Re: paper spacing variables not being respected for a score inside markup

[Aaron Hill]

On 2018-06-09 18:11, Jason Pratt wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 5:21 AM Thomas Morley <address@hidden> 
> wrote:
> > > I'm doing some chords+lyrics song sheets, and trying to achieve a two
> > > column layout.
> >
> > If all you want is to write chords+lyrics, LilyPond may not be the
> > best tool for this purpose.
>
> I tried to keep my example simple. The real sheets will also include
> things like fret diagrams and tabs of riffs, which lilypond is useful
> for.

Another thing to consider is to use LilyPond to typeset individual 
elements and then compose them within a larger document.  
`lilypond-book` will let you mix TeX and LilyPond, for instance, if you 
want a lot of control over the layout.

> > > From what I've read, the way to accomplish this is by
> > > putting scores within a markup block.
> > >
> > > This works to get the two columns, but as soon as I do it, the \paper
> > > variables that are controlling the vertical spacing seem to be
> > > ignored.
> >
> > As soon as you put a score in a markup, you are in markup-mode.
> > Vertical spacing of multi-line-markups is controlled by 'baseline-skip
> > and in general not by paper-settings.
> >
> > \score in \markup is a markup-command, internally calling the
> > markup-list-command \score-lines, which outputs a list of stencils
> > (here each stencil contains one line of chords/lyrics). They are
> > stacked vertically by \score using 'baseline-skip.
> >
> > So all as expected, no bug.
>
> When I include \override #'(baseline-skip . 0.5) inside the markup
> block, only the space between the lyrics and the next chord line is
> reduced. The space between the chords and the lyrics above them is
> still very large. Is there some other way to reduce the space between
> the two systems? Can you make it so that the scores inside the columns
> of my simple example have the same spacing as the score above?

This is `nonstaff-nonstaff-spacing` that you want to control, since you 
are talking about things within a single system.  Here is a modified 
version of your original code that should achieve what you want:

%%%%
  \version "2.18.2"

  chordNames = \chordmode {
    c1 f g a:m \break
    c f g:7 c \break
  }
  words = \lyricmode {
    \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
    Here_are some random lyrics
    These are more lyrics
  }

  \paper {
    #(set-paper-size "a6landscape")
    tagline = ##f
    indent = #0
    ragged-right = ##t
    system-system-spacing =
      #'((basic-distance . 0)
        (minimum-distance . 0)
        (padding . 2)
        (stretchability . 0))
  }

  common-layout = \layout {
    \context { \ChordNames
      \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-nonstaff-spacing =
        #'((basic-distance . 0)
          (minimum-distance . 0)
          (padding . 1)
          (stretchability . 0))
    }
    \context { \Lyrics
      \override VerticalAxisGroup.staff-affinity = #DOWN
    }
  }

  \score {
    <<
      \new ChordNames \chordNames
      \new Lyrics \words
    >>
    \layout { \common-layout }
  }

  \markup { \override #'(baseline-skip . 2) {
    \vspace #3
    \score {
      <<
        \new ChordNames \chordNames
        \new Lyrics \words
      >>
      \layout { \common-layout }
    }
    \hspace #8
    \score {
      <<
        \new ChordNames \chordNames
        \new Lyrics \words
      >>
      \layout { \common-layout }
    }
  } }
%%%%

Note that I included the fix for the affinity warning, since lyrics by 
default have an UP affinity whereas chords are DOWN.  Also, I changed 
the alignment of lyrics to LEFT to match the default for chord, so it is 
clearer when chord changes align with words.  But that is more of a 
personal preference.

P.S.  As advised earlier, we should really move any more non-bug 
discussion to lilypond-user.

-- Aaron Hill