My left and right page margins are set to the default value of 14.82 mm. In the engrave mode I can see that the sides of the main frame are aligned with the left and right sides of the staves. When I use the print function to create a pdf and measure the distance from the edge of the paper to the ends of each staff, it is ~17.5 mm on both sides. I can mess with the values in the layout options to get it where I want it empirically, but I’d like to understand what might be causing the discrepancy. (My ultimate goal is to figure out how to get a single staff on page 2 onto page 1. I currently have 70 mm between the last staff on page 1 and the bottom of the page. I’m in the process of watching the “Learning Leading Layouts” video, and I noticed this discrepancy. I’m uploading my current project file in case that would help.)
I did a reset layout in Engrave mode, and set Library→Layout Options→Staves and Systems→Casting off to 4 bars per system. Then removed all manual staff spacing in Engrave mode, and finally, reduced the Inter system gap under Library→Layout Options→Vertical Spacing to fit to one page.
Although I usually write directly to a pdf, I realized I had used the print function in Dorico to go directly to a printer. I looked over the options and saw that it was set to A4, not Letter. I made the change, and now the margins are ~15 mm as expected. Thanks for the tip!
I had tried adjusting the inter-system gap previously, but it had no effect. I noticed that at the top of the Vertical Spacing page it says “Minimum Gaps,” and that would be consistent with having no effect. When I delete the red squares to revert to default spacing, Dorico chooses 18.8 mm. I assume that since this is greater than the 9 mm minimum value, it keeps the 18.8 mm. I would need a maximum value, but I don’t see an option for that.
This is because Dorico is applying vertical justification, to space out the systems equally. See Layout Options > Vertical Spacing > Vertical Justification.
Are you saying you would need a maximum value so that Dorico keeps the spacing small and allows more systems per page? That’s not quite how it works. Based on your minimum gap, Dorico puts as many systems on the page as will fit, and then it applies vertical justification to space them out across the page. If you lower the minimum gap, that may allow Dorico to fit more systems on the page – which it again will then apply vertical justification to. Sometimes the vertical justification has almost no effect – for example, if using the minimum gap results in a page which is 99% full, then distributing the extra 1% of free space over the systems makes only a very small difference.
You can also turn off vertical justification (by setting both values on that page in Layout Options to 100), but that won’t let you get more systems on the page. Vertical justification is applied only after Dorico has placed systems on the page.