Why not both? 
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Of the three, I find Finale Legacy easiest to read.
Finale Legacy is just the old Petrucci glyphs. There’s no Chord Letters that I can see. (Looks like Helvetica to me.)
One problem with how Dorico handles suffix accidentals is that there are actually two different glyphs used for each accidental, depending on your settings in EO/ Chord Symbols / Design. This is completely undocumented AFAIK, but the SMuFL glyphs csymAccidentalFlat and csymAccidentalSharp are used for 76% and up and csymAccidentalFlatSmall and csymAccidentalSharpSmall are used for 75% and lower. I think these code points are hardwired into the program, as I once tried to redefine the “small” glyphs with a doricolib file and it didn’t work, but maybe I’ll try again. In any case, I find the “small” variants illegible at performance size/lighting, so really that EO setting has to be 76% to invoke the larger glyphs. I think that’s a touch too large, and would love to be able to use something like 70% and still get the larger suffix accidentals, but that doesn’t seem possible currently. That’s a long-winded way of saying you probably should increase your percentage to 76% so the sharp on your #11 chord is the larger sharp glyph and will be a legible size.
Chord symbols should always be left-aligned, not centered, IMO. With longer symbols it can be very confusing as to what the correct rhythmic placing actually is when centered, while this would be completely clear when left-aligned.
Finale Copyist: I know the notes are just placeholders that have nothing to do with the chords in your examples, but are you planning on combining a “handwritten” font with normal engraved notes? The vibe you’re going for is engraved music that you then went back and wrote the chords on by hand? If so, the engraved accidentals and perfect circle for dim and half-dim sort of kill the illusion. Not really a fan unless you can also address those issues. (As mentioned earlier in the thread, I don’t use that half-dim symbol either.) Kerning on the #11 is good though.
Finale Legacy: This is just Helvetica/Arial right? Obviously lots of publishers use this look. It’s fine. I’m in the minority in that I think the design of the accidentals should dictate the font choice, so I’m not a fan of the sans with the engraved accidentals, but it’s obviously a classic look.
Academico: Based on Century Schoolbook, it’s also fine. Matches the accidentals well. Not particularly a fan of the pairing with the + and the dim circle. Kerning on #11 is terrible. As the Dorico default, it’s not a particularly interesting or inspired choice, but fine.
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This was a great idea and I was also a little annoyed with the small accidental.
Not necessarily but I just like how it is a bit tighter horizontally yet very clear. I wish I had an engraved font that had a similar effect.
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Hear, hear! (and play, play…!)
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Interesting piece here about legibility vs. readability in fonts, which seems “legit.” No specific mention of low-lighting levels (that I saw in my quick perusal), but I’d be curious to know what someone studying vision would have to say about font choices and the eye’s ability to track chord changes visually in music.
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Interesting read! I’m curious if there is a set of accidental glyphs somewhere designed to pair better with a sans. It’s the mismatch between the text font and the accidentals that looks odd to me:
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I suspect that the high preference for Arial is simply due to its being probably the most commonplace font on computers. Interesting that Helvetica scored differently, when as the article points out, it’s all but identical.
Not all Sans faces have the same characteristics; nor Serifs neither. Type bores can sub-categorize each into Geometric, Gothic, Modern, Transitional, etc. Some serifs are more legible than others.
Then there’s issues of leading, spacing, and more besides.
I suspect that in 100 years, serifs will be as old-fashioned and hard to read for most people as Blackletter (gothic) type.
One other tidbit: the letter “a” that we teach our children tends to be “a circle, with a flick”; but most fonts, even sans, do the more complex form.
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I clicked the link, and before I even read the piece — That is a very strange use of an fi ligature in the author’s name with a double-i. It really makes me pause and examine, and distracts me from the content. Now to actually read it …
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I hadn’t really paid attention, but you’re definitely right, Lato has an odd ligature there as it stops pretty short of the i:
A font like Myriad extends the top of the f further:
I feel like my second screenshot looks better even though it is centered. Should I keep chords left-aligned and just make these changes manually where necessary? Or is there another option that I’m missing? Or does my first screenshot appear totally fine to you (or anyone else reading this)?
With simple triads and 7th chords it probably doesn’t matter, but as soon as you get into anything with any degree of complexity, center-alignment really obscures the rhythm. What beats are the chords on in the center-aligned example below?
Of course, with left-alignment, everything is clear:
I always left-align so the rhythm is clear. Sure, there may be situations where I tweak and offset to fix the spacing, but my default is to always left-align.
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I’m with @FredGUnn on this. Left-alignment avoids any potential confusion about when the new harmonies happen. But for my money, I’d want the accents underneath. Also, the chord symbols can be top-aligned to keep things really clear visually (so the “slash” bass notes are lower than all of the basic symbols).
What’s notated looks like a bass line, but it’s in a single treble-clef staff. Is this a guitar part? If so, you really don’t need the notated pitches. The chord roots and “slash” bass notes on beats 2 and 4 are such a common pattern that the ascending bass line is clear and a player will know what to do, which most likely would mean leaving the bass line for the bass anyway.
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Thanks for your thoughts @FredGUnn
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Totally agree. I just haven’t got to that yet 
I work almost entirely with simple chord symbols, and I find it looks better to center-align:
On the rare occasion that I have a more complex chord symbol (don’t ask… the client insisted on this…), I will somewhat align the root above the notehead:
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I left-align chords and shift them ½ space left. This looks the least distracting to my eye.
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