reference.book Page 259 Monday, August 31, 2009 2:47 PM
3.9 Edit Text Styles Here’s some advice on redesigning the main text styles in good taste: Expression: use an italic non-bold font (except for dynamics such as mf, which should use a spe
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cial music text font such as Opus Text). Technique: use a non-italic non-bold font. Lyrics line 1: Times New Roman and Times have the virtue of being unusually narrow, so using them for lyrics causes least disruption to the note spacing. Another classic font for lyrics is Plantin, used by Oxford University Press. If you’re writing a second line of lyrics for a translation or a chorus, it’s normal to use italics. For second, third etc. verses, use non-italics. Chord Symbol: by default this uses the specially-designed font Opus Chords (or Reprise Chords or Inkpen2 Chords, depending on the house style). You could substitute another medium font, possibly a sans serif one, but beware that some chord symbols require special characters not provided in ordinary text fonts. Title, Subtitle, Composer, Lyricist, Dedication: for the main title and perhaps subtitle, you can set the font and size to almost anything you like. For the composer, lyricist and dedication, you should normally use the same font and a similar size to Technique, but with the dedication normally in italics. Tempo and Metronome mark: the sizes of these styles vary quite widely from score to score. Tempo is almost always in a bold font and larger than Metronome mark, which is usually in a non-bold font. Instruments: you may just be able to get away with a tasteful sans serif font, but proceed with caution. Bar numbers: usually in italics. You can add a box to draw attention to the numbers, but in this case use a non-italic font. (Italics might crash into the box.) Page numbers: use a non-bold non-italic font. 3.6 Page numbers for advice on positioning. Rehearsal marks: preferably use a bold font for clarity, but not italics (they might collide with the box). It often looks good to use the same font as the main title, even if it is an unusual font. You can omit the box, but to do so is outdated for the very good reason that rehearsal marks without a box are not visible enough. Time signatures: by default these use the Opus, Helsinki, Reprise or Inkpen2 font. You could substitute another standard music font, or even a bold text font. If you try this, you may need to adjust the line spacing on the Vertical posn tab. Tuplets: an italic serif font is normal, though non-italic and/or sans serif are sometimes seen in modern scores that use lots of tuplets. Other text styles: preferably match similar text styles above, e.g. you should make Boxed text and Footnote identical or similar to Technique. Symbols styles (e.g. Common symbols, Percussion instruments): these styles specify the font used for music symbols, so they’re not like other text. 8.11 Music fonts for advice, and don’t change these styles unless you know what you’re doing.