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Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 21 Jan 2019, 06:23
by sesqui
To all the diverse and talented engravers here:

What music font sizes do you use for your score layouts in Finale? I just can't seem to make up my mind. Initially, I set all my staves to 125%, but then seriously collision of underlying dynamics, etc. occur if you have many voices. To create more space in between staves I readjusted the staves to 120%. But then I have to deal with the music font being comparably smaller and harder to read, so then I increased my font from Maestro 26 to 30, but if I use bold I find that the half/whole notes are too dark and cannot be readily discerned. I have roughly 24 staves to a page, so reality is a scare commodity, and the top and bottom margins are already adjusted to cede as much space as possible. If I didn't write for instruments like alto, e-flat clarinet, and contrabass clarinet, I'd be able to free up more space. But in the interim, I'd like to make everything fit on the page and still look tasteful and functional. I did figure out that I could combine bari sax and e-flat contrabass clarinet onto one divided line. Any help and/or tips would be welcome!

Re: Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 21 Jan 2019, 07:37
by OCTO
I am bit confused by the settings you use.
I would suggest that you post a page, preferably as a picture or PDF.
Also, use 100% always in Finale, and if you wish to make something bigger or smaller you use staff height (7mm, 6.5mm etc). You can end up in having 118% of staff size 7.25mm - it is hard to imagine how it looks.

Also, the page size is also important. I don't know what page size you use.

About the instruments: I am not sure how the mentioned instruments particularly affect your score.

Re: Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 21 Jan 2019, 16:34
by sesqui
Sorry about the confusion! Here's a PDF of a page of said score. In Finale the score gives you a default of 40% of normal view with staves being 125%. I suppose you can translate that to an actual height if you want, but doesn't tweaking the percentage basically change the dimensions of the staves for you without further manual manipulation? It's also on 9 x 12 (concert size) if that helps.

Re: Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 22 Jan 2019, 03:55
by Schonbergian
I think you could stand to make the staves themselves larger but space them more closely. Lots of white space that could be put to good use if you're having issues with readability.

Stave lines need to be thicker if you're using noteheads that big.

Re: Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 22 Jan 2019, 15:51
by sesqui
Thanks for the advice!

Re: Score Music Fonts and Score Layout

Posted: 23 Jan 2019, 06:59
by OCTO
The best practice is to use 100% size in Finale, and than reduce the staff size into mm, as it is the standard measuring unit.
For instance, I always use 6.8mm for parts, except for Cb or Perc or likewise that is 7.0mm, on the NE paper-size (240*320mm).

In general you need 24 pt music font, almost as standard. If you want bigger noteheads or accidentals, than try to find another font that is more "fat", rather than making noteheads larger, thus they cross staff-lines.

And I agree with Schonbergian.
There are no information about phrasing, slurs, dynamics etc, so I don't have idea how it should look as a final page.