On Oct 16, 2006, at 4:27 AM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
There are hand-engraved scores where font width changes occur. I first
noticed these many years ago when I was a pre-composer working in a
public
library, looking at scores I couldn't read. I saw operas where the
letters
were narrower on some words, and sometimes even turned vertical with
common
short words. (As a kid I'd also noticed how newspapers sometimes spaced
letters in individual words further apart to justify lines of text. I
must've been a stranger kid than I remember.)
Ah! Sign of a true type-geek. I sometimes forget what a type-geek I
am because I have a brother and a good friend who are two of the top
professional type-geeks in the country, and I pale in comparison to
them.
Finale supports font changes in the edit lyrics dialog, but does not
support vector resizing (as in typical graphics programs) or letter
spacing
(I forget if kerning is adjustable in Finale). This is a font-change
example, using Arial and Arial Narrow:
http://maltedmedia.com/images/finale/narrow-font.jpg
By switching fonts in the same family, the text reading isn't hindered
and
the rhythmic spacing is undisturbed.
I know that tracking (which I assume is what you mean by "kerning") is
available in text expressions, but my recollection is that it's one of
several type modifications which is non-functional for lyrics in spite
of appearing on the menu.
Your example switching from Arial to Arial Narrow looks unattractive to
me, and I wouldn't want to resort to that. A subtler adjustment using
font-narrowing might be acceptable, but I'd have to see it to judge.
My experience with non-music typography has been that small adjustments
in tracking is less distracting to the eye than the equivalent
adjustment by font-narrowing.
Much easier would be to be able to tweak entries by narrowing them by
eye
or by a formula that would effect a compromise between adjusting font
parameters and music spacing. One could set rules:
1. When any parameter adjustment would 'kick in' (the distortion
percentage
of rhythmic values).
2. Which parameters could be changed (letter spacing, kerning, font
narrowing, font size changing, font family, rotation).
3. The order of parameter change.
4. The bounds for tightening the font (maximum allowed parameter change
before the next parameter would be used).
5. The number of allowed changes per measure, system and page (so it
doesn't look jumbled).
I think that's a fine formula. I wonder how much difference there
would be between our preferred settings for the various parameters.
mdl
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