Re: Wildly different horizontal spacing in two similar scores.

[Paul Hodges]

From: Richard Shann <richard@rshann.plus.com>

I wonder what "There is no convenient mechanism to manually override
spacing. " means ...

I take it to mean that adjusting spacing on a smaller scale, like within a bar, is not so easy.

The tricks I tend to use are:

(1) specify the number of systems and pages (LilyPond then spreads the notation out appropriately);

(2) specify line and page breaks (which can force LilyPond to stretch or compress a line); and

(3) in desperation, when a single bar needs adjustment, adding parallel music in smaller notes and hiding it can do the job without resorting to tweaking individual notes (which I guess is option 4).

Sometimes LilyPond gets the calculations about vertical spacing wrong (as in too pessimistic), and forcing the number of systems and pages may produce a good result even while LilyPond is complaining that I should have twice as many pages!  This no longer irritates me - I'm used to it, and understand the difficulties involved in automating the spacing.

In the specific case of the example that this thread is about, I would probably have simply specified the number of systems without another thought.

Paul