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LilyPond — Changes

This document lists changes and new features in LilyPond version 2.25.10 since 2.24.

Note: LilyPond releases can contain syntax changes, which may require modifications in your existing files written for older versions so that they work in the new version. To upgrade files, it is strongly recommended to use the convert-ly tool distributed with LilyPond, which is described in Updating files with convert-ly. convert-ly can perform almost all syntax updates automatically. Frescobaldi users can run convert-ly directly from Frescobaldi using “Tools > Update with convert-ly…”. Other editing environments with LilyPond support may provide a way to run convert-ly graphically.

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Major changes in LilyPond

Margins are now wider by default following the general layout of several publishers (and the recommendations of Elaine Gould).
In order to switch back to the previous settings (e.g., to keep the same layout when upgrading an existing score to version 2.25.10), add the following code:
```
\paper {
  top-margin = 5\mm
  bottom-margin = 10\mm
  top-system-spacing.basic-distance = 1
  top-markup-spacing.basic-distance = 0
  left-margin = 10\mm
  right-margin = 10\mm
  inner-margin = 10\mm
  outer-margin = 20\mm
  binding-offset = 0\mm
}
```
Instead of generating PostScript or SVG output by itself, LilyPond can now use the Cairo library to produce its output. This is referred to as the ‘Cairo backend’, and can be turned on using the -dbackend=cairo command-line option. This works for all output formats (PDF, SVG, PNG, PostScript), and brings speed and rendering fidelity improvements in SVG output in particular. However, keep in mind that this backend does not yet implement all features of the default backends. Among the features not currently supported are PDF outlines, the -dembed-source-code option for PDF, and the output-attributes property for SVG.

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[ < Major changes in LilyPond ]	[ Up : Top ]	[ Pitches improvements > ]

New for musical notation

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[ < New for musical notation ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Rhythm improvements > ]

Pitches improvements

Certain spurious change clefs have been fixed.
```
{
  R1
  \clef treble
  R1
}
```

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[ < Pitches improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Expressive mark improvements > ]

Rhythm improvements

It is now possible to right-align different types of bar lines.

\new StaffGroup
  <<
    \new Staff { \textMark "default" b1 }
    \new Staff { b1 \section }
  >>

\new StaffGroup
  <<
    \new Staff
      { \textMark "right-aligned" b1 }
    \new Staff
      { b1 \override StaffGroup.BarLine.right-justified = ##t \section }
  >>

Bar checks (|) now implicitly create contexts. The developers deem this unlikely to impact real-world scores. Please report a bug if you find a problem without an obvious workaround.
The new option span-all-note-heads may be used to make tuplet brackets span all note heads (not just the stems) as recommended by Gould and Ross.
Automatic beam subdivision has been reworked. Previously, many imperfections could be found in the results of automatic subdivision of many complex beaming patterns due to overreliance of the value of baseMoment. Now, LilyPond can correctly subdivide most beaming patterns and no longer uses the value of baseMoment to limit beam subdivision. Simply setting subdivideBeams to true now automatically subdivides all intervals by default. 3 new properties have been introduced to tune automatic beam subdivision: minimumBeamSubdivisionInterval, maximumBeamSubdivisionInterval and respectIncompleteBeams. minimumBeamSubdivisionInterval limits subdivision intervals the same way as how baseMoment previously did (reducing frequency of subdivided beams). maximumBeamSubdivisionInterval limits the number of beamlets removed at subdivisions in general. respectIncompleteBeams limits the number of beamlets at subdivisions where the remaining length would not complete the metric value of the subdivision. Setting minimumBeamSubdivisionInterval to the value of baseMoment at all times, even when baseMoment implicitly changes, preserves old behavior.

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[ < Rhythm improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Repeat improvements > ]

Expressive mark improvements

Two new variant glyphs for breathing signs are available: ‘laltcomma’ and ‘raltcomma’. These glyphs represent the old shapes of ‘lcomma’ and ‘rcomma’, respectively, before changing them to more common shapes.
```
{
  \override BreathingSign.text =
    \markup { \musicglyph "scripts.raltcomma" }
  f'2 \breathe f' |
}
```

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[ < Expressive mark improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Editorial annotation improvements > ]

Repeat improvements

\repeat volta alternative endings no longer create invisible bar lines. This may affect line breaking, horizontal spacing, and VoltaBracket extent where an alternative begins or ends without a bar line. In the case of an undesired change, try adding \bar "" or another command that creates a BarLine at that point.
Using the new printInitialRepeatBar property, it is possible to make a start repeat bar line automatically printed even at the beginning of the piece.
The volta number position relative to the the volta bracket can now be adjusted with the volta-number-offset property of VoltaBracket.

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[ < Repeat improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Text and font improvements > ]

Editorial annotation improvements

NoteName grobs are now horizontally centered by default.

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Text and font improvements

The syntax for customizing text and music fonts has been changed. Instead of

\paper {
  #(define fonts
     (set-global-fonts
       #:music "Name of music font"
       #:brace "Name of music brace font"
       #:roman "Name of serif font"
       #:sans "Name of sans-serif font"
       #:typewriter "Name of typewriter font"))
}

\paper {
  #(define fonts
     (make-pango-font-tree
       "Name of serif font"
       "Name of sans-serif font"
       "Name of typewriter font"
       factor))
}

the new syntax is

\paper {
  property-defaults.fonts.music = "Name of music font"
  property-defaults.fonts.serif = "Name of serif font"
  property-defaults.fonts.sans = "Name of sans-serif font"
  property-defaults.fonts.typewriter = "Name of typewriter font"
}

Unlike the previous syntax, the new syntax does not interfere with font sizes, which should be set separately using set-global-staff-size or layout-set-staff-size.

There is no brace key in the fonts alist; braces glyphs now always default to the music font. However, it is still possible to override this by using an extra font family, as shown in this example (which requires the LilyJAZZ font):

\layout {
  \context {
    \Score
    \override SystemStartBrace.fonts.music = "lilyjazz"
  }
}

\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff { c' }
  \new Staff { c' }
>>

\markup \override #'(fonts . ((music . "lilyjazz"))) \left-brace #20

Because fonts is simply a property, it is possible to override it on a per-grob basis, e.g.,

\layout {
  \override Score.SectionLabel.fonts.roman = "Custom font"
}

This is preferable over the already existing font-name property, since the latter makes commands such as \bold ineffective, instead requiring to include “Bold” in the font-name string. Using fonts does not have such effects.

The \lookup markup command can now only be used for braces; for other glyphs, use the \musicglyph command. Instead of \lookup, it is also generally recommended to use \left-brace.
In markup, when a music font is used (such as for dynamic markings), a glyph absent from the music font was previously rendered in a normal text font. This is no longer the case; a warning about the missing glyph is output instead. In order to use a text font, use the \serif, \sans or \typewriter markup commands. For example:
```
dolceP =
#(make-dynamic-script
  #{
    \markup {
      \serif \normal-weight dolce
      p
    }
  #})

{ c'\dolceP }
```
Small caps are now achieved by overriding font-variant to small-caps instead of overriding font-shape to caps. Since font-shape is primarily for achieving italics, this change makes it possible to use small caps and italics at the same time.
The font-series property is now more flexible and allows to specify values such as semibold and light instead of only normal and bold.
The medium value is now an intermediate value between normal and bold rather than an equivalent of normal. Accordingly, the \medium markup command has been renamed to \normal-weight.
The new font-stretch property allows selecting a condensed or expanded font.
The text of a VoltaBracket grob, as set by \override Score.VoltaBracket.text = … or \set Score.repeatCommands = …, is no longer automatically typeset in a music font; use the \volta-number markup command on those parts that need to be. For example, convert
```
\set Score.repeatCommands = #'((volta "2, 5"))
```
to
```
\set Score.repeatCommands =
  #`((volta ,#{ \markup {
                  \concat { \volta-number 2 , }
                  \volta-number 5 }
            #}))
```

In markup, fingerings (\markup \finger) and bass figures (\markup \figured-bass) now get scaled along with normal text when using \fontsize.

myText = \markup {
  The fingering \finger { 5-4 } for a \figured-bass { 7 "6\\" } …
}

\myText
\markup\fontsize #6 \myText

The previous behavior can be restored by setting the global variables legacy-figured-bass-markup-fontsize and legacy-finger-markup-fontsize to true, respectively:

#(set! legacy-figured-bass-markup-fontsize #t)
#(set! legacy-finger-markup-fontsize #t)

myText = \markup {
  The fingering \finger { 4-5 } for a \figured-bass { 5+ 6 } …
}

\myText
\markup\fontsize #6 \myText

For best clarity, the \roman markup command has been renamed to \serif. Likewise, to cancel a setting of the font-family property to sans or typewriter, it should now be set to serif, not roman.
The \text markup command has been removed. Instead, the \serif, \sans or \typewriter markup commands should be used. These commands used to set the font style only if a normal text font was used (not a musical font, such as for dynamics), but now they both set the font style and make a normal text font used.

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[ < Text and font improvements ]	[ Up : Top ]	[ Miscellaneous improvements > ]

New for specialist notation

For orthogonality with other ancient clefs, five new mensural clefs are available: "mensural-f2", "mensural-f3", "mensural-f4" (same as "mensural-f"), "mensural-f5", "mensural-g1", "mensural-g2" (same as "mensural-g").
The default time signature and accidental style in a PetrucciStaff context is now the same as in MensuralStaff.

White mensural ligatures now support some rare ligatures (semibreves alone or in the middle), and allow tweaks to show some non-necessary stems.

\score {
  \relative {
    \set Score.timing = ##f
    \set Score.measureBarType = #'()
    \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci
    \override Staff.TimeSignature.style = #'mensural
    \clef "petrucci-c4"
    \[ a1 g f e \]
    \[ a1 g\longa \]
    \[ \once \override NoteHead.left-down-stem = ##t
       a\breve b
       \once \override NoteHead.right-down-stem = ##t
       g\longa \]
    \[ \once \override NoteHead.right-down-stem = ##t
       b\maxima
       \once \override NoteHead.right-up-stem = ##t
       g\longa \]
  }
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Voice
      \remove Ligature_bracket_engraver
      \consists Mensural_ligature_engraver
    }
  }
}

The use of the gregorian.ly is deprecated. While still working for backward compatibility, it should be replaced with a VaticanaScore context together with some manual \layout changes (if necessary): code like
```
\include "gregorian.ly"

\score {
  \new VaticanaStaff { ... }
}
```
should become
```
\new VaticanaScore {
  \new VaticanaStaff { ... }
}

\layout {
  indent = 0
  ragged-last = ##t
}
```

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Miscellaneous improvements

Embedding PNG images is now supported using the new \image markup command. This supplements the existing \epsfile command for EPS images.
\image works for both PNG and EPS images. For EPS images, the difference between using \image and \epsfile is that \image adds a white background by default, while \epsfile does not.
The new \qr-code markup command inserts a QR code of the specified size for the specified URL. This can be used to link to, e.g., the website of a composer or publisher, the LilyPond source files for the score, recordings, etc.
```
\markup \qr-code #10 "https://lilypond.org"
```
A figure-dash glyph (U+2012) and an en-dash glyph (U+2013) have been added to the Emmentaler fonts.
A figure space (U+2007), a thin space (U+2009), and a hair space (U+200A) have been added to the Emmentaler fonts.
The -dinclude-settings option can now be given multiple times to include several stylesheets.
In the LaTeX backend of lilypond-book, all inline images are now vertically shifted. The amount can be controlled globally with command-line option --inline-vshift and locally with an argument to the snippet option inline.
Two new command-line options -dfirst and -dlast have been introduced; they are equivalent to setting showFirstLength and showLastLength, respectively, in a LilyPond input file. For example, saying
```
lilypond -dlast=R1*5 ...
```
makes LilyPond render only the last five measures (assuming a 4/4 time signature).
A visual index of all LilyPond graphical objects (grobs) is now available as a manual. This is based on Joram Berger’s work for LilyPond 2.19.
The printing of arpeggios has been improved, using new, different default values for the Arpeggio.positions property. Adjustments of this property must probably be updated.
LilyPond provides support for in-notes, i.e., footnote-like annotations between music systems. This isn’t new (it was actually available since version 2.15.17, published in 2011) but it had some flaws and wasn’t documented until now.
The lilysong script has been removed. Besides lacking any documentation, it hasn’t been maintained for a long time. Additionally, it has been using an external speech synthesis program called festival, which is no longer maintained either.
Two new spacing styles are available for the space-alist grob property: shrink-space and semi-shrink-space; these spaces only shrink and don’t stretch. They are also used directly in LilyPond, improving the formatting of tightly spaced staves.
The lilypond binary has a new command-line option -dstaff-size to set the global staff size, equivalent to setting set-global-staff-size in a LilyPond input file.
Instead of the functions \bookOutputName and \bookOutputSuffix we now recommend to use the paper variables output-filename and output-suffix (which are not new but stayed undocumented until now). While the former will work unchanged, the latter is more coherent and easier to understand, especially if combined with predefined paper variables.

For older news, go to https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.22/Documentation/changes/, or go back to the Documentation index.