IWBNI there were a setting that could be used to control the degree to which adjacent horizontal line segments that form the branches of a hairpin are to overlap. As it is now, there is no way to control the degree of overlap.

When digitized, each of the two branches or line segments of a hairpin are represented by a sequence of short adjacent horizontal line segments. The degree to which these adjacent horizontal segments overlap affects the appearance of a hairpin.

For example, consider the following three portions of a hairpin. Each of these 3 images is a section of the top line of a long decrescendo hairpin, for 3 different hairpins. Note: To see the full width of these images, adjust the screen resolution to be at least 968 pixels wide (e.g. 1024x768).
 
 
 

These examples have the following characteristics:

• Example 1: No Overlap: There are 4 horizontal line segments each of which has a length of 240 pixels, and there is no overlap between these segments. Hairpins that are drawn in this way will exhibit the classic "staircase effect". Note: This style is used to display hairpins in the Finale document window.

 
• Example 2: 10% Overlap: The horizontal line segments are 266 pixels long and they overlap by 26 pixels or roughly 10%=(26/266)%. Hairpins that are drawn in this way will appear to have blobs of ink regularly spaced every 192 pixels along the length of each branch in the areas where the horizontal segments overlap. Note: This style has been observed on the Windows platform in PDF files created by printing from Finale to the Acrobat Distiller Printer with the entry "OwnPS=0" in the Settings section of file Finale.ini.

 
• Example 3: 44% Overlap: The horizontal line segments are 432 pixels long and they overlap by 192 pixels or roughly 44%=(192/432)%. Hairpins that are drawn in this way will be very attractive. Each hairpin branch will have a even thickness along its length with a slight degree of waviness with waves having a length of 192 pixels. Note: This style has been observed on the Windows platform in PDF files created by printing from Finale to the Acrobat Distiller Printer with no OwnPS entry in the Settings section of file Finale.ini.

This could be implemented by adding the following controls to the Crescendo/Decrescendo section of the Smart Shape Options dialog box:

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Smart Shape Options Dialog Box

Crescendo/Decrescendo:

Overlap Factor:
    ( ) Optimize for Space
    ( ) Optimize for Appearance
    ( ) Overlap: _____ %
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If the radio button Optimize for Space is selected, hairpins would be represented in postscript as two line segments of a specified width that pass through three given points by using a single moveto command followed by two lineto commands, or in the worst case, as four commands: moveto, lineto, moveto and lineto. In this case, the length and overlap of the horizontal line segments of the hairpin branches would be controlled by the display device or printing device that renders the postscript file created by Finale.

If the radio button Optimize for Appearance is selected, the horizontal line segments of hairpin branches would overlap by some predefined value that has been judged to yield an optimal appearance. The percentage 44.44% might be used for this purpose.

If the radio button Overlap is selected, one could specify the degree to which the horizontal line segments of hairpin branches would overlap.

Created: August 2, 2000
Last Updated: August 2, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b