Font Style editor might work differently in 6 and 5?

Dorico
1

Originally, I wanted to use custom text for repeat markers, such as “aller à ”, which meant both a bold font face, and SMUFL characters. So, I decided to create a Paragraph Style which would be based on the Bravura font, and the Bold appearance, and to attach this Paragraph Style to Repeat Markers in the projects for which it was appropriate. I
Attached is a very short snippet of such a project, from Dorico 5.
testbf.dorico (796.6 KB)
This project works without any userlibrary present, and without any helpful doricolib in the DefaultLibraryAddition folder. I would guess that all the necessary info is included in the project file?
I just downloaded and installed Dorico 6, I just tested a bunch of recent projects having some kind of unusual things in them, and did not fin any problem, apart of the original project for the snippet attahced. Dorico 6 raised the following error:

Dorico6err
Dorico6err672×253 17 KB

Looking into it, I found:
When initially created the Bravura Font Style displays like this
BFR
BFR411×161 5.98 KB

And the drop box does not contain any other item. But in Dorico 5, when I created the Paragraph Style:
PBFB
PBFB700×218 8.34 KB

Not only did it work, but after that, the Bravura Font Style displayed itself as:
BFB
BFB455×162 6.69 KB

And the drop box now contained the standard 4 canonic font styles.
Apparently in Dorico 6, this “magic” does not work any more, my existing projects are in error, and if I try to recreate the Paragraph Style from scratch in a new project, The Paragraph Style editor does not propose Bold at all, only:
PBFR
PBFR667×211 8.38 KB

Has something changed in Dorico 6? I used the term “magic” above because it seems mysterious that a Drop Box would change from 1 item to 4 only because the editor of a different object requests it. And it is difficult to understand why some Font Styles have 1 style and others 4. I though at a moment that they should all have only 1, but then, what would it mean to let the Paragraph Style pick its own? When you look at the FontStyleDefinitions in the Factory xml, their format is a little weird: A named Style(?), a Boolean flag for italic, another for underlined, a weight… This is not a good fit for the Dorico ideal of the 4 canonic styles. It would support the “A Font Style has only 1 style” theory. And if you duplicate the factory Bravura Font Style (regular), it automatically becomes a Bravura Font Style (Bold). All this is somewhat contradictory. Is it possible that what worked in Dorioc5 was due to a weakness, a loophole that has now be stopped in Dorico 6? That the way to go was to create the Bold variant of the Bravura Font Style and to attach the Paragraph Style to that? Or maybe in Dorico 5, more attributes of the Font Size could be edited than is now possible in Dorico 6? In that case, it might be a good idea to use the Dorico 6 strategy even for Projects still in Dorico 5?

2

Yes, sort of. I assume you’re on WIndows?

Windows traditionally presents you with 4 varieties of each font (regular, bold, italic, bold italic), even if those 4 varieties don’t actually exist. Bravura, for example, only has a regular style. In a case like this, if you told Windows that you wanted Bravura bold, Windows would “fake” the style by making the font heavier.

Dorico 6 now treats fonts in a more correct and cross-platform manner and will only let you choose font styles that actually exist (that is, that have a separate font file). So you are no longer able to make use of these “fake” fonts in Dorico projects.

1 Like
3

Well, I suspected something like that, though I did not see it was Windows related. And I got confused anyway: I thought the Paragraph Style refered to a Dorico Font Style object, while it refers to a Font, period. I guess that actually Bravura is actually bold by nature (I now dig the bravure is italian for bold thing :-)!). so in my specific case I can use Bavura such as it is.
Yet in a way it would seem more natural to say that Bravura has only one style, which is Bold?

And for other fonts, I would not agree that Windows behavior is incorrect in creating “fake” fonts when they do not exist, for me it is rather a bonus. I guess Dorico 6 change motivation is that MacOs lacks this capacity, so equality between Windows users and Mac users led to lose the Windows bonus. But I did not needed it here, so it is indeed solved.
Thank you.

4

This doesen’t look as simple as I thought: When I fix the Paragtaph Style to refer to Bravura Regular, the Bold appearance is lost!
What was
oldmarker
is now
newmarker
At least it is degraded: maybe the new one is not totally regular, but not totally bold either. Is it what is called demiBold?

5

Bravura is a “Regular” weight, as far as font management is concerned. There is no Bold style. (Of course, it is a ‘strong’ design…)

2 Likes
6

I would be a little bit concerned by the fact there’s a space lacking between la and Fin, more than about the weight of the font :wink:

1 Like
7

:slight_smile: : I would not. A typo in text is easily solved, apparently weight problems are not!

8

Ok, I get it. So, if I want a font with an actual bold style and capable of displaying some SMUFL characters, what are good candidates (if any)?

9

I’m not sure that any SMuFL music fonts come with Bold styles – in addition to Regular style font files.

@NorFont produces several music fonts that have light and heavy versions, though I don’t think they are in “style families”.

But: if you just want a Bravura Text symbol within a line of Bold text, that should be perfectly possible as things are. Set the text in the bold style of the text font you want, and then add the Music Symbol in the middle, using the Music Symbol Character Style.

1 Like
10

I know, but is it possible in all types of text items? I want to have that in a Repeat Marker Custom Text, and Ithought i was not possible?

11

Ah: OK. Now I understand.

If you set Custom Text for a Repeat Marker, then the Engraving Options to show the Symbol don’t work.

You may have to Hide the Repeat instruction, and use System Text, where you can add the symbol as a Music Symbol.

Here’s your revised document.

testbf.dorico (1.6 MB)

12

Actually I thought it could not be done even in a system/staff text item, but I had never thought of using Character Styles!
So in a system/staff text item I can do it. If I try to paste it into a Repeat Marker Custom text, the Music Text character style is lost (unless you have also a trick for that ?).
But this means that I can set Custom Text to blank and pretend the system text is the Repeat Marker label! This is a reasonable workaround, compatible Dorico 5 & 6!
Thanks a lot.

13

Talking about Bold styles on Windows:

From Windows 3.1 to Windows 7 (1995-2006), I recall that for a regular font, one could get a pseudo-bold style from the font style menu when choosing Bold. Windows seemed to mimic a bold version by duplicating the letter to the right by 1 UPM or so?.. but that wasn’t the true Bold version. If one only had a regular font without Bold or italic, Windows might mimic a bold version and make it oblique to look like italic, but that again wasn’t the expected result.

14

Yeah :slight_smile: I remember that too,

15

…especially when you zoom out the generated pdf, you’ll notice that ;-)… now I am not sure if Windows 11 is still does that or not.