Various Line Settings

Discuss the rules of notation, standard notation practices, efficient notation practices and graphic design.
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OCTO
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by OCTO »

John Ruggero wrote:Vaughan, I use Maestro noteheads for the reason that you mention, the Engraver noteheads look crude to me. When I reduced them to 22 points, I noticed that they do not touch each other when on lines a third apart in chords. Even at 23 pts there is a space. Does one simply accept the space?
There was some discussion about it, just between me and Vaughan (I believe the same person on the MM Forum). While it is not the must, I think that balance is much better with NH that touch each other, otherwise it seems they are "hanging", not sitting.
John Ruggero wrote:And honestly, I don't care for the Engraver quarter noteheads even at 22 pts. I think that if I used Engraver, I might change out the quarter noteheads to Maestro; the Engraver half note heads do look nice to me at 22 or 23 pts, however.
In my opinion Maestro NH are one of the best on the market. Also, SCORE has very nice and stable NH.
John Ruggero wrote:Perhaps this should be the start for a new thread on notehead shape?
YES... I wanted to start that as well, but you mentioned first! Do!
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Knut
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Knut »

OCTO wrote: There was some discussion about it, just between me and Vaughan (I believe the same person on the MM Forum). While it is not the must, I think that balance is much better with NH that touch each other, otherwise it seems they are "hanging", not sitting.
OCTO wrote:In my opinion Maestro NH are one of the best on the market. Also, SCORE has very nice and stable NH.
The Maestro black noteheads actually doesn't really touch each other either, which, to me, is one of it's weaknesses.
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John Ruggero
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by John Ruggero »

On my screen at 1000%, the 24 pt Maestro black noteheads seem to just barely touch when a third apart on lines. And in Photoshop there seems to be a one pixel overlap between the two notes.
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Knut
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Knut »

John Ruggero wrote:On my screen at 1000%, the 24 pt Maestro black noteheads seem to just barely touch when a third apart on lines. And in Photoshop there seems to be a one pixel overlap between the two notes.
That's really strange. Have you tried printing to PDF?
Peter West
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Peter West »

Illustrator seems to match Finale in this regard.
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Knut
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Knut »

Peter West wrote:Illustrator seems to match Finale in this regard.
Hmm, the thing is, opening the font in FontLab and viewing the actual vectors, the notehead is less than one staff space high. Also, printing an interval of a third to PDF, the noteheads clearly doesn't touch. The gap is marginal, and I doubt it would be particularly visible in print, but it doesn't match the tightness of manual engraving.
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Fred G. Unn
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Fred G. Unn »

OCTO wrote: In my opinion Maestro NH are one of the best on the market. Also, SCORE has very nice and stable NH.
Off of the top of my head, I seem to remember the Maestro noteheads were designed by Blake Hodgetts and were based on the London Boosey publications printed by Halston. At the time I had talked him into including a more vertical slash (#203) that was closer to SCORE's slash, in addition to the slash that was the one-bar repeat slash minus the dots. The default positioning was encoded differently though leading to different workarounds if you want to use #203. The default slash in most fonts for Finale just takes up too much room horizontally IMO.
Vaughan
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by Vaughan »

Sorry I didn't respond earlier but there's so much to follow (in addition to a busy concert schedule)! My reason for using Engraver NH at 22 points was that I like the width and I think they are better in balance with the beams which come across to me as being too bold together with the Maestro NH. The latter are a bit too narrow and tilted for my taste. I also prefer Engraver's half note. It's true that at 22 points the Engraver NH don't touch each other in 3rds (outside the staff and without a ledger line between them), but in a practical sense this is only visible on a screen at high magnification. Even on a 30" screen viewing a full page in Page View, one doesn't see these gaps, and certainly not on a page printed on a 1200 dpi laser printer. That's really what counts, isn't it?
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John Ruggero
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by John Ruggero »

Hi Fred. The slashes look a little horizontal to me too. So do the ones in "Behind Bars". Do you think they might be thicker as well, and also the measure repeats? But this could be the "pen and ink days" talking.

Vaughan, in all honesty, the gap is clearly visible to me when I printed various thirds at 22 pt. But I see nothing wrong with it; it is just a different "look" that is perhaps a distinguishing feature of your house style. It's interesting that I like exactly what you don't like about the Maestro. DIfferent fonts for different folks!
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David Ward
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Re: Various Line Settings

Post by David Ward »

It took me a while to find this old thread via the search, which kept telling me that the words I used were 'too common' and were thus ignored.

Anyway, I was wondering if the tables, useful guidance, lists &c that occur from time to time on this site, such as the several very useful ones in this thread, might, once they have received general approval, be put in a special 'reference' thread on the site.

Is this possible OCTO?
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