the baseline. (Or something done in general, the sharps and flats look
> out of place)

Can you point us to an engraving standard that we could use to make this
decision?

> 
> So, maybe (typographically correct) new fonts for chords in the future..?
> 

If you're willing to make new fonts for chords, I would guess that you could
get them accepted as part of LilyPond, but I don't think there is a current
developer who will be spending time doing that.  I understand that it is a
big job to develop a new font.

> Also, it seems funny to me that the default font for chords is sans
> serif, when the default font otherwise is serif. Why not use the default
> roman font also for chords?

I assume (maybe incorrectly) that it's because somebody early on thought
that the sans fonts were better for chord names.  In my quick review of my
books, it appears that the chord names and the lyrics generally share the
same type face (sans or serif).

It is a *very* simple override to change to the roman font.  Put the
follwing in your ChordNames context:

\override ChordName #'font-family = #'roman

and you'll have your roman chord names.

HTH,

Carl