Re: tuplet bracket spanner?

[Simon Albrecht]

On 02.05.2018 18:24, Reilly Farrell wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm editing a short score with tuplets and I could use a spacing 
> solution that would keep all tuplet brackets at a fixed minimum 
> distance above the staff.  (Feedback I've received so far is that the 
> tuplet indications look messy when printed inside the staff rather 
> than above it.)  My question is whether it would be possible to 
> enforce a rule that would keep these brackets above the staff.

Indeed, a minimal example would have been very welcome.
I have to say this first: tell your client that there’s no good reason 
for keeping tuplets out of the staff. People have all sorts of opinions 
on what looks messy or not, and especially nowadays they tend to be 
enormously hypersensitive against compact layout, resulting in 
ridiculous waste of space.
But, of course Lily can accommodate your need:

\version "2.19.80"
{
  %\override TupletBracket.staff-padding = 10
  \override TupletBracket.outside-staff-priority = 100
  \override TupletBracket.bracket-visibility = ##t
  \tupletUp
  \tuplet 3/2 4 { c'8 8 8 d' e' f' d'' e'' f'' }
}

By setting outside-staff-priority, it becomes an outside-staff object – 
see 
<http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/learning/outside_002dstaff-objects#the-outside_002dstaff_002dpriority-property>.
I don’t know why the staff-padding override doesn’t immediately work (in 
this example, it only affects the third bracket, which is why I disabled 
it).

Best, Simon