How to Cover Broken Staff Labels with a Font Style?

[Hutmann]

The condensing feature in Dorico is a fantastic tool. However, it leads to typographic shortcomings in the instrument labels that unfortunately cannot currently be resolved automatically.

Publishers tend to care little about this, though. So I need to make sure that the Roman numerals all align flush with one another. Up to now I have been using a text frame with a white background as a workaround.

This works fairly well, but the problem is that with the slightest correction the staff shifts and I have to readjust the frame over and over again.

Is there a way to define a paragraph style whose white background covers the instrument labels? So far I have not managed to do this. Because if I anchor a text object to a staff, I still have the fiddly business of nudging the numeral into the right position - but at least it then stays there, unlike the frame, even when the staff shifts.

If I define a new paragraph style with a white background, it doesn’t cover the instrument names. Unfortunately. Am I missing something?

[johnkprice]

See this post for a different approach which does not involve hiding part of a staff label:

Condensing Trombone and Tuba

Here is a complicated solution: Instead of having two single players for the third trombone and tuba, you could have one section player using divisi. Use two lines for the names of the “instrument” held by this section player. Change the full name to Trombone over Tuba and the short name to Tbn. over Tba. Use divisi to create two section divisions. Change the label of the first division to III and the second division to a space. In the full score layout, allow section players to condense divisi.…

[charles_piano]

I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but would it be possible to use the Player Name for Trombone 3, call it something like Trombone III, and then tweak the staff‑label values in Engraving Options to make it work?

[Hutmann]

Thanks for the link! I’ll definitely try that in my next project. At the moment I really only have fine-tuning left to do in a project that’s over 450 pages long. If I change the staves and divisi there, I’ll go more crazy than if I just move small text boxes around, I imagine

But the problem is more deep-rooted than with Trombone III and Tuba. I had the same problem a few months ago with a condensed divisi in the strings. And there I think it becomes impossible. Or?

Inconsistent Instrument Labels at System Start When Condensing Divisi

Hi, I have a hopefully small problem with the layout of the instrument labels at the beginning of the system. This is how it should look throughout the score: [no_prob] However, this is what it looks like when I condense a divisi in Violin II in the score, while in Violin I there is no divisi to condense: [div_prob] Is there a solution for this very unsightly result at the start of the staff system?

[Hutmann]

Thanks for the idea, but the problem is that Trombone III in the same project sometimes also appears on the same staff as Trb I and II. And that makes things difficult…