Kerning issue with parenthesized metronome mark

Dorico
1

I received a file from a client in which the open parenthesis collided with the metronome mark. Here’s what it looked like initially:

Metronome text was set to Optima and Metronome music text was set to November.

I thought that might be the problem, but when I set the fonts to Academico and Bravura, it was only slightly better (screenshots in a later reply).

I hadn’t noticed it before,but now I can’t unsee it. To my eye, the space in a parenthesized metronome mark between the open parenthesis and the quarter note should be greater. Could this be considered? Thanks.
metronome collide.png

2

I know November doesn’t come with a “Text” font (i.e., one re-sized/positioned for use in text), but if you change the Metronome music text font to “Bravura Text”, you shouldn’t see so much of a problem. Sorry I’m not at a computer with Dorico to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure it works.

3

I did end up with Bravura Text, but still think it’s too close, even with Academico.


academico-bravura text.png

4

I would prefer this:

I nudged the quarter note and everything after it a little to the right.
academico-bravura text modified.png

5

I absolutely agree, that looks much better. There’s little to no side bearings given to the glyphs in Bravura Text, so I’m not entirely surprised it’s so close to the parentheses in the default settings.

6

Now let’s talk about the spacing of the 1 and the 2 in the 12-measure rest indication.

7

That looks fine for me when I create the example from scratch using Academico and Bravura.

Dan’s tempo text is obviously NOT Academico. Maybe the kerning has got screwed up through switching fonts, or maybe the score is subtly wrong - impossible to tell which from a screen shot, of course.

The left parenthesis and quarter-note kerning is a bit tight IMO but it certainly isn’t a collision. To be fair, it looks about right unless I stare intently at it for a while - which probably means it IS about right, it reality. Fonts with mathematically “perfect” letter spacing tend to look boring.

Screen dump taken from Print Mode attached.

font kerning.png
font kerning.png747×480 15.9 KB

8

Rob,

I wasn’t talking about the tempo indication but the spacing of the multi-measure rest numeral.

9

I think he was, too. Something is amiss with the multibar rest number, but it’s not a “default” problem. I see it, but I don’t know how to fix it. Searched and came up empty.

Is this pulling from the music font? It’s November…

10

Dan’s correct - “that” in my first sentence referred to Derrek’s quote about the multi bar rest, but I didn’t have anything else to say about it except “it looks OK for me starting from scratch with Academico and Bravura, here’s a picture to prove it”.

The rest of the post was about the tempo mark, of course.

11

I don’t have November. (IMO the “p” dynamic symbol with the cutesy little cut-out in the end of the descender is just silly, and the weight of the “m” doesn’t match the “p” or “f” at all)

12

It’s not my first choice either, but it does have a wistful, modern quality to is that seems to fit well with this particular project (in this case, a modern composition for wind band). Client is committed to it!