B.19 Grobs and their break-align symbols

The ordering and spacing of notational elements like clefs, time signatures, bar lines, etc., is determined using certain Scheme symbols, the so-called break-align symbols. More precisely, their ordering is determined by lists of break-align symbols in the BreakAlignment.break-align-orders vector (see break-alignment-interface); their spacing is controlled by the space-alist properties of the respective grobs, whose elements are in turn indexed by break-align symbols: For instance, the spacing of a Clef grob to a bar line following it is determined by the value of Clef.space-alist.staff-bar.

This table lists the default correspondence between break-align symbols and grobs:

break-align symbolused by grob(s)
ambitusAmbitus
breathing-signBreathingSign
clefClef
cue-clefCueClef
cue-end-clefCueEndClef
custosCustos
key-cancellationKeyCancellation
key-signatureKeySignature
left-edgeLeftEdge
optional-material-end-bracketOptionalMaterialBracket
optional-material-start-bracketOptionalMaterialBracket
signum-repetitionisSignumRepetitionis
staff-barSpanBar, DoublePercentRepeat, Divisio and BarLine
staff-ellipsisStaffEllipsis
time-signatureTimeSignature

Furthermore, there are three abstract break-align symbols that may be used in space-alist definitions, namely first-note, next-note and right-edge. For details, see the documentation of the space-alist grob property in break-aligned-interface.

The next table lists the break-align symbol used by each grob:

Grobbreak-align symbol(s)
Ambitusambitus
BarLinestaff-bar
BreathingSignbreathing-sign
Clefclef
CueClefcue-clef
CueEndClefcue-end-clef
Custoscustos
Divisiostaff-bar
DoublePercentRepeatstaff-bar
KeyCancellationkey-cancellation
KeySignaturekey-signature
LeftEdgeleft-edge
OptionalMaterialBracketoptional-material-start-bracket and optional-material-end-bracket
SignumRepetitionissignum-repetitionis
SpanBarstaff-bar
StaffEllipsisstaff-ellipsis
TimeSignaturetime-signature

LilyPond Notation Reference v2.25.80 (development-branch).