Stems for flagged notes difficult to select, impossible to put into edit mode

• Apr 5, 2014 - 13:06
Type
Functional
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
closed
Project

The stems on flagged notes using Emmantaler and Bravura font cannot be selected except very close to the note head or right at the tip of the stem furthest from the note head. This makes it very difficult to make stems invisible, or extend them.

This happens because the flag covers the stem, making it be selected first. This doesn't happen in Gonville because the flag is not even attached to the note head, it has a very slight gap.


Comments

I'm not a font person, but it would seem that altering the X/Y positions of the flags so they only overlap a few %, for the two mentioned fonts, would be needed. You can tell that the overlap is about 100% by zooming out on a score with flags, and sometimes the flag overshoots the stem. The overlap is basically non-existant for Gonville on upstem, and a tiny bit of overlap for downstem.

Title [2.0] Stems for flagged notes in Emmentaler and Bravura difficult to select Stems for flagged notes in Emmentaler and Bravura difficult to select, impossible to put into edit mode
Title Stems for flagged notes in Emmentaler and Bravura difficult to select, impossible to put into edit mode Stems for flagged notes difficult to select, impossible to put into edit mode

Only workaround I see is to move the flag away (via inspector), select and change or edit the stem, and move the flag back

I think actually the flag should just touch the stem, not overlap with it at all (If I move the flag by stem-thinkness, it is possible to select the stem), would require the glyphs to get the current 'stem overlap' area removed, which should be done anyhow, as that part is not depending on the configured stem thinkness (0.13 by default), see for examlps what happens if reduducing stem thinkness:
stem-flag.png
(you'd probably need to increase that image to see what I mean)

Attachment Size
stem-flag.png 1.12 KB

I don't think it's a good idea to remove the "'stem overlap" from the glyph. Bravura has the same kind of design.

Capture d'écran 2015-05-22 11.39.38.png

SMuFL even define a prefer stem thickness per font as a font metadata and we currently don't consider it.

maybe the real issue is not the overlap, but the rectangular bbox around those flags that 'hide' the stem underneath? Didn't we have some non rectangular bboxes around accidentals, to allow them closer together (was it called 'cutouts'?)

We could really use a general solution to the issue of selecting overlapping items. Perhaps a special modifier to use on click that means, "find currently selected item, select next one down in Z-order".