Re: Choosing among Versions of Sabon

> > You should hopefully see how using Garamond fonts reduce the space the 
lyrics
> > take, having them affect spacing less (requiring less breaks).
> 
> I find that comparison quite skewed. The Garamond fonts look a lot
> smaller compared to “LilyPond serif”, and their thinner lines make them
> much less clear for lyrics. I’m not a professional typographer, but from
> my experience Garamond is only a sensible choice for lyrics in very
> specific circumstances, like small music examples in lots of Garamond
> body text, or music printed at very large sizes with priority on beauty.
> Much as I love Garamond and think it’s the greatest font of all time…
> 
> Best, Simon

That is a fair point. The Garamond uses more space for ascenders and 
descenders, making the lining height some 12% smaller than Century Schoolbook. 
But even if we correct for that the Garamond is going to run narrower than 
Century Schoolbook.

By the way this is somewhat to be expected, since the typical Century 
Schoolbook digitalizations are base on the 10pt cuts I think and Garamonds are 
based on 11pt or 12pt cuts (which is also why the default font in Lilypond 
looks a bit unelegant in larger sizes).

In my opinion this also kind of determines when it is a sensible choice to use 
Garamond in lyrics: It makes sense for large fontsize scores. Lilypond’s 
Lyrics size is 12.35pt at default staff height of 20pt. Considering an optimal 
range of 11pt-12pt for a typical Garamond it only makes sense to use Garamond 
for scores above maybe 17pt staff height.

But both Garamond Premier Pro and EB Garamond feature a version based on 8pt 
cuts, which can be used for smaller scores.

I have redone the example at Lyrics font size at 11pt for default font, and 
surely that looks better on that scale.

Also I have attached a direct side by side comparison, matched to the same 
lining height. This showcases how using Garamond the lyrics just need a bit 
less space.

Generally I am honestly typographically not a big fan of Lilypond’s approach 
to just scale fontsize proportionally to system size. Fonts are designed for 
certain print sizes, and scaling a lot above and below does not make a lot of 
sense — typographically I would rather like to print text in certain sizes 
compatible with the fonts. Lilypond’s font system should at the same time be 
capabable of properly using optical sizes (it is doing so for music font), but 
this is not exposed to the text font interface.

Cheers,
Tina

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