On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 7:36 AM Gabriel Ellsworth
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Below is a better MWE, including a new markup command. (It is my first time
> defining a new markup command, so please let me know if I can improve
> anything there!)
>
>
> Summary of problems:
>
> Regarding Lyrics.VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing.padding —
> The default value of #0.5 causes collisions (even in measure 17), and
> increasing it to #2.5, as I have done in this MWE, also causes a problem: The
> lyrics uppercase F (m. 32) through uppercase Z (m. 52) are too far below
> their related staves.
> LilyPond is not “seeing” the obvious collision in measure 25 between the note
> head and the long fermata and padding appropriately. Why?
You explicity tell LilyPond that the long fermata has no size with the
following line:
>> (#:with-dimensions-from #:null ; % removing this line pushes lyrics
>> too far below their relatedstaff
Since the long fermata has zero dimension, it cannot collide with anything else.
I think that it is possible to have the lyrics close to the bottom of
the notes if there is no fermata. But if there is a fermata, and the
fermata is below the notes/staff, the rest of the lyrics on that line
will have the same baseline.
Consider the following example:
%%% SNIPPET BEGINS
\version "2.24.4"
\layout {
\override Lyrics.VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing.padding
= #0.5
\override
Lyrics.VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing.basic-distance
= #5
}
#(define-markup-command (squaremata layout props text) (markup?)
"Place a long fermata (scripts.ulongfermata) centered above the given text,
with baseline-skip of 2.2."
(interpret-markup layout props
(markup
#:override (cons 'baseline-skip 2.2)
#:override (cons 'direction 1) ; equivalent to ,UP
#:dir-column
(#:center-align text
#:center-align
(;#:with-dimensions-from #:null ; % removing this line pushes
lyrics too far below their relatedstaff
#:musicglyph "scripts.ulongfermata")))))
<<
\relative {
\repeat unfold 4 { c'1 } \break
\repeat unfold 4 { c1 } \break
\repeat unfold 5 { f } \break
\repeat unfold 3 { f } \break
\repeat unfold 4 { g } \break
\repeat unfold 4 { g } \break
g, f'
\repeat unfold 100 { f }
}
\new Lyrics \with {
\consists Text_engraver
}{ \lyricmode {
a
\markup \squaremata b
c d e f g h i j k
\markup \squaremata l
\markup \squaremata m
n o p
\markup \squaremata q
r s t u v w x
\markup \squaremata y
z A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
}
}
>>
%%% SNIPET ENDS
HTH,
Carl
