Cross-staff causing lyric collisions

Hi people,

When I create cross staff notation, the lyrical spacing that’s normally so immaculate in Dorico goes a little haywire. For what it’s worth, I’m using the theater template from Notation Central.

Help?

may have just solved it- seems the note spacing option “optical spacing” was selected in this template I am using. I unchecked it and it’s fixed. What’s the purpose of that?

When there are cross-staffed beamed notes, the spacing required for the noteheads is narrower than if they are all on a single staff. So Dorico spaces the music a bit tighter. This tighter spacing results in some of the stems being closer together than would be the case with the wider spacing on a single staff, and the stems may look a bit uneven. Optical spacing essentially applies that wider single-staff spacing to the cross-staff music, ensuring that the stems are evenly spaced. Sometimes you want it and sometimes you don’t—it depends on the individual situation.

1 Like