Re: Balanced page turns?

Tina Petzel <[email protected]> Sun, 28 Jun 2026 15:57:56 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Hello Eric,

> I have a large collection of short scores, most of which fit on one or two
> pages. I'm trying to understand how to control page turns.  I've added
> explicit \pageBreak commands to some scores, but I would like to find a way
> for LilyPond to balance the pages when it does automatic page breaking.
> That is, if a score is, say, 9 systems long, I would like to put 5 systems
> on one page and 4 systems on the other page, rather than 8 and 1 as it does
> now if I don't intervene.

Lilypond actually does this by default, but it allows for the last page to be 
filled only partially. This is a sensible default for very short scores, since 
it avoids e.g. 2 systems being spaced really far apart on one page, but it is 
usually something you switch off on longer stuff. So see here:

%%%
\book {
  % Systems are spaced more or less evenly across pages,
  % but last page may be filled only partially,
  % so last system has is on second page
  
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
}

\book {
  % Systems are spaced more or less evenly across pages,
  % including last page, so all system are fitted on
  % a single page
  
  \paper {
    ragged-last-bottom = ##f
  }
  
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
}

\book {
  % Increasing number of systems compresses spacing ...
  
  \paper {
    ragged-last-bottom = ##f
  }
  
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
}

\book {
  % ... until systems are evenly distributed among
  % two pages
  
  \paper {
    ragged-last-bottom = ##f
  }
  
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
}

\book {
  % The compression behaviour is determined by the
  % system-system-spacing paper variable. So if
  % default compresses too much before spreading
  % to two pages we can tweak this:
  
  \paper {
    ragged-last-bottom = ##f
    % default 8, for distance between scores
    score-system-spacing.minimum-distance = 10
    % default 8, for distance bewteen systems
    % of the same score
    system-system-spacing.minimum-distance = 10
  }
  
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
  { 1 1 1 }
}
%%%

Cheers,
Tina
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