Strategy for text scaling between score and parts?
I think the improved text styling facilities in 2.0 are what I am looking forward to most in that release. But for now, using I'm wondering if anyone has any methods they would like to share for getting text elements to resize between a score and parts if the scale factors differ. I generally have the "space" unit for my scores set anywhere from 1.0mm to 1.5mm depending on the number of staves I am dealing with and how many systems I want to fit per page. But I always rescale my parts, often to 1.8mm. Some text elements appear to resize automatically upon changing the "space" value, but most don't.
I am getting into a routine after generating parts of going through each and upsizing the rehearsal letters and staff texts, and I can resize all rehearsal letters or all staff texts at once easily enough via the checkbox in the text properties. But I can't find a way to resize all tempo texts at once. Nor can I do the dynamics that don't resize automatically (eg, "crescendo"). Instrument names don't resize either, but that seldom bothers me, because I am not using the instrument names in the parts anyhow.
I suppose I could just enter these texts much too large on the score so they will appear correct in the parts, then I'd only have to resize them in the score for printing. Another thought I had is to not make the scale smaller for my scores in the first place, but to make the paper bigger. Then use the scaling facility in my printer drivers and/or PDF reader to make it fit on letter sized paper. I've also tried looking through the MSCX file to see if there might be a a quick-and-dirty way of doing a global replace on certain font sizes. None of these methods are all that appealing, though. Anyone have other ideas? Any tricks I don't know about?
Comments
Text styles ("Style | Edit text styles") contain a <sizeIsSpatiumDependent> tag; if set to 1, the size should follow spatium ("Scaling" in "Page Settings").
This style property is not exposed in the "Edit text style" dlg box, but can be modified in the .MSCX file (of the score and/or of a template). Many styles have this tag on by default but some didn't.
However, font size is hard-coded in the HTML description of most (all?) text fragments of a score, so probably setting that tag to 1 is not enough, but it is worth trying (this is related to the fact that some text fragments, once entered, do not change any more if their style is modified).
It is perhaps worth noting that ver. 2.0 solves this problem only to some extent: if the text is "styled", it is automatically updated when the relevant text style is changed, but it is enough to set a word of the fragment in italics to have the HTML properties of the whole fragment hard coded again in the score.
No quick and dirty solution, but perhaps some food for thought?
M.
In reply to Just speculating... by Miwarre
Right, the isSpatiumDependent flag is present in the style info as stored in the MSCX file, but it onlly affects how newly placed elements are sized. At least, that is how it appears to me. If I resize the score after placing a text element, the text doesn't resize, whether or not this flag is set in the style.
I'm sure someone comfortable with writing Python scripts or the like could put together a parser for MSCX files that located all font statements and performed the necessary adjustments. Whether it would be worth the trouble or not is another matter.
I'm starting to think I might at least try the solution of making my scores use my preferred space value for parts but on larger paper. Even if I decide I eventually want the score the right size, it would be much less work downsizing all the text elelenents in the score than upsizing it in all parts.
The issue of individual words within a text being set to a different font is indeed also a problem, especially since tempo texts that contain the quarter note symbol are always mixed font. Thus, even if it were possible to use the text properties dialog on tempo text the way I do other text, it would break the quarter notes symbols.