Thank you, all, for sending your thoughts! This is a very helpful discussion. You have given me much to consider.
On Thu, 18 Jun 2026, Tina Petzel wrote: > the typical Century Schoolbook digitalizations are base on the 10pt cuts > I think and Garamonds are based on 11pt or 12pt cuts (which is also why > the default font in Lilypond looks a bit unelegant in larger sizes). > I am so new to typography that I have never really known or thought about the concept of optical sizing before. Thank you for putting optical sizing on my radar! > Lilypond’s Lyrics size is 12.35pt at default staff height of 20pt. I’ve always wondered exactly what the default font size for lyrics was. This message helped me understand the following documentation better. At “Understanding the fontSize property” in the NR, I see: “For a 20pt staff, an 11pt font is selected.” And at 3.1.84 LyricText (LilyPond Internals Reference) <https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.27/Documentation/internals/lyrictext> I see that the default font-size for lyrics is approximately 12% larger [than that 11pt]. This is helpful! > Considering an optimal range of 11pt-12pt for a typical Garamond it only > makes sense to use Garamond for scores above maybe 17pt staff height. > My scores almost always use the default staff height of 20 points, so I think it’s probably safe for me to use Garamond or Sabon. But both Garamond Premier Pro and EB Garamond feature a version based on 8pt > cuts, which can be used for smaller scores. > This is good to know; thank you! > Also I have attached a direct side by side comparison, matched to the same > lining height. This showcases how using Garamond the lyrics just need a > bit less space. > This is very helpful. On Thu, 18 Jun 2026, Kieren MacMillan wrote: > This is why I use \absFontSize for almost everything. > I will keep that command in mind! For those who might want to change the typeface selectively (“surgically”) where the font size is larger (e.g., in headers), I’ll make a plug here for Lukas’s very helpful work to build \markup \font-select. This command (new in 2.27) is documented at Text and font improvements (LilyPond Changes) <https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.27/Documentation/changes/text-and-font-improvements> .
