Im planning to use the google play books app on tablets and phones for a piece, but the pdf sheet music doesn’t quite fill the screen. It’s especially noticeable in portrait mode, where there is some space at the top of the screen around the date and battery indicator.
Most students will probably use it in landscape mode and zoom in anyway, but if there is an easy way to fix this after a piece has been written? Or does it depend on the type and size of the tablet?
You will have to define a “page size” in Dorico that has the target aspect ratio. However, some margins on the screen is reserved for status bars etc. so it will not be perfect. Some trial and error and you will soon find the perfect dimensions.
If I am preparing for tablets, I usually set margins to about 3mm (but depends if you want to make notes in the margins.).
If page numbers are important, set up your page templates so they are nearer the staves than you might normally have them, because if they are way out away from the music area, they can either be cropped out on a tablet (presumably not helpful) or if they show, then a lot of white space around the staves.
The difference with iPad and Android tablets compared to printing on paper, the paper is the same size once printed. Viewing on tablets, they can be different sizes/proportions so often there is white space top/bottom or on the sides, as the “paper” size/proportion it was created for is not the same proportion as a tablet it is being viewed on.
For iPad specifically, I use Concert page size (or 9" x 12") which is the 4:3 (as @Mats_Frendahl mentioned) so what you set up in Dorico and what is output as a PDF is how it should show (without cropping.)
If you are using a dedicated music viewer app like forScore (iOS) or Mobilesheets (iOS, Android etc.) then you should find an auto (or manual) crop process/setting so the music itself is as large as it can be for that screen proportion.
Additionally, some applications allows you to magnify and move the pdf on the app. I tend to use ForScore which remembers these magnifications and moves for each page in isolation if you want to. In addition it “pages” in half-pages which helps in playing.
