Hi!
I am working on a simple book of introductions to hymns for keyboard (grand staff). I would like to have the staff height and the space between the staves fixed/locked. Is that somehow possible in Dorico? My layout work involves a fair amount of importing MusicXML files into a template I made for this book. Somehow I can’t get the grand staff to stay a consistent height. The music in question here is quite basic, it will fit a standard height 95% of the cases. I am also wondering whether I should make this as single files, or use flows and make the whole book in Dorico? In Finale I used to make single files and then compile the PDF’s in Word.
Thank you for any tips!
Liisa
This may be what you’re after. Simply untick. It’s in Layout Options:
I would use Flows for this. You can always export the Flows later on if you change your mind.
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Thank you @DanielMuzMurray for your reply. I unchecked that box, and I made a template with 20 measures, manually put in the distances that I would like for within the grand staff, and also what I would want the distance to be between staves. It’s not materializing in the template when I import music into it. I don’t know if I didn’t explain my issue very cleary, or maybe Dorico doesn’t have a way of doing this kind of standardizing. I do realize in most cases you don’t lock the systems or staves, since the layout is organic to the content that’s entered. But like I said, this is some simple music, so it would work in this case. Maybe similar to a starter piano book or something.
Thanks,
Liisa
When you import music, is Dorico creating new Layouts each time? A thought I had is that Dorico is using the default or factory settings and that maybe you haven’t saved yours.
Can you upload a portion of an affected project?
If I’m understanding you correctly, you might be looking to disable some or all of the justification too. In Layout Options>Vertical Spacing, one heading below Minimum Gaps there’s Vertical Justification. If you set both percentages to 100, as long as you don’t force your frames overfull, no justification will occur.
Verbose explanation if needed
Conventionally, sheet music is justified both vertically and horizontally, meaning that any surplus white space is distributed evenly in order to completely fill the page (or, in Dorico terms, the frame) left-to-right and top-to-bottom. What that means though is that unless you change the default layout options, or you happen to choose a set of values that make each frame precisely 100% filled, all those inter-staff gap sizes are only minimums and they will receive an additional share of the white space. With no justification, that surplus white space will just accumulate at the bottom of the page, which is considered undesirable in traditional publishing.
198 Sample.dorico (693.2 KB)
I just open an imported document, and then copy and paste it into my template. This document here is taking the adjustments from the template, except for the standardized staff. Let’s say I want 1.7cm of space within the grand staff, and 2.5 cm between systems. When these are little songs like , it will give a consistent look when the systems appear at the same level from song to song in a compiled document or a printed book. I appreciate you being interested in solving this with me!
Thanks,
Liisa
I mean, I can manually drag the staves to be on the same level, but I would like to have that feature in my template and not have to adjust every little song. Then just copy-paste the next song into the form I have made.
Manually dragging staves around is really a last resort, and with the right settings, in this case that should really not be necessary. In the file you posted, it certainly looks like the gaps are precisely the sizes specified in the layout options. They are defined in spaces, so all relative to the rastral size—if you want absolute distances in cm it requires a bit of calculation. Other than that I don’t think I’m completely understanding your issue yet.
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Yes, now I get it! And it’s working! Awesome! Thank you so much! And now it’s carrying it over in a template also. Million thanks!
I’ve attached your file with four different Layouts.
198 Sample.dorico (856.3 KB)
1) With your gaps set and no vertical justification
Only four systems will fit on the page and but they are spaced precisely according to your request.
2) Gaps set and justification
Only four systems will fit on the page and but they are automatically and evenly spaced down the page (i.e. larger system gaps). Grand staff gaps are unchanged.
3) Gaps set and casting off set to 5 systems per frame
The gaps between your systems have automatically shrunk to 21.5mm. This is because the casting off has forced too many systems on the page. Grand staff gaps are unchanged.
If you wanted 5 systems per frame (as many would) then you’ll need to live with the smaller system gap.
4) Gaps set smaller but with no casting off
You’ll notice how this looks almost identical to Layout #3.
Dorico has calculated that because you have set smaller gaps between systems, five systems will actually fit on a page and there’s no need for you to manually force them.
Two last things to notice:
- If you delete the music in any of these Layouts, the spacing will remain the same.
- These Layouts are all based on the Full Score Layout that was in your original file. I have just duplicated it and changed the settings each time.
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One easy way to check is to go to Engrave mode and select the Staff Spacing icon on the left. Staff spacing will now be visible in millimetres.
Luckily, the Layout Options dialog doesn’t close when clicking Apply and so it’s very easy to just change and check etc.
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Wonderful! Thank you, this helped me understand this a lot. And I can give my exact numbers only when I have unticked the box for minimal gaps, right?
Yes, I learned this, very helpful!
Yes, that’s correct. With the box unticked, Dorico won’t increase the gaps to avoid collisions.
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