Re: Reducing top margin for a single page in a score

[Aaron Hill]

On 2019-02-03 9:40 pm, Andrew Bernard wrote:
> I am doing a long string quartet. The full score sits nicely in the 
> middle
> of an A4 landscape page with a generous top margin. But there's a solo
> viola part that's very dense and the staves fill out the whole page 
> very
> tightly right to the bottom, and it looks clumsy because there is lots 
> of
> space at the top margin not able to be utilised.
>
> Is it possible to alter the top margin for just a single page in the 
> midst
> of a score where it is otherwise OK?

It is my understanding that the \paper settings apply at the \book (or 
\bookpart) level.  You cannot set them per \score, much less set them 
within a \score.  Consider:

%%%%
\version "2.19.82"
\paper { #(set-paper-size "a7landscape") indent = 0 tagline = ##f }

%% This will not work.  Only the second \paper setting will apply.
\paper { top-margin = 2.5\cm }
\score { \repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d e f } }
\paper { top-margin = 0.5\cm }
\score { \repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d e f } }

%% This will work, as each \bookpart can have unique \paper blocks.
\bookpart {
  \paper { top-margin = 2.5\cm }
  \score { \repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d e f } }
}
\bookpart {
  \paper { top-margin = 0.5\cm }
  \score { \repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d e f } }
}
%%%%

The way I would approach solving this is using the stretchability 
feature to automatically divide the excess space on a page between the 
top and bottom, effectively centering the content vertically.

%%%%
\version "2.19.82"

\paper {
  #(set-paper-size "a6landscape")
  indent = 0 tagline = ##f

  top-markup-spacing.stretchability = 10
  top-system-spacing.stretchability = 10
  markup-system-spacing.stretchability = 1
  system-system-spacing.stretchability = 1
  last-bottom-spacing.stretchability = 10
}

\repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d' e' f' } \pageBreak
\repeat unfold 16 { c'4 d' e' f' } \pageBreak
\markup "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit."
\repeat unfold 8 { c'4 d' e' f' }
%%%%

Note that when you have top-level markup at the beginning of a page, it 
will be combination of top-markup-spacing and markup-system-spacing that 
decides where the first system will fall.  Otherwise, top-system-spacing 
applies when the system is first.


-- Aaron Hill