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Topic: Print quality - too much white space (Read 6207 times) previous topic - next topic

Print quality - too much white space

Is there a way to change the look of the print output to make the music and lyrics more prominent and reduce the excessive white space I'm getting? The whole effect is to make the print copy harder to read - thin lines on acres of white paper.

I've played-around with the JPEG versions I've saved, but doing that kind of work in Photoshop is very tedious, if it can even be done without stretching or compressing the note shapes.

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #1 –
  • Select something better than draft quality when printing.
  • Uncheck Increase spacing for longer notes.
  • Increase the size of Staff Lyric, make it bold, and/or use a heavier font.
  • Hang the lyrics on a dummy staff that only has barlines where there are system breaks.
  • Use layers for accidentals, second intervals and/or dotted notes.

If you want heavier staff and bar lines use Lilypond.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #2 –
Also change the staff metrics font size to make the staffs and notes bigger. 

Font sizes between 14 and 18 should be more than adequate, but you can go as high as 40.

You do this from the Page Setup/Fonts menu.

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #3 –
Quote from: David Palmquist –
Also change the staff metrics font size to make the staffs and notes bigger. 
Sorry, but making the notes bigger will also increase the space between them. Increasing the Staff height won't get you thicker staff lines. Decreasing it will make them look thicker.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #4 –
Perhaps we understand the question NJF posed differently.  I thought the essence of the problem was how to fill up a page so it doesn't have a lot of white around the music, and how to make the music print in a fairly bold font.

Doesn't matter.  If the attachments solve his problem, fine.  If not, no harm done.

Note I've changed both the staff metrics and the staff lyric sizes. 

Please ignore the poor placement of the rehearsal letters - these are just the result of grabbing an old single part and adjusting its size for the purposes of this illustration.  The actual printed part is much nicer looking.  Similarly, there are no lyrics to my chart, so I had to add some dummy ones for this exercise.

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #5 –
Quote from: David Palmquist –
Perhaps we understand the question NJF posed differently.
I think so. I printed your samples (in draft mode). The Staff lines are very close to the thin side of legibilty. NWC2 would be improved if Staff line thickness were user adjustable. It could be a Page Setup option for now, but if NWC ever moves Staff Metrics to Staff Properties, the adjustment would need to follow.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #6 –
Quote
...
if NWC ever moves Staff Metrics to Staff Properties...  


What do you see this being useful for, Rick?

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #7 –
Piano accompaniment. Grand Staff at 18pt, Solo at 12pt. May also be useful for ossia.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #8 –
G'day Rick,

Quote from: Rick G. –
...but if NWC ever moves Staff Metrics to Staff Properties...

I provisionally like this idea.  If it were introduced I would definitely want the ability to set the metrics for all staves in one hit as well.  A kind of override if you will...  I'm thinking that the system font could also be staff specific...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #9 –
I thought that's what you wanted it for, Rick, but I didn't have the right words.

Rick and Lawrie, I'm cautiously in favour of the idea, but my reservation is this:

NWC's claims to fame are its elegantly simplicity, its easy learning curve, its price and its size. 

The more bells and whistles Eric adds, the further we get from those attributes.  I'd be concerned with the effect on newbies.

On the other hand, having this as an option rather than a default would work for the power users, wouldn't it?

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #10 –
G'day David,
I agree - to word my preference better: I would want the existing controls to remain, with an option to override on a staff by staff basis.  Thus if there is no staff based override specified then the global selection is in effect.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Print quality - too much white space

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Lawrie Pardy –
... if there is no staff based override specified then the global selection is in effect.
Of couse. 

If the feature were to be added, I think it desireable to be able to change the Font as well as the size.
Changing the font may have more uses than size changes. A font change would allow specialized articulations, accidentals, augmentation dots, flags and noteheads without giving up the standard ones. I still like the Map concept discussed in the newgroup better.

Hardly the most pressing issue at the moment, though. Slurs first! NWC's recent attempt to have invisible object take up less space the the edit window has caused an annoying misalignment across staves that also needs to be addressed.

I wouldn't worry about increased complexity in this area. Staff Metrics was moved from Setup to Fonts and options added without any questions from newbies (IIRC).
Registered user since 1996
 

Re: Print quality - too much white space - figured it out!

Reply #12 –
What the process involves is setting exact margins, then fiddling each line, one by one, for staff size, accents, dynamics, etc. and lyric size and placement until all the staves fit in the most conflicted part of the score. My latest score has 5 visible vocal lines and 3 hidden layers, so that's a fair amount of juggling to avoid conflicts between above-staff marks and the lyrics of the previous staff. It doesn't help at all that accents are not placed properly by default (and I can't find any way to change the default) and have to be done as TEXT inputs.

It doesn't look so hot on the more spacious parts of the score, but that has to suffer for readability in the areas that are really tight - no page by page adjustments, unless you split up the score and print the various pages as separate docs.

Thanks for your help in the past and good luck to all,

Frank

Re: Print quality - too much white space - figured it out!

Reply #13 –
Quote from: NJFRANK –
It doesn't help at all that accents are not placed properly by default (and I can't find any way to change the default) and have to be done as TEXT inputs.
Please expand on this. Accents are not usually a problem for me.

In my experience, in any song with lyrics, the lyrics are the most critical element. After settling on the System Font and Lyric Font sizes, much fiddling needs to be done to keep the lyrics from distorting the look of the rythm. Often, I must hang the lyrics on a layer of hidden notes/rests. Where a note is tied across a bar, the barline usually need to be deleted. Where a word need to be left justified, dummy ties are needed.

Once the notes and lyrics flow properly, the rest of the elements can usually be squeezed in somwhere. Slurs are the most time consuming part of this step.
Registered user since 1996