NOTATIO

Sorry if this has already been discussed.
I was reading Leonardo Vinci’s “Erighetta e don Chilone”, ETS Edition, and I noticed the down-stem note flags have a larger width than the up-stem’s:


I - sort of - like it. The down-stem flags nicely support the nothehead, while the up-stem flags don’t eat too space.

I looked in my library and found only another edition doing the same. Corpus of Early Keyboard Music, Bernardo Storace “Selva di varie composizioni”:


I like it somewhat less, there is too difference in width.

So I gave a quick look at Elbsound web site and found only two fonts doing the same, Capella engraver and Engraver fontset. I didn’t check all the fonts there, however.

What is the consensus,is this a viable solution? Or it is required the upstem and downstem flags to be exactly the same width?


EDIT: I have edited the two pictures in order to make them smaller, from 7Mb both to 400kb. Sorry admin and all.

No requirement. There's hardly anything written about music typography in the first place. It's semi-logical to have the stem-up flags take up less space because they contribute more to horizontal spacing problems than down-stem flags. I've seen both and done both myself. As long as they are consistent with the style, I don't see an issue either way.

Certainly, the simplest design is to have the flags be identical, just flipped. But that doesn't mean that more precision shouldn't be used.

The flipped 8th-note is thinking.... I don't like the flag be attached to the head, I little space should occur in between. This just my opinion.