Staff and leger line thicknesses

[hautbois baryton]

Hi folks, I was finding my staff lines and leger lines in Dorico to be a bit spindly, so I increased their size a bit.

Would you mind checking out this sample page and letting me know if it looks okay, or if the increased thickness is distracting/ugly/etc.?

[David Ward]

These are most certainly not too thick or distracting for me. However, I'm commenting as a composer (and one time performer) rather than as a professional engraver.

[MichelRE]

the time signatures look strange to my eye, a bit too large. I prefer them to fit the staff exactly.

that said, I find the staff lines and ledger lines very nice. what setting did you use? I'm considering making that sort of change as well.

[hautbois baryton]

the time signatures look strange to my eye, a bit too large. I prefer them to fit the staff exactly.

that said, I find the staff lines and ledger lines very nice. what setting did you use? I'm considering making that sort of change as well.

My current settings are:
Engraving options > Barlines > Design - Thin Barlines == 2/25 spaces
Engraving options > Staves > Staff Lines == 1/8 spaces
Engraving options > Ledger Lines - Line thickness == 1/6 spaces

[jrethorst]

I think that settings in the .json file for the font you're using can affect staff line thickness if, when you choose the font from the Music Fonts menu in Dorico, you check the box to Use Font's Recommended Engraving Options.

[John Ruggero]

The staff lines, bar lines (particularly) and even the slurs still look thin to me compared to what I am getting in Dorico using the Bravura music font. So as jrethorst said, it probably has some thing to do with the font you are using. And I also find the outsized time signatures calling attention to themselves and quite distracting.

[MichelRE]

these are my settings right now:

thin barlines 4/25
staff lines 3/20
ledger lines 1/5

[Fred G. Unn]

My current settings are:
Engraving options > Barlines > Design - Thin Barlines == 2/25 spaces
Engraving options > Staves > Staff Lines == 1/8 spaces

I would definitely increase the thin barline thickness. The eye perceives vertical lines differently than horizontal, so barlines actually need to be thicker than staff lines just to appear the same to the reader.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6802759/

[jrethorst]

I opened Bravura.json, a file that's installed with Bravura, in BBEdit. The first section is pasted below. You can open the json file that comes with the font you're using and compare the specs.

{
"fontName":"Bravura",
"fontVersion":1.392,
"engravingDefaults":{
"arrowShaftThickness":0.16,
"barlineSeparation":0.4,
"beamSpacing":0.25,
"beamThickness":0.5,
"bracketThickness":0.5,
"dashedBarlineDashLength":0.5,
"dashedBarlineGapLength":0.25,
"dashedBarlineThickness":0.16,
"hBarThickness":1.0,
"hairpinThickness":0.16,
"legerLineExtension":0.4,
"legerLineThickness":0.16,
"lyricLineThickness":0.16,
"octaveLineThickness":0.16,
"pedalLineThickness":0.16,
"repeatBarlineDotSeparation":0.16,
"repeatEndingLineThickness":0.16,
"slurEndpointThickness":0.1,
"slurMidpointThickness":0.22,
"staffLineThickness":0.13,
"stemThickness":0.12,
"subBracketThickness":0.16,
"textEnclosureThickness":0.16,
"textFontFamily":[
"Academico",
"Century Schoolbook",
"Edwin",
"serif"
],
"thickBarlineThickness":0.5,
"thinBarlineThickness":0.16,
"tieEndpointThickness":0.1,
"tieMidpointThickness":0.22,
"tupletBracketThickness":0.16
},

[David Ward]

I didn't even notice the time signatures, but, yes, they do look a bit large. In the years (decades) when I hand copied many of my own parts, I always made time signatures larger than the staves. However, in typeset music that does seem to look a bit wrong.

I too would not object if the stave, ledger and barlines were all a little heavier; so it's quite pleasing that the experts seem to think the same.