Time signatures placement and SMuFL ligatures

Dorico
1

Hi everyone,

Is it possible to adjust the placement of the individual numbers in time signatures shown at system object positions? I would like to be able to place the numbers slightly further apart vertically, not completely together like they are inside the staff.

If possible I’d like to know how this works actually; are the time signature ligatures that are ‘recommended’ in the glyph tables on the SMuFL website ever used by Dorico, or does Dorico always take separate single glyphs, and place them in the right spot?

Thank you for your help!
Lodewijk

2

Yes – Engraving Options > Time Signatures > Gaps

Dorico doesn’t use the ligatures in music scores. They are useful with Bravura Text for forming proper time sigs within text.

3

Thank you!

4

Hi Mark,

sorry, one follow-up question. Do I understand correctly that Dorico does not use any ligatures in music scores? So also not, for example, trills + accidentals, or noteheads + parentheses? Do these glyphs also only exist to be used in text?

Lodewijk

5

I’m not sure about every ligature in Dorico, but indeed many of them are in the spec to allow other software to display things by different methods and still make use of SMuFL.

One counterexample: I have made use of the Johnston accidental ligatures – which have to be selected by codepoint in the symbol designer, as of course it doesn’t do OpenType automatic ligatures.

6

Yes, it’s nice that those are there. I have been nudging around Helmholtz-Ellis accidentals in the symbol designer, and was actually thinking of making some ligatures of those and adding them to my own font to make this easier.

But for the other examples I gave (noteheads and trills) it seems Dorico does not use the available ligatures. I just replaced one with a completely different glyph, and nothing in Dorico changed. So you are right, no OpenType automatic ligatures.

Thanks for your help!