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Cancelled Key Before Barline:

 

I see this enough in Classical music (and some modern Japanese publications) to consider requesting it. I prefer it over the common way of jumbling the cancelled key and new key together as it is cleaner and easier to read. Also, it should be noted that when changing from any key to a neutral key (C/am) that the naturals are placed after the barline, being that it is the new key.

 

Accidentals Spacing on Key Signatures:

I prefer (not sure how anyone else feels about this) a somewhat loose spacing of naturals, a relatively tight spacing of sharps and a slightly tighter spacing of flats. Would it be possible to space key-signature accidentals on a character basis rather than an all encompassing one. At least to the eye, I feel that sharps, flats, and naturals each take up different amounts of space. It would be ideal also to make these spacing options definable for accidentals on notes under the [Accidentals] Document Options.

 

Space Within Multi-character Accidentals:

The documentation for this reads:

This number sets the distance between accidentals that appear on the same line or space. In general, this parameter only occurs in nonstandard key signatures where there are so many sharps or flats that triple sharps and flats are introduced, or where triple sharps or flats appear on a note in the score; in each case, this measurement defines the distance between the double-sharp (or double-flat) symbol and the next sharp or flat to its left.

 

However, it appears to space ALL key-signature accidentals, and in standard keys.

 

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Hi George and all:

 

Interesting discussion. I will research this topic and add stories to our backlog as appropriate. We don't have immediate plans for enhancements in the key signature area other than the checkbox we added recently to allow individual control over Cancelling the key when switching between sharps and flats found in Document Options - Key Signatures.

 

Cheers,

Michael Johnson

VP, Professional Notation

MakeMusic

 

 

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The current convention, as I understand it, is not to cancel an outgoing key signature (other than when changing to Cmaj or Amin.)

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I agree. Gould calls the  naturals-before-the-barline style the "old Russian" system. (p. 92)

All styles of key signature cancellation should be possible, even though I think Mike (and Gould) are correct about much current practice.

But I would add:

Complete control over the spacing of key signatures both on a global and individual basis. For example, there are cases where  a single end-of-line key key signature needs compression as the best way to solve spacing issues on that line.

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