How to increase spave between words of a lyric
Env. Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)
Version 2.0.0, nightly build: 11b49de
In out choir I have some people with bad eye sight. Therefore I increased the fontsize of the lirics. I now would like to increase the space between words. The space between syllables is OK.
If I increase the offset in Style -> Text -> Even/Odd line lyrics the alignment with the notes is lost.
To show this I put in an 25 mm offset:
The first word (Wees) is tied to the first note!
What am I doing wrong here?
Any help appreciated.
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Comments
Hmmm... That offset is used to shift each syllable to the left (negative horizontal offset) or to the right (positive offset). And this is precisely what you get. The same goes for the vertical offset: it displaces each syllable up (negative offset) or down (positive offset).
It is not possible to increase the space between words per se: the position of syllables is determined by the position of the notes: if notes are far apart (for instance two semibreves), syllables underneath will be far apart; if they are very near (two semi-quavers), syllables will be near (the only exception being that syllables may 'push forward' the notes above them, if they do not fit in the space between a note and the following).
In addition, even if possible, adding extra space between words only (and not between syllables) would lead to rather unusual horizontal spacing of the music.
What you are trying to achieve -- more 'air' between the textual elements -- can be obtained essentially by creating more 'air' between the notes which hold those textual elements. For instance:
1) By increasing the whole score scale (menu "Layout | Page Settings...", item "Staff Space"; this increases everything in the score; you can then reduce the lyrics font size and arrive at the same lyrics size with more 'air' around them.
2) By increasing the measure 'tightness' (menu "Style | General...", tab "Measure", item "Spacing"); this increases (or reduces) the spacing of the elements in a measure, without changing the scale of anything; more 'air' between the notes => more 'air' between the syllables.
3) For specific points where things are too crowded locally, it is possible to add more space after a single 'segment' (a "segment" is a vertical 'slice' of the score including all the elements which occur at the same moment): Select the chord, open the Inspector (F8), increase "Segment | Trailing space".
This is kind of trick, however: it alters the horizontal spacing and one may forget of having altered it and wonder how to get back.
Hoping it helps to get you going on,
M.
P.S.: I notice you used "mm" as offset unit; this is in most cases not recommended for elements within the score, as measures in mm do not scale, if the score itself is scaled; the most common case is to use "sp", which does scale. "mm" is usually more appropriate for out-of-music-flow elements like titles.
In reply to Hmmm... That offset is used by Miwarre
@Rob Jasper, try using Enter twice to place the lyrics in alternate rows (just a trick)
In reply to @Rob Jasper, try using Enter by Shoichi
Adding an extra CR increases the vertical space. The question was about the hizontal space between words.
In reply to Hmmm... That offset is used by Miwarre
Thank you for your very elaborate answer. I played all your suggestions and I now know that what I really want can't be done easily. What I would like to do is to specify a minimum amount of whitespace between each word of a lyric. Well, that can't be done automatically. Do you think this warrents a enhancement request?
In the peace of music that I was editing it was only 4 times that the distance between 2 words appeared to be small. What I did is adding 2 spaces (using Alt-space) after the first word in the text and this solved the problem.
In reply to Thank you for your very by Rob Jasper
You may try filing this request in the Issue tracker , selecting "Feature request" rather than "Bug" in the relevant drop list, but I suspect it will not get an high priority; it may even cause some raised eyebrows as, as I said, this would add another disruption to the regularity of the music horizontal spacing (longish syllables on tight notes already being one, alas unavoidable) and its musical relevance might be arguable (in fact, as far as I know, it is not usual in current scores).
The trick of adding spaces at the end of word text didn't occurred to me, but it may be the (or at least, one) answer, if you face a specific need and are satisfied with the result.
Just for completeness, I have bad eye sight myself; luckily I play an instrument and do not sing, so increasing note sizes (by increasing the global score scale) is usually enough for me.
I have to say that even peoples with sharp sight enjoy the scores I prepare for myself, so it is more helpful for readability than it may look at first sight (pun not intended!). It may be part of the solution in a case like yours too; increasing the global score scale increases the size of almost everything, helping the global readability and allowing by itself more room between the notes; this in turn allows a larger lyrics size, and/or more room around syllables.
In reply to You may try filing this by Miwarre
Thank you for your answer/explanation. What you state about people with sharp sight is my experience too. I got very positive feedback from choir members!
Anyway, I'll experiment a little further with increaing the global score scale.
Thanks again.