Hi everyone,
I am building a completely custom chord symbol library in Dorico 6.2 and have run into a problem with root-specific kerning and “Apply to All Roots.”
I want to define individual kerning values between each root and chord quality, for example:
A → m
C → m
C# → m
Db → m
D → m
with different values where necessary.
At the same time, I want the following part to remain consistent:
m → 7
m → 9
This works correctly as long as I work with the individual kerning pairs.
However, as soon as I customize a chord symbol appearance (e.g. Cm7) and use “Apply to All Roots,” the individual root-specific kerning is overwritten. The other roots then effectively inherit the positioning of the root used to create the appearance.
This seems to make the two features mutually incompatible: root-specific kerning provides detailed control, but “Apply to All Roots” removes that individual control.
My question
Is there a way in Dorico 6.2 to use “Apply to All Roots” while preserving root-specific kerning values?
Ideally, I would like a hierarchy like this:
Chord symbol appearance
│
├── Root → quality
│ ├── C → m
│ ├── C# → m
│ ├── Db → m
│ └── etc.
│
└── Quality → extension
└── m → 7
with the additional ability to control the graphical properties of the extension (7, 9, etc.) without affecting the root-specific kerning.
If “Apply to All Roots” necessarily replaces the individual root-specific positioning/kerning, then what is the intended workflow for using root-specific chord symbol kerning in a custom, reusable chord symbol library?
Is this currently a limitation or a bug in Dorico 6.2?
Thanks!
PS: I have to say that I am genuinely impressed by the flexibility and attention to detail throughout Dorico, and especially by the remarkably powerful and precise possibilities provided by the chord symbol editor.
Given how extensive and precise these tools are, I find it difficult to believe that the intended workflow is to define or assign every chord symbol separately for every possible root whenever individual spacing between roots and their accidentals is required.
This issue was only partially present in Dorico 6.1 (for example, with certain symbols such as ∆). In 6.1, it was possible to work around these limitations by defining and modifying kerning pairs directly in the userlibrary.xml. This made it possible to create a highly customized and reusable chord symbol library with root-specific spacing.
In Dorico 6.2, however, the same approach no longer seems to produce the expected result.