Playback Template changes Fonts?!?

Dorico
1

Apparently applying some non-factory Playback Templates will change Font Styles/Default Text Font to Academico 10pt. As I can’t find any font settings in the Playback Template dialog box, this is quite unexpected.

  1. Download and install a third-party Playback Template (not NotePerformer). I’ve tested the Spitfire BBC SO Core template as well as all the VSL SYzd Special Edition templates and this seems reproducible with all of them for me on 3.5.1 and Windows 10.
  2. File/New from Template/pick anything
  3. Change Font Styles/Default Text Font to anything other than Academico, change the size to anything other than 10pt.
  4. In Play/Playback Template select one of the third-party templates (BBC SO, VSL, etc.) other than NotePerformer. It must be different from the currently active Playback Template too. Hit “Apply and Close.”
  5. Go back and check Font Styles/Default Text Font. Whatever you previously selected has now been changed to Academico 10pt.

I was trying a few different VST libraries for a mockup for a client, and almost sent him a PDF with the wrong fonts when I discovered this, ugh! Playback Templates should not have any effect on fonts, should they? Can anyone else confirm this?

2

I’ve taken a look at the code to see what Dorico is doing, and it will import any entities that are included in the .doricolib files that are part of the playback template, which is where the expression maps, percussion maps, playing techniques and playback techniques are specified.

My guess is that there may be some new text-based playing techniques specified in one or more of the playback templates that use the default text font style, and Dorico will indeed import this style from the playback template library file if it’s found there. So this is the expected behaviour, even if it’s not always desirable!

I’ll look into changing things such that it will not import any library items that are factory supplied, e.g. things like default font styles, so that it will import the playing techniques but they will end up using whatever the default font style looks like in the destination project.

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Thanks, this would be great! I guess I’d love to be able to use Playback Templates as a way to try out different VST libraries on project, without worrying about any “house style” elements like fonts changing inadvertently too. If this change won’t occur until a future 4.x release, it might be useful to document the possibility of having your default font style changed, as I imagine this would be unexpected behavior for most users. The word font doesn’t appear anywhere in the documentation under Playback Templates or any of its sublinks.

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