Need help with the alignment of Staves
So I'm currently working on a project and I can't figure out a way to align staves across multiple pages. I assume they are not lined up to begin with because musescore automatically adjusts systems spacing depending on the contents of a staff. Is there a way to disable/fix this? I've included an image to see what I'm talking about.
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Comments
Make sure that Vertical Justification is enabled in your Style settings: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/new-features-musescore-36#Vertical_…
As mentioned, vertical justification (which is enabled by default in new scores, but not older ones) will spread your staves as needed to create an even bottom margin. But, that doesn't always mean the staves themselves will always be aligned - after all, there could be different numbers of staves per page, or extra space ablvoe or below any given staff to accommodate markings attached to it. The is all perfectly normal and how professional engravers do it as well.
If you continue to have questions after making sure the justification is enabled, please attach the actual score, not just a picture of it, so we can understand and assist better.
In reply to As mentioned, vertical… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the comment! I did use your suggestion of enabling vertical justification, but I'm ultimately left with the same problem due to Musescore automatically adjusting staff distance because of its contents.
What's the best way I can go about aligning all of the staffs correctly without it obstructing the legibility of any of its contents? Thanks!
In reply to Thanks for the comment! I… by Jaden Deegan
It is correct to add more space where needed; there is no law that says staves are supposed to align, and in fact pretty much pubished music of this complexity would not generally even make the attempt. It's perfectly normal, and for good reason, to have differences from page to page.
That's because you can't get away the laws of physics. If you have content extending far enough above or below a staff to cause a collision with the next staff - anf you do, all over the place - then it's either accept the collision or accept the extra space and the inconsistency that means.
An alternative is to simply move the elements causing the collisions - closer to the staves, or left or right as needed. Definitely an art to it, and certainly this can be done to avoid the worst of the extra spaces.
That said, you've also made some customizations that are working against you here, creating more discrepancy that is actually needed. If you go to Format / Style and reset thse max distances to their defaults, things even out some. Increasing the min staff distance will even things out more still. But there's no getting the fact you've got a lot of stuff far above or below staves that will either require extra space or else causing collisions is you don't move them.
To allow the collisions, you can go to Format / Style / Score and set "the Min. vertical distance" to a large negative value (like -100) But then you'll why I say professional editors would generally simply accept the inconsistent spacing as the price of readability. You could at least then see what you're up against should you then wish to try adjusting things manually to avoid the collisions. Again, though, it's really not advised.
In reply to It is correct to add more… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the Feedback! I was messing with the settings and forgot to change some stuff back to default (Whoops). I suppose I'll have to settle with the staves being slightly off, but like you said I'd rather have that than the score being difficult to read. Again, thank you!