Re: definition of paper

[james]

Am 29.11.2008 um 19:59 schrieb John Sellers:

> In the Learning manual, I searched the one page version for "paper"  
> and found
> that the concept
>
>   \paper {  }
>
> is nowhere defined or explained.

If you're really interested, in section 3.1 How LilyPond input files  
work, there is a brief introduction to these more advanced concepts.

The LilyPond input format is quite free-form, giving experienced  
users a lot of flexibility to structure their files however they  
wish. But this flexibility can make things confusing for new users.  
This section will explain some of this structure, but may gloss over  
some details in favor of simplicity. For a complete description of  
the input format, see File structure.

The link to file structure (in the Notation Reference) goes on to  
say: that, among other things, \paper is "an output definition". And  
that "Such a definition at the toplevel changes the default book-wide  
settings."

Also, since the things that can be placed in a \paper block affect  
spacing, which isn't covered at all in the Learning Manual, the  
relevant section in the Notation Reference re-iterates that a \paper  
block affects scores in a book, and that the global paper layout is  
affected by the \paper block.

I'm not saying that it's a particularly lengthy explanation, but it  
certainly sufficed for me to understand that a \paper block is  
similar to a \layout or \midi block, except that it contains things  
specific to how things are laid out on the paper.