Of course I can do this by trial-error.
The question is about the note spacing values in Layout Options.
In early music notation practice we have oftern standard half note or even whole note as a basic denominator. In modern music one would write 3/4 or 4/4 but when I write 3/2 or 3/1 measures. Then the automatic spacing will be too wide.
In Finale I had this dialog:
My question is to people who have practically notated early music in Dorico- what values have you used to get not too wide spacing with /2 /1 time signature denominators?
I mean if all note values are double or quadruple of what they are usually in modern notation.
Yes, just reducing the Default Spacing value, which is based on a crotchet, will work well.
I usually set the spacing to between 2.25 and 3, depending the nature of the music – if there are occasional runs of crotchets and quaver ornaments, as in Palestrina, then I’ll be more towards 3; if it’s entirely white notes, then more around 2.5. Triple time as 3/1 can be down to 2 spaces.
Page size and staff size will also play a factor.
The beauty of Dorico is that you can set Note Spacing Changes, thus reining in the spacing for triple time sections, and then slackening it out when the duple comes back.
To compare this with Dorico’s default spacing ratio-
If one wants to double the note values then half note would need to have 4 spaces.
The quarter note would then be approximately 2 21/25.
2 21/25 multiplied by 1.41 is roughly 4. So spacing value between 2.25 and 3 is somewhere in the range.
For /1 denominator the qaurter space value would be almost exatly 2. (4:1.41:1.41).
Thanks again for your time @benwiggy , the issue is solved.
Almost every piece I do, of any kind, I adjust the Note Spacing slightly, in order to get a good fit of the music across the pages. I wouldn’t use exactly the same spacing value for every piece.
