FR: Change color of beams, flags, augmentation dots, etc. in Engrave mode only

In an urtext score, I am using grey+cue size to indicate passages that are e.g. col basso and not explicitly notated in the source. Just as it is possible to change the color of tied noteheads in Engrave mode, I wish it were possible to change the color of any notational feature in Engrave mode. For instance, in this screenshot, I would love to see the accidentals, stems, and beams in grey as well as the noteheads:

As an aside, It’s wonderful how the Set local properties feature allows this to be done locally without affecting readability in performance parts!

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Thanks for the feedback. It’s particularly tricky to colour beams since they don’t really exist, so there’s no ready-made place for that overridden data to live, but it’s something we would like to address in a future version.

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“There is no beam”

:spoon:

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Maybe a sensible default is for beams to share the note color if all beamed notes use the same color.

Certainly I would expect stems, accidentals, rhythmic dots, articulations, etc. to inherit the color of the note head as they are directly attached to the note and “exist”.

You are assuming that the notehead is the top of the Dorico hierarchy. A bold assumption.

You are assuming that the notehead is the top of the Dorico hierarchy. A bold assumption.

If not, I would be equally happy to have the note head inherit the stem color or the articulation color or the accidental color, etc. Which ever element is at the top of the hierarchy is an implementation detail that matters in fewer cases than treating elements of a note as a visually cohesive unit. After all, Dorico doesn’t allow you to colorize these elements individually today so this does not appear to be an inentional use case. Rather, the “black+notehead color” visual separation (a paradigm that people are asking to have changed) is probably the result of easier engineering than intentional visual separation. I’m suggesting the default behavior cuts against the primary use cases that have been verbalized in these forums–which is that people expect the note head and its decorations to use the same color. Where these elements lie in the hierarchy does not appear relevant to the desired default colorization behavior.

However, to your point, I think there is room for choosing the color of each note element independently. This would make hierarchy and inheritance relevant when choosing colors. There are likely some who would find this useful but it seems like an advanced feature that is not being asked for.

In the meantime, users are asking for “same color please” and forcing “note head only” color is falling short in multiple situations. +1 for the ability to choose between “note head only” and “note + all decorations”. +1 for making “note head + all decorations” the default colorization behavior.