| [ << Changing defaults ] | [Top][Contents][Index] | [ Notation manual tables >> ] |
| [ < The direction property ] | [ Up : Useful concepts and properties ] | [ Dimensions > ] |
5.4.2 Distances and measurements
Distances in LilyPond are of two types: absolute and scaled.
Absolute distances are used for specifying margins, indents, and
other page layout details, and are by default specified in
millimeters. In general, distance units may be specified by
appending \mm (millimeter), \cm (centimeter),
\in (inches), \pt (points), or \bp (big
points).
| mm | cm | in | pt | bp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mm | 1 | 0.1 | 0.0394 | 2.8453 | 2.8346 |
| cm | 10 | 1 | 0.3937 | 28.4528 | 28.3465 |
| in | 25.4 | 2.54 | 1 | 72.27 | 72 |
| pt | 0.3515 | 0.0351 | 0.0138 | 1 | 0.996 |
| bp | 0.3538 | 0.0354 | 0.0139 | 1.0038 | 1 |
Page layout distances can also be specified in scalable units (see
the following paragraph) by appending \staff-space to the
quantity. See Page layout for a detailed description of
LilyPond’s page layout.
Scaled distances are always specified in units of the staff space
or, rarely, the half staff space. The staff space is the distance
between two adjacent staff lines. The default value can be changed
globally by setting the global staff size, or it can be overridden
locally by changing the staff-space property of
StaffSymbol. Scaled distances automatically scale with any
change to the either the global staff size or the
staff-space property of StaffSymbol, but fonts scale
automatically only with changes to the global staff size.
The global staff size thus enables the overall size of a rendered
score to be easily varied. For the methods of setting the global
staff size see Setting the staff size.
If just a section of a score needs to be rendered to a different
scale, for example an ossia section or a footnote, the global staff
size cannot simply be changed as this would affect the entire score.
In such cases the change in size is made by overriding both the
staff-space property of StaffSymbol and the size of
the fonts. A Scheme function, magstep, is available to
convert from a font size change to the equivalent change in
staff-space. For an explanation and an example of its use,
see
Length and thickness of objects.
See also
Learning Manual: Length and thickness of objects.
Notation Reference: Page layout, Setting the staff size.
| [ << Changing defaults ] | [Top][Contents][Index] | [ Notation manual tables >> ] |
| [ < The direction property ] | [ Up : Useful concepts and properties ] | [ Dimensions > ] |