Re: ChordNames default font

[David Kastrup]

Martin Tarenskeen <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I find the default choice of font and fontsize for ChordNames
> extremely ugly. I know, it's a matter of personal taste.

No, it isn't.  Fonts are designed for purposes.  The purpose of a
running text font is to group into words as visual subunits of the
larger units of line with a nice baseline and a consistent grayness
level and reasonably defined left and right borders.

Chord names, in contrast, are small units of few letters each without
baselines and without the need to form rectangular units.  The letters
composing chord names don't assemble into words, but rather are of
independent importance, and the digits are often subscripted, come in a
different size, and compose differently.  So any features of the letters
that are supposed to let them better form into words rather than setting
them standalone are a distraction.

Lyrics are more closely related to running text fonts, but their visual
grouping is more into words and syllables rather than whole lines.  It
might make some sense to give them a stronger baseline in order to make
them connect better visually.

At any rate, the overall angularity and vertical and horizontal strength
and stroke weight and grayness needs to harmonize with the notes, so it
does not make sense to use hairlines and similar niceties.

Calling all that a matter of "personal taste" means ignoring the art of
typography and font design.  There are objective criteria that play into
this, and LilyPond's default choice of text fonts _particularly_ with
regard (but not restricted) to chord names fails to cater for them quite
spectacularly.

-- 
David Kastrup