Re: New Essay:nitpicking

[Jonathan Wilkes]

I was talking about barlines and staff lines (well, mostly barlines that print 
out 
way too thin by default at some smaller score sizes in Finale).  Such thin 
lines 
are certainly for squinting.  And those only get worse when you photocopy, so 
to start in the middle of a piece for a rehearsal, say, a musician might have 
to 
actually count up the beats in one or two measures to see where the barline 
_ought_ to be, then squint to ensure there is some semblance of a line 
there.

I didn't know about the thin lines on some font families like "modern."  I'll 
have 
to check that out, thanks.

-Jonathan

--- On Thu, 4/22/10, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:

From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: New Essay:nitpicking
To: address@hidden
Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 9:37 AM

Jonathan Wilkes <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi Alexander,      On your point about technical restrictions: I would
> just say that by the time a musician becomes a professional he/she has
> read thousands of scores with rounded notes, non-pointy angles, heavy
> dynamics font, etc.

[...]

> playing music, which I obviously love, and less time doing what
> amounts to bookkeeping-- clearing up ambiguities/misprints, adjusting
> my eyes to a weird font, trying not to be distracted by stems that are
> too heave/light, squinting at hair-thin lines, etc."

Hair-thin lines are not for squinting.  They are used, for example, in
the "modern" font families for producing closed letter aesthetics with
an "open lead" of the serif line.  The idea of a vertical hair line is
exactly to _not_ disturb the base line of lead fortified by serifs.  You
need good printing resolution to bring that intent to fruition.

One reason to make music fonts low-res friendly is that scores, much
more than most other materials, are likely to be photocopied.  They are
a musician's work material.  Also, you often have just an angle of your
sight to spare for them.

The conductor will thank the typesetters if the score does not require
the full focus of the musicians.

-- 
David Kastrup



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