Difficulties encountered while making snippets (to be used as musical quotations inside an article)

[Jean-Luc Chevillard]

Dear list members,

greetings.

I have three questions (A, B and C),
which come at the end of a lengthy explanation
and which precede a sample file
(TIP1952_(item_33).ly).

I have been experiencing some difficulties
while trying to create "snippets",
which means for me small musical quotations
which I want to include in some articles
which I am writing.

I include below, at the bottom of this message,
an example of a LilyPond file, called "TIP1952_(item_33).ly",
which is a transcription in "western countries" notation
of a document originally published in Tamil
(using the sa-ri-ga-ma ... [or ச-ரி-க-ம- ...] system).


I had to specify the font to be used because the default fonts of 
LilyPond do not have all the characters with diacritics required:
the characters contained inside the Unicode range 1E00–1EFF (Latin 
Extended Additional), such as ṭ, ḷ, ṇ, ḻ, etc.
caused an automatic change of fonts which was not pleasing to the eye.

I have found on the LilyPond website some instructions for making 
images, either in PNG format or in EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format, 
which I implement (in Windows 7) by dragging my ".ly" files on top of 
the icon of a batch command, which can be "snippet_png.bat" or 
"snippet_eps.bat", etc.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****snippet_png.bat ********************************
*****************************************************
"C:\Program Files (x86)\LilyPond\usr\bin\lilypond-windows.exe" 
-dbackend=eps -dno-gs-load-fonts -dinclude-eps-fonts --png %1 %2 %3 %4
*************************************
*************************************
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****snippet_eps.bat ********************************
*****************************************************
"C:\Program Files (x86)\LilyPond\usr\bin\lilypond-windows.exe" 
-dbackend=eps -dno-gs-load-fonts -dinclude-eps-fonts %1 %2 %3 %4
*************************************
*************************************
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I drag "TIP1952_(item_33).ly"
on top of "snippet_png.bat"
in Windows 7
LilyPond creates a PNG file,
called "TIP1952_(item_33).png"
(see attachment)
which is 756 pixels by 311 pixels
and can be immediately, and easily, embedded in a Word file
(but of course it is preferrable to use scalable graphics)

However,
the EPS file created while using "snippet_eps.bat"
is said (by Word) to be impossible to display.

I have also tried to make an SVG file, by creating a batch file
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****snippet_svg.bat ********************************
*****************************************************
"C:\Program Files (x86)\LilyPond\usr\bin\lilypond-windows.exe" 
-dbackend=svg -dno-gs-load-fonts -dinclude-eps-fonts %1 %2 %3 %4
*************************************
*************************************
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(this is somehow an improvisation of mine)


Unfortunately, the SVG file which is created by running this procedure
(see second attached file)
is in A4 format, with a lot of BLANK SPACE, and I have to manually 
modify it (using INKSCAPE) in order for it to contain only what an image 
(to be embedded in an article) should contain.

After that, I use the "Save as" command in INKSCAPE
in order to create an ".EPS" file,
in which "text" has been replaced by "paths"
(so as to avoid the problem caused by the characters inside the Unicode 
range 1E00–1EFF (Latin Extended Additional), which tend to be invisible 
in .EPS files.

I finally obtain an .EPS file which Word accepts
and which prints very nicely.

My questions are the following:

(A) Is it possible to obtain an SVG file with the correct dimensions 
with an appropriate LilyPond command?
(I would like to use such files as graphics for web pages)

(B) Is it possible to directly obtain an EPS file which I can use 
(without using INKSCAPE)?

(C) Is my syntax (in the .LY file below) acceptable?

Thanks for your help!

Best wishes

-- Jean-Luc Chevillard (Paris, and very soon Pondicherry, India)

"https://univ-paris-diderot.academia.edu/JeanLucChevillard";


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TIP1952_(item_33).ly ****************************************
*************************************************************
\version "2.16.0"

\book {


\header{
  title = "Tiruppukaḻ, 3-113_(tuḷḷumata vēḷkaik ...)"
  subtitle = "[transcribed from TIP_XIX, 1952, p. 62]"
  subsubtitle = "Rākam: amcānanti [Mēḷam: 53 (Kamaṉācrama)]"
  tagline = ##f
  }

\score {

\paper {
  myStaffSize = #20

  #(define fonts
    (make-pango-font-tree "Times New Roman"
                          "Nimbus Sans"
                          "Luxi Mono"
     (/ myStaffSize 20)))
}

\relative c'
 {
 \compoundMeter #'((5 1 2 4))
 c4 ^\markup {Kaṇṭa jempai}
 des8[ e] e4 e e
 \bar ":"
 e8[ fis]
 \bar ":"
 e[( des]) e4
  \bar "||"

  e4 fis8[ a] b4 a fis
 \bar ":"
 e8[ fis]
 \bar ":"
 e[( des]) c( b)
  \bar "||"

  e4 fis8[ a] b4 c c
 \bar ":"
 c8[ c]
 \bar ":"
 c16[( b a8]) c4
  \bar "||"

  b4 c8[ b] b[( a) a( fis)] fis( e)
 \bar ":"
 e[ fis]
 \bar ":"
 e[( des]) c( b)
  \bar "||"

  }


  \addlyrics {
tuḷ ḷu ma ta vēḷ kaik  |
ka ṇai  |
yā lē  |

tol lai ne ṭu nī lak  |
ka ṭa  |
lā lē  |

meḷ ḷa va ru cō laik  |
ki yi  |
lā lē  |

mey yu ru ku mā ṉait  |
ta ḻu  |
vā yē  |

}
  \addlyrics {
teḷ ḷu ta miḻ pā ṭat  |
te ḷi  |
vō ṉē  |

cey ya ku ma rē cat  |
ti ṟa  |
lō ṉē  |

vaḷ ḷal to ḻu ñā ṉak  |
ka ḻa  |
lō ṉē  |

vaḷ ḷi ma ṇa vā ḷap  |
pe ru  |
mā ḷē  |

}

  \addlyrics {
TAY YA TA ṈA TĀ ṈAT  |
TA ṈA  |
TĀ ṈA  |


TAY YA TA ṈA TĀ ṈAT  |
TA ṈA  |
TĀ ṈA  |

TAY YA TA ṈA TĀ ṈAT  |
TA ṈA  |
TĀ ṈA  |

TAY YA TA ṈA TĀ ṈAT  |
TA ṈA  |
TĀ ṈA  |


}
}
}

TIP1952_(item_33).png
Description: PNG image

TIP1952_(item_33).svg
Description: image/svg