User manual

Table Of Contents
RELATED LINKS
Optical spacing for cross-staff beams on page 519
Creating cross-staff beams on page 518
Staff spacing
The vertical positioning of staves and systems within frames is known as staff spacing. Staff
spacing calculations consider the height of staves and the necessary gaps between staves and
systems.
You can change the default vertical and staff spacing settings for each layout independently
on the
Vertical Spacing page in Setup > Layout Options.
The options available allow you to set your ideal spacing, which Dorico SE then produces as
closely as possible. We recommend familiarizing yourself with the available vertical spacing
options.
RELATED LINKS
Staff size on page 342
Staves on page 801
Changing the default staff/system spacing on page 334
Changing the staff spacing in galley view on page 366
Changing the default staff size on page 334
Note spacing on page 362
Per-layout vertical spacing options
Dorico SE provides multiple options that you can use to control the default vertical spacing and
justication of staves and systems in each layout.
You can access per-layout vertical spacing options by choosing Setup > Layout Options and
clicking Vertical Spacing in the page list.
The Vertical Spacing page contains the following sections and options:
Ideal Gaps
Contains multiple scenarios that allow you to set the gap you want Dorico SE to allow
between staves and systems in the corresponding context, including the default
scaling of these gaps in galley view, as Dorico SE does not automatically avoid collisions
between staves and items in galley view. The options are accompanied by diagrams to
help you visualize the contexts to which each option applies.
We recommend setting the ideal gaps to the minimum value acceptable to you
because Dorico SE never reduces the gap between staves to less than your set values.
Setting smaller values gives Dorico SE greater exibility when determining staff
spacing, particularly in very full frames, such as reducing the space between staves
with no dynamics to allow more space between staves with dynamics. Similarly, we
recommend setting vertical spacing options after you have
nished inputting notes
and items, as this allows you to consider the entire project when setting these options.
Depending on the context, the options are affected by automatic vertical justication in
different ways:
Staff to staff, Staff group to staff, Staff to staff group, Staff group to staff
group, Inter-system gap, and Timecode staff to staff
These gaps do not apply in frames that are automatically justied.
Braced staff to braced staff and Ossia staff to staff
These gaps always apply, including in frames that are automatically justied,
because braced and ossia staves are never justied. This includes extra staves.
Layout and formatting
Staff spacing
364
Dorico SE 3.1.10