Structure of flexible vertical spacing alists

Each of the flexible vertical spacing \paper variables is an alist (association list) containing four keys:

If a page has a ragged bottom, the resulting distance is the largest of:

For multi-page scores with a ragged bottom on the last page, the last page uses the same spacing as the preceding page, provided there is enough space for that.

Specific methods for modifying alists are discussed in Modifying alists. The following example demonstrates the two ways these alists can be modified. The first declaration updates one key value individually, and the second completely redefines the variable:

\paper {
  system-system-spacing.basic-distance = 8
  score-system-spacing =
    #'((basic-distance . 12)
       (minimum-distance . 6)
       (padding . 1)
       (stretchability . 12))
}

LilyPond Notation Reference v2.25.20 (development-branch).