In my previous post I outlined several problems I and others had with voices.
Suggestions:
Make voice 1 BLACK.
Have the input caret reflect the voice color.
The 1st suggestion would be great because unless you’re writing a Bach 4 part invention, you can have “Voice Colors” on and the only voices that would be colored would be the multi voiced measures, the rest would be BLACK. This is better for the eyes…less strain.
The 2nd suggestion would be great because you would be able to tell at a glance what voice you’re puttin in.
Actually, Lilypond goes one step further than that. It distinguishes between “there is only one voice on this staff” (colored black) and “this is voice 1 of several voices” (displayed in a different color). These are not just two names for the same thing - for example the default stem directions and slur positioning may be different when there several voices “exist”, but only one of them contains any visible notation.
IIRC correctly, Daniel once commented that the general guidelines on access for visually impaired users mean that you can’t (or shouldn’t) rely on user feedback based on color. About 8% of males have some form of color blindness (but for some reason it only affects only 0.5% of females).
Basically, the result of men only having one X chromosome. Females (2 X chromosomes) double their chances of avoiding colour blindness.
I’m completely up for the voice/colour thing, whether it’s the notes themselves or a signpost above the carat, something needs to change as the little information on show doesn’t really do the job (150% focus example attached).
A thought: There’s no need to display any voice information at all until a second voice has been utilised. So if the fear is that changes may add to screen clutter, there’s a potential for reducing screen clutter for a huge % of works, and instruments, that never have more than one voice. Swings and roundabouts.
I wonder if there has been an update or follow-up to NicholasG’s second suggestion, and I have been unable to find it?
If actual colours in the interface would be a problem, how about a text note briefly appearing next to the caret (or, by the quarter note icon that appears when cycling through the ‘v’ options) describing the colour of the voice that is about to entered? E.g. red, blue, green, etc. After that, I guess it would become more exotic (fuchsia?) but even if it could happen for just the first couple of voices in basic colours, most users might find most of their needs met.
So you mean a sort of “floating legend” that would say:
colo(u)r 1: Up-stem voice 1
color 2: Down-stem voice 1
color 3: Up-stem voice 2
(etc.)
…and move along with note entry and serve as a reference? If so, I imagine that would be pretty visually messy and intrusive. And would that really be a big informational change/improvement over the current #q symbol by the caret (other than the correspondence of colors, for those who can see them)?
I wonder if simply allowing the option to increase the point size of the text along the bottom bar of the project window would be helpful to serve that function.
(And as for exotic colors, I suppose that for now “the fuchsia is not ours to see.” )
FWIW, you already can choose black as the first upstem voice colour. I think it was suggested here by @FredGUnn who is always sharing excellent advice and I have adopted this with great pleasure. It must be in the Preferences.
colourblind male here, with a colourblind mother…
quick genetics answer:
the gene for colourblindness is carried on the X chromosome.
it’s a recessive gene, meaning all X chromosomes must be affected for the condition to express itself.
Men inherit one Y chromosome from their father, and one X chromosome from their mother (not taking into account various types of genetic aberrations where the base genetic makeup might be a different combination and number of chromosomes.)
So if the mother carries the genetic marker on her X chromosome, she has a 50/50 chance of contributing that gene to her sons. Any son inheriting the gene will express colourblindness in some form or other.
The mother, however, for colourblindness to express in her case, must have both her X chromosomes carrying the gene.
And daughters have a lower incidence of colourblindness because they inherit one X from the mother, and one X from the father.
unless both father AND mother are colourblind, the daughters will, at worst, be carriers of the gene.
If only the father is colourblind, then none of the sons will inherit the condition, however, the daughters will be carriers.
Thanks for your replies and comments.
I was thinking more along of the lines of “having an indicator of what colour note you are about to enter, based on the voice that is going to be used by Dorico”, that appears when you invoke note input, e.g. as soon as you type shift-n. Perhaps, I need to spend more effort remembering which colour is stem up or stem down as a voice in the music. I understand the colour issue in the UI, but if one is using colours for layers anyway, it doesn’t seem a large stretch to use text or a simple patch of colour to indicate the voice that is about to be used.
When I am adding notes to or editing a bar that already has multiple voices in it, I sometimes initially select the wrong voice and have to delete material and start again, and a reminder of where I am, voice wise, would be helpful.
If you’ve input notes into the wrong voice, you can simply change their voice later: you don’t need to delete and start again!
During note input, the symbol beside the caret indicates the voice (the first up-stem and down-stem voices just have the note symbol; subsequent voices also show the number). Outside of note input, the voice of a selected note is shown in the status bar, bottom left.
It’s really useful to note that the shortcuts for creating a new voice (shiftv) and for switching to an existing voice (v) work on selected notes, as well as in Note Entry.
This means if you’ve got some notes in the wrong voice: select them, and press V to put them in another voice. If you’ve got more than 2 voices, you’ll need to keep pressing V until you hit the right one.
The caret does show the voice:
If you’ve got more than one voice for that stem, it will show a number:
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