lilypond-essay: Music fonts
Music fonts
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The images below illustrate some differences between traditional
engraving and typical computer output. The left picture shows a scan of
a flat symbol from a hand-engraved Bärenreiter edition, while the right
picture depicts a symbol from an edition of the same music published in
2000. Although both images are printed in the same shade of ink, the
earlier version looks darker: the staff lines are heavier, and the
Bärenreiter flat has a bold, almost voluptuous rounded look. The right
scan, on the other hand, has thinner lines and a straight layout with
sharp corners.
[png][png][png]
Bärenreiter Henle (2000)
(1950)
When we wanted to write a computer program to create music
typography, there were no musical fonts freely available that could
match the elegance of our favorite scores. Undeterred, we created a
font of musical symbols, relying on nice printouts of hand-engraved
music. The experience helped develop a typographical taste, and it made
us appreciate subtle design details. Without that experience, we would
not have realized how ugly the fonts were that we admired at first.
Below is a sample of two music fonts: the upper set is the default
font in the Sibelius software (the _Opus_ font), and the lower set is
our own LilyPond font.
[png]
The LilyPond symbols are heavier and their weight is more consistent,
which makes them easier to read. Fine endings, such as the ones on the
sides of the quarter rest, should not end in sharp points, but rather in
rounded shapes. This is because sharp corners of the punching dies are
fragile and quickly wear out when stamping in metal. Taken together,
the blackness of the font must be carefully tuned together with the
thickness of lines, beams and slurs to give a strong yet balanced
overall impression.
Also, notice that our half-note head is not elliptic but slightly
diamond shaped. The vertical stem of a flat symbol is slightly brushed,
becoming wider at the top. The sharp and the natural are easier to
distinguish from a distance because their angled lines have different
slopes and the vertical strokes are heavier.
Info Catalog
lilypond-essay: Engraving details
lilypond-essay: Optical spacing