Dear all,
I am starting the engraving of a piece for choir and a single solo instrument (but could be a single solo voice, so 5 staves total). While I have done choral work in the past, I would like to get some info about the best page sizes for this.
I am aware of the concept of “octavo” but I also know that this can mean different things for different regions or publishers so a clarification there would also be welcomed.
Apart from Europe using A4 as much as possible, I know the Pariser format (192x275mm) used in the German world.
This work should be compatible with US printers, though, so perhaps going in that direction could help.
Final question: should the choir part and the conductor part have different page sizes? In any case one could scale the final PDF, to avoid having to redo the layout.
Thank you for your help!
Most “Choral Octavo” scores that I have are about 7 x 10 inches, which is approximately the same as B5 (6.93 x 9.84 inches). NB: ISO B5, not JIS B5, which is different. B5 will scale up to A4; though if you can read it comfortably on B5, then scaling it up might look massive, unless you only scale it up a bit and give it larger margins.
The fundamental question (which I suppose you’re asking) is “what sizes can I get printed?”, and ultimately that depends on what machines and people are involved.
Unless you’re planning to get it printed by a commercial music printer who can offer a range of specific sizes, I’d stick to A4 and US Letter.
If it’s just 5 staves (plus piano?), then I see no need to have different layouts and sizes for conductor and choir.
It should be possible to create a layout that has sufficient margins so that it can be printed at full size and cropped to fit either US Letter or A4, but it does require a printer (either machine or human) to agree on where the cropping is done.
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5 staves without piano. No need for that in this specific piece.
It needs to be printed in ordinary households so US Letter and A4 will have to do.
Choral Octavo sounds pretty similar to Pariser above, only slightly shorter.