Why are dynamics permanently italicized?
I've been wanting to make my dynamics look normal without the italics, but for some reason, that isn't option. In text style, the italics option isn't even marked. I also tried doing it manually, but the italics option is apparently not marked on the text either, even though the text is italicized. I don't understand why this has to be forced and why it isn't an option. It comes off as limiting and I'd like the dynamics to look normal. In case you're wondering, I've been using just the regular 2.1 version, which introduced these italicized dynamics. It's just a minor nitpick that I have, but it really should be an option rather than permanent.
Comments
If you read the major notation book "Behind Bars" by Elaine Gould on engraving you will see that dynamics are always italicized by convention. MS follows most if not all conventions.
Have a good day.
In reply to If you read the major… by xavierjazz
Following most conventions based on one book is not a good idea by any means. Just take a look at all the published and non-published scores, Jazz and Classical. You will clearly see that there are a lot of different ways that composers style and format their scores. I've been a Jazz composer for many years, most of the stuff that I've read was handwritten, there was never just a single "Golden" book/rule on composing. Hopefully, that should give you some perspective on that.
In reply to Following most conventions… by SirArsen
It's not just one book, it's pretty much every book on the subject. Although to be sure, many jazz scores use handwritten fonts instead. In any case, MuseScore doesn't force you to use italics, it just defaults that way if you don't use one of the Jazz templates. You are always welcome to change this and most other default in MuseScore, via the Style menu. FWIW, though, the Jazz templates retains the MuseJazz font in normal (not italicized) mode, so jazz charts should already be OK.
If you look at the master palette (press z to see it) you will see that dynamics are not normal text, they are symbols such as accents.
If for some reason you want a different look, you can enter the dynamic and edit it to have normal text. Note that if you edit a dynamic (in version 2.1) the default is for the text to be italic, so you will need to turn off italics. You can then create a custom workspace and put your dynamics into your own palette so you don't have to edit every dynamic you enter.
See: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/palettes-and-workspaces#custom-palett…
In reply to If you look at the master… by mike320
Thank you for the info. I always just used the built-in Advanced Palette, which I thought contained basically everything I needed.
In reply to If you look at the master… by mike320
I'm not quite sure what you mean by entering the dynamic and edit it to have normal text. Can you elaborate on how I can make the dynamic regular text?
In reply to I'm not quite sure what you… by SirArsen
Double click a dynamic marking on your score to change its text.
In reply to Double click a dynamic… by jeetee
Well of course I know how to do that, it's a little different from what you're showing though.
In reply to Well of course I know how to… by SirArsen
You asked how to turn a dynamic into 'regular' text, so I showed you. Now you reply you already knew this and it is somehow different from a recording showing you what it is.
Consider me puzzled on why and what you're asking then.
For the record, the standard markings "mf" etc have always used the special notation font; that isn't new for 2.1. What changes is the default text style that is used when creating your own custom dynamics (or editing the text in existing standard dynamics). If you prefer to not use italics, you can simply change the text style - right click any dynamic, Text Style, disable italics. No need for a custom palette, any more than there was in any previous version. Although just as with previous versions, it might help if you prefer to have even the standard markings like "mf" be in plain text.
In reply to For the record, the standard… by Marc Sabatella
No see, like I said, I did that and it doesn't work. The italics option isn't even marked in Text Style to begin with.
In reply to No see, like I said, I did… by SirArsen
It's possible you have already "baked in" the formatting in some particular dynamic and you'd need to first use Reset to Text Style. In order to help further we would need you to attach your score and steps to reproduce the problem. But for a score I just created from scratch, it works exactly as I have said.
In reply to It's possible you have… by Marc Sabatella
Huh, you might be right on that. I'll get back to you on that and see if anything changes. But could you maybe show me a visual example of how you did it from your score?