Hi William, The beam damping parameter (even at a very moderate value like #2) already does a very fine job by itself and almost obviates the need for anything else. Thanks a lot! Do you know if there is any more precise documentation on this matter somewhere?
Cheers, Aleksa Am Mi., 10. Dez. 2025 um 23:46 Uhr schrieb William Rehwinkel < [email protected]>: > Dear Aleksa, > > This is something I work on a lot as well, as I obsess with making my > engravings look like published editions too. Here's what I've found so far: > > Your first problem can simply be fixed by modifying Beam.damping, see > > https://wiki.lilypond.community/index.php?title=Controlling_beam_damping&oldid=4930 > (also attached here) > > For your second problem, I use a snippet created by Jean Abou Samra (I > can search for the email in this list if you like) that whites out the > area behind the beam. > > With these two changes, combined with changing the beams to be more > thick and closer together, I get beams that are really beautifully > engraved to my eyes and leave nothing to be desired with respect to > looking more professional. > > (I haven't encountered the third problem or tried fixing it) > > Take a look at the attached file beams_example.ly, and let me know if > that helps accomplish what you were hoping for. > > Thanks, > -William > > On 12/10/25 10:36 PM, A Jakovljevic wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > While Lilypond tends to do a very good job in most cases, there are two > > issues which seem to be recurring a fair bit in the music I'm > typesetting: > > -beam angles being too steep > > -beams crossing staff lines (which is a style choice, arguably, but > > usually avoided by the better publisher out there) > > -in a few rare cases, an angled beam starting or ending in a space (this > > is generally frowned upon, cf. Gould, p. 17f) > > > > Both of these can be arguably rather easily be fixed with manual > > overrides (fyi, if necessary: the syntax is \once \override > > Beam.positions = #'(-3 . -2.75) , numbers adjusted as needed); but of > > course that takes time, makes for pretty unreadable code post facto, and > > is in fact one of the most frequent and few things I have to fix > > manually, so if it were at all possible to make beams shallower by > > default that would be a huge time saver. > > > > I don't know enough about the internals to know where even to look at > > for something like this (it is at least independent of notation font as > > far as I can test out). If I may mention it, I've seen something similar > > discussed regarding another open-source software here [https:// > > musescore.org/en/node/152276 <https://musescore.org/en/node/152276>] > > (with reference to how one of the other WYSIWYG options allows to set > > defaults for it, scroll down a bit). > > > > As an example, here are the first few bars of the 1st violon part from > > KV 418: > > > > \version "2.24.4" > > > > \language "deutsch" > > > > \score { > > << > > \new Staff { > > \key a \major \time 2/2 > > \relative c'' { > > r2^"Default" r8 cis16.[( e32] a8[) a-.] | > > a4 r r8 e16.[( a32] cis8[) cis-.] | > > cis4 r r2 | r r8 d,16.[( fis32] h8[) h-.] | > > h4 r r8 f16.[( h32] d8[) d-.] | > > } > > } > > > > \new Staff { > > \key a \major \time 2/2 > > \relative c'' { > > r2^"Manual fix" r8 \once \override Beam.positions = #'(-3 . -2.75) > > cis16.[( e32] a8[) a-.] | > > a4 r r8 \once \override Beam.positions = #'(-2.25 . -2) e16.[( a32] > > cis8[) cis-.] | > > cis4 r r2 | r r8 \once \override Beam.positions = #'(-2.25 . -2) d,16. > > [( fis32] h8[) h-.] | > > h4 r r8 \once \override Beam.positions = #'(-1.25 . -1) f16.[( h32] d8[) > > d-.] | > > } > > } > > >> > > } > > > > You can of course compare with the old Breitkopf offering on IMSLP; the > > more recent Neue Mozart Ausgabe is very similar to that and both match > > the manual fixes I have applied: > > image.png > > > > Cheers, > > > > Aleksa Jakovljevic, > > harpsichordist / organist / musicologist > > Montreal, Quebec, Canada >
