NOTATIO

I’ve just looked at benwiggy’s engraving in Dorico, and I noticed one thing that still perplexes me.

Have a look, original VS Dorico:
As you can see, the grace note not only has a smaller note-head and accidental, but also a reduced stem.  I’ve now checked numerous scores with reduced staves, such as in violin sonatas, and found that the staff lines, stems, hairpins, and other notation lines are typically not reduced in size.  This has always been visually frustrating for me in Finale, and now in Sibelius, and I see Dorico does the same.

If the staff size appears slightly smaller in older scores, it might be due to the small engraving tools (knives) that were used, but that’s more an artifact than a rule.  Have you noticed how tiny and diluted full orchestral scores often look today when done in Finale or Sibelius? It’s surprising that no one has addressed this yet.

Other examples, random taken (Debussy, Violin Sonata)

What a great point. I agree. Reducing the thickness of the staff lines and stems gives a less substantial appearance and is harder to read. Perhaps you should make your point over at the Dorico forum, where Daniel will be sure to see it.

I have found that leger lines in Dorico for cued music are far too spindly, and I increase them by 1/4 space to make them more visible.

I'm not sure offhand the percentage difference between cued notes and grace notes, but I'm sure it's not far.