Default dynamic positioning
When a user double clicks on a dynamic marking with a note selected, MuseScore displays the dynamic too far to the right. This positioning requires readjustment, because it is inserted after the selected note. A performer would likely wonder whether this dynamic marking is associated with the first or second note in that measure. Moving this automatic placement slightly to the left would make things much less ambiguous, and allow composers to insert dynamic markings much more quickly.
Comments
I once brought up the subject of better placement for objects (link ).
Can someone make an actual proposal on this? "automatic placement slightly to the left " how much? any reference? would it be ok to center the dynamic below the chords (it's what finale does). Or should we do something else?
Here is an example by modifying the dynamics text style to "center"
Lilypond seems to do something clever.
Your centre (which appears to be centred on the stem) looks a bit too far left. Lillypond may be doing something clever or it may just be centring on the centre of the notehead. Since the eye is automatically drawn to the notehead and not the stem I thin centring on the notehead looks better.
I think that this looks nice, but I don't know if the complexity is worth it:
http://matthewmaslanka.blogspot.de/2012/02/optimal-horizontal-dynamics-…
I like lasconic's Lilypond positioning, but the ff is a bit too far right for my eyes. The centered dynamic actually doesn't look bad, and (according to the link) follows Gould's suggestion too.
Interesting link! Thanks! Here are two screenshots from the current development version 0a0a42c1d8
First one is the current default, and we can agree it's bad.
This is a couple of clicks away. Style -> Text -> Dynamics -> Center
If you want to play, find attached the mscz file.
Centering with an x offset of 0.00 (your version above) looks nice for the half notes, but not for the whole notes. An x offset of -0.50 looks nice for whole notes, but not half notes. Maybe x offset -0.30 is a good compromise?
(Taken with 5ce7e096f4)
I changed the default position of dynamics to center on notehead for upstem and to center on stem + 0.25 * note head width to the right for downstem.
Placement after the previous fix. Note that the font changed as well.