LilyPond — Changes

This document lists changes and new features in LilyPond version 2.25.4 since 2.24.

Note: LilyPond releases can contain syntax changes, which may require modifications in your existing files written for older versions so that they work in the new version. To upgrade files, it is strongly recommended to use the convert-ly tool distributed with LilyPond, which is described in Updating files with convert-ly. convert-ly can perform almost all syntax updates automatically. Frescobaldi users can run convert-ly directly from Frescobaldi using “Tools > Update with convert-ly…”. Other editing environments with LilyPond support may provide a way to run convert-ly graphically.

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Major changes in LilyPond

Margins are now wider by default following the general layout of several publishers (and the recommendations of Elaine Gould).
In order to switch back to the previous settings (e.g., to keep the same layout when upgrading an existing score to version 2.25.4), add the following code:
```
\paper {
  top-margin = 5\mm
  bottom-margin = 10\mm
  top-system-spacing.basic-distance = 1
  top-markup-spacing.basic-distance = 0
  left-margin = 10\mm
  right-margin = 10\mm
  inner-margin = 10\mm
  outer-margin = 20\mm
  binding-offset = 0\mm
}
```
Instead of generating PostScript or SVG output by itself, LilyPond can now use the Cairo library to produce its output. This is referred to as the ‘Cairo backend’, and can be turned on using the -dbackend=cairo command-line option. This works for all output formats (PDF, SVG, PNG, PostScript), and brings speed and rendering fidelity improvements in SVG output in particular. However, keep in mind that this backend does not yet implement all features of the default backends. Among the features not currently supported are PDF outlines, the -dembed-source-code option for PDF, and the output-attributes property for SVG.

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[ < Major changes in LilyPond ]	[ Up : Top ]	[ Pitches improvements > ]

New for musical notation

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[ < New for musical notation ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Rhythm improvements > ]

Pitches improvements

None so far.

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[ < Pitches improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Expressive mark improvements > ]

Rhythm improvements

The new option span-all-note-heads may be used to make tuplet brackets span all note heads (not just the stems) as recommended by Gould and Ross.

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Expressive mark improvements

Two new variant glyphs for breathing signs are available: ‘laltcomma’ and ‘raltcomma’. These glyphs represent the old shapes of ‘lcomma’ and ‘rcomma’, respectively, before changing them to more common shapes.
```
{
  \override BreathingSign.text =
    \markup { \musicglyph "scripts.raltcomma" }
  f'2 \breathe f' |
}
```

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[ < Expressive mark improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Editorial annotation improvements > ]

Repeat improvements

\repeat volta alternative endings no longer create invisible bar lines. This may affect line breaking, horizontal spacing, and VoltaBracket extent where an alternative begins or ends without a bar line. In the case of an undesired change, try adding \bar "" or another command that creates a BarLine at that point.
Using the new printInitialRepeatBar property, it is possible to make a start repeat bar line automatically printed even at the beginning of the piece.

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[ < Repeat improvements ]	[ Up : New for musical notation ]	[ Text and font improvements > ]

Editorial annotation improvements

NoteName grobs are now horizontally centered by default.

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Text and font improvements

The syntax for customizing text and music fonts has been changed. Instead of

\paper {
  #(define fonts
     (set-global-fonts
       #:music "Name of music font"
       #:brace "Name of music brace font"
       #:roman "Name of roman font"
       #:sans "Name of sans-serif font"
       #:typewriter "Name of typewriter font"))
}

\paper {
  #(define fonts
     (make-pango-font-tree
       "Name of roman font"
       "Name of sans-serif font"
       "Name of typewriter font"
       factor))
}

the new syntax is

\paper {
  fonts.music = "Name of music font"
  fonts.roman = "Name of roman font"
  fonts.sans = "Name of sans-serif font"
  fonts.typewriter = "Name of typewriter font"
}

Unlike the previous syntax, the new syntax does not interfere with font sizes, which should be set separately using set-global-staff-size or layout-set-staff-size.

There is no brace key in the fonts alist; braces glyphs now always default to the music font. However, it is still possible to override this by using an extra font family, as shown in this example (which requires the LilyJAZZ font):

\paper {
  fonts.music-alt = "lilyjazz"
}

\layout {
  \context {
    \Score
    \override SystemStartBrace.font-family = #'music-alt
  }
}

\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff { c' }
  \new Staff { c' }
>>

\markup \override #'(font-family . music-alt) \left-brace #20

The \lookup markup command can now only be used for braces; for other glyphs, use the \musicglyph command. Instead of \lookup, it is also generally recommended to use \left-brace.
In markup, when a music font is used (such as for dynamic markings), a glyph absent from the music font was previously rendered in a normal text font. This is no longer the case; a warning about the missing glyph is output instead. In order to use a text font, use the \text markup command. For example:
```
dolceP =
#(make-dynamic-script
  #{
    \markup {
      \text \normal-weight dolce
      p
    }
  #})

{ c'\dolceP }
```
Small caps are now achieved by overriding font-variant to small-caps instead of overriding font-shape to caps. Since font-shape is primarily for achieving italics, this change makes it possible to use small caps and italics at the same time.
The font-series property is now more flexible and allows to specify values such as semibold and light instead of only normal and bold.
The medium value is now an intermediate value between normal and bold rather than an equivalent of normal. Accordingly, the \medium markup command has been renamed to \normal-weight.
The new font-stretch property allows selecting a condensed or expanded font.
The text of a VoltaBracket grob, as set by \override Score.VoltaBracket.text = … or \set Score.repeatCommands = …, is no longer automatically typeset in a music font; use the \volta-number markup command on those parts that need to be. For example, convert
```
\set Score.repeatCommands = #'((volta "2, 5"))
```
to
```
\set Score.repeatCommands =
  #`((volta ,#{ \markup {
                  \concat { \volta-number 2 , }
                  \volta-number 5 }
            #}))
```

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New for specialist notation

For orthogonality with other ancient clefs, five new mensural clefs are available: "mensural-f2", "mensural-f3", "mensural-f4" (same as "mensural-f"), "mensural-f5", "mensural-g1", "mensural-g2" (same as "mensural-g").
The default time signature and accidental style in a PetrucciStaff context is now the same as in MensuralStaff.

White mensural ligatures now support some rare ligatures (semibreves alone or in the middle), and allow tweaks to show some non-necessary stems.

\score {
  \relative {
    \set Score.timing = ##f
    \set Score.measureBarType = #'()
    \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci
    \override Staff.TimeSignature.style = #'mensural
    \clef "petrucci-c4"
    \[ a1 g f e \]
    \[ a1 g\longa \]
    \[ \once \override NoteHead.left-down-stem = ##t
       a\breve b
       \once \override NoteHead.right-down-stem = ##t
       g\longa \]
    \[ \once \override NoteHead.right-down-stem = ##t
       b\maxima
       \once \override NoteHead.right-up-stem = ##t
       g\longa \]
  }
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Voice
      \remove Ligature_bracket_engraver
      \consists Mensural_ligature_engraver
    }
  }
}

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Miscellaneous improvements

Embedding PNG images is now supported using the new \image markup command. This supplements the existing \epsfile command for EPS images.
\image works for both PNG and EPS images. For EPS images, the difference between using \image and \epsfile is that \image adds a white background by default, while \epsfile does not.
The new \qr-code markup command inserts a QR code of the specified size for the specified URL. This can be used to link to, e.g., the website of a composer or publisher, the LilyPond source files for the score, recordings, etc.
```
\markup \qr-code #10 "https://lilypond.org"
```