NOTATIO

I'm just wondering why the designer wants the text in blue, let alone the music.

Here's a chart comparing different fonts for use as lyrics. It's possible that this says something about Finale's spacing, too.

I agree that switching between different stems is awkward: and I'd therefore argue for uniformity throughout. If there's any contrapuntal lines or only one part for a bit, then stemming is the easiest way. If it's just block chords, then maybe, though In my experience, it's cause for disparaging com...

I would want to emphasise that for short score writing, the parts should have individual stems. I'm something of a fan of unison noteheads side-by-side, but that's probably an archaic practice.
But for divisi within a single part line, yes, I concur.

I've been thinking about lyrics fonts a little bit more. Here's my list of candidates: ITC Century Book Condensed: Perhaps a little too condensed, but one of the best for lyrics. Century Book (non-condensed) is very similar to New Century Schoolbook, both of which are a little too fat, IMO. Times Ne...

In Finale you can have ANY line weight that is sent to the printer, and than the printer must either add or remove points to print it out. And that is bad. Rastral sizes that would support printers' outputs would be something to consider in the future. I'm not sure I follow this. Firstly, using lay...

Thanks. That's helped clarify my thoughts.

As we all know, metal plate engraving used sets of different punches in different rastral sizes, numbered from 0 (or even 00) to 8 (or even 9!). I seem to recall that Sibelius uses these in its setup. I don't know whether Dorico does. Finale ... does not. Are the continued use of these sizes benefic...

None whatsoever, except that I am a hoarder of typefaces.

I don't know if this has come up before, but can anyone suggest a text typeface that is similar in style to the :ped marking? Presumably, the traditional style we use now is based on some actual typeface? - In the same way that the traditional time sig numerals and dynamics are stylised versions of ...