Re: Whiteout staff lines behind beams

[Werner LEMBERG]

> When a beam group (especially 1/16 or shorter) crosses a staff line, it can
> create some annoying skinny triangles that can be visually
> distracting.  [...]
>
> Is there a way to turn the stencil into a composite of the original
> with a big block of whiteout that follows the entire group's outer
> skyline so it hides the staff lines? Would be a nice feature, IMO.
> I know the stems can be "frenched", but would be cool if the staff
> lines could be instead.

I think this is the wrong approach.  In classical typsetting, it
wasn't common to remove already engraved staff lines, and the engraver
always started with drawing the staff lines.

What's needed IMHO is an improved algorithm to better quantize
vertical start and end positions of beams so that the number of
grazing intersections is reduced and/or optimized.

But maybe I'm wrong, and the approach you suggest produces more
legible scores – at the cost of maybe a somewhat strange, non-standard
look.

BTW, do you know whether the feature you suggest is available in other
score writing programs?


    Werner