At 09:24 PM 10/15/06 -0700, Mark D Lew wrote: >I think I've cited this sample before, but a page on Recordare's site ><http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/recordare/SullPina02Sample.pdf> shows a >good example of the tug-of-war between lyrics and music.
There are hand-engraved scores where font width changes occur. I first noticed these many years ago when I was a pre-composer working in a public library, looking at scores I couldn't read. I saw operas where the letters were narrower on some words, and sometimes even turned vertical with common short words. (As a kid I'd also noticed how newspapers sometimes spaced letters in individual words further apart to justify lines of text. I must've been a stranger kid than I remember.) Finale supports font changes in the edit lyrics dialog, but does not support vector resizing (as in typical graphics programs) or letter spacing (I forget if kerning is adjustable in Finale). This is a font-change example, using Arial and Arial Narrow: http://maltedmedia.com/images/finale/narrow-font.jpg By switching fonts in the same family, the text reading isn't hindered and the rhythmic spacing is undisturbed. Much easier would be to be able to tweak entries by narrowing them by eye or by a formula that would effect a compromise between adjusting font parameters and music spacing. One could set rules: 1. When any parameter adjustment would 'kick in' (the distortion percentage of rhythmic values). 2. Which parameters could be changed (letter spacing, kerning, font narrowing, font size changing, font family, rotation). 3. The order of parameter change. 4. The bounds for tightening the font (maximum allowed parameter change before the next parameter would be used). 5. The number of allowed changes per measure, system and page (so it doesn't look jumbled). Dennis -- Please participate in my latest project: http://maltedmedia.com/waam/ My blog: http://maltedmedia.com/bathory/waam-blog.html Composer "buy local" bumpersticker: http://maltedmedia.com/people/bathory/bumpersticker.jpg http://www.cafepress.com/buy/80570307/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
