I’m doing a lot of jazz engraving these days and find myself adjusting the size and spacing of several chord symbols using Library > Chord Symbols, in particular #9, #11, etc. chords and slash chords (i.e., Eb/F). I’d like to be able to have these change take effect for each occurrence and, therefore, part of my template. I’ve attached before and after files. Here are some differences:
Bb7(#9): # sign is moved up and closer to the initial parenthesis
Eb/F: the slash is smaller and closer to the primary chord. The bass note is closer to the slash
I wrote a doricolib file that can help a bit with the slash issue and posted a walkthrough here.
The accidental issue might be fixable with a doricolib file as well, but I probably won’t have time to look into it for at least a week or so. A couple of years ago I had posted a walkthrough for how I made doricolib edits for this on my own system here if you want to try it yourself:
I’m not even sure how to put chords in the “Single Overrides” box. Do these adjustments fix every occurrence of these alterations or just the the ones attached to a specific pitch? IOW, I’d the (#9) alteration to take affect regardless what the root. Does that make sense?
I followed your process, but nothings seems to have changed. Should there be a new line in Edit Font Styles? There isn’t. Perhaps I put the doricolib file in the wrong place (I’m on a Mac)… should it be in the “Script Plugins” folder?
The DefaultLibraryAdditions folder should be in the same folder as your userlibrary.xml file and the application.log files. I won’t be back in front of my computer until tonight, but just search the forum if that doesn’t help you find it.
Unzip the file, copy the doricolib file to the DefaultLibraryAdditions folder, restart Dorico, and create a new file using File/New. You should see the new font style then. To bring it into an existing file, you will need to use the library manager, as this stuff gets embedded into the file at the time of file creation.
Thanks for you help! I’ve got the file in the right place now. BUT, my slash chords don’t seem to be any different, even when I go in and change the size of the slash.
If you haven’t restarted Dorico, close and restart. Create a new project using File / New (not the Hub or Template). Enter some chord symbols with slashes, then change the Chord Symbols Slash Font sizing for the new functioning Font Style that the doricolib file created. If that style doesn’t appear, or doesn’t function there’s something wrong.
It will not change existing files as that info is embedded at the time of file creation. If you want to modify an existing file, you’ll need to use Library Manager / Components to bring in the changes. (Can’t recall which ones need to be selected off the top of my head)
There is a codePoint entry in my doricolib file though. If your font doesn’t have those glyphs in the right location, you could try changing that entry to match the location in your chosen font. You’d obviously lose compatibility with any other standard SMuFL fonts though, which could cause chaos down the road.
That Font Style will only be used for the slash though. You could always just use Bravura Text or Petaluma Text and see if they work well enough with your chosen font.
My default font for chords is Petaluma, so it should work. But even if I change it to Bravura, I get the same result. If the setting for “Arrangement for altered bass note relative to chord symbol” in Engraving Options is “Linear,” then the size of the slash will change. If it’s set to “Diagonal,” it doesn’t.
Also, for what it’s worth, my font styles are as follows:
Chord Symbols Font - Parent: Default Text Font
Chord Symbols Music Text Font - Parent: Default Music Text Font
Chord Symbols Slash Font - Parent: Chord Symbols Music Text Font
We’ll probably need to see a project then. If you’ve already manually created overrides in the project, it might not work either. You can cut the project down to a single bar with a chord slash if you want.
Just confirming again that you are testing this with a new project that you are creating with File / New. This will be embedded into the file at the time of file creation. If you are, and it still isn’t working, open your userlibrary.xml file in a text editor and search for glyph.bass.slashdiagonal If there’s an entry for that in your userlibrary.xml file, then you’ve already created an override for this glyph which might take precedence.
Hmm, I don’t know. I suspect you might have redefined the slash in your userlibrary.xml file. Did you check that? It looks like you have these overrides are saved in your default userlibrary.xml:
If you’ve redefined the slash in that Eb/F chord then that slash might take precedence over anything in the doricolib file. Obviously, doricolib files are neither officially supported nor encouraged, although I use a bunch of them, so we’re kind of limited in options here without being able to peek in the file the same way the devs can.
I would try to clear out these default overrides that you’ve created and then see if you can get it working.
