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5.4.2 Direction and placement
In typesetting music the direction and placement of many items is a matter of choice. For example, the stems of notes can be directed up or down; lyrics, dynamics, and other expressive marks may be placed above or below the staff; text may be aligned left, right or center; etc. Most of these choices may be left to be determined automatically by LilyPond, but in some cases it may be desirable to force a particular direction or placement.
Articulation direction indicators
By default some directions are always up or always down (e.g. dynamics or fermata), while other things can alternate between up or down based on the stem direction (like slurs or accents).
The default action may be overridden by prefixing the articulation
by a direction indicator. Three direction indicators are
available: ^
(meaning “up”), _
(meaning “down”)
and -
(meaning “use default direction”). The direction
indicator can usually be omitted, in which case -
is assumed,
but a direction indicator is always required before
-
\tweak
commands -
\markup
commands -
\tag
commands - string markups, e.g. -"string"
- fingering instructions, e.g.
-1
- articulation shortcuts, e.g.
-.
,->
,--
Direction indicators affect only the next note:
c2( c) c2_( c) c2( c) c2^( c)
The direction property
The position or direction of many layout objects is controlled
by the direction
property.
The value of the direction
property may be
set to 1
, meaning “up” or “above”, or to -1
,
meaning “down” or “below”. The symbols UP
and
DOWN
may be used instead of 1
and -1
respectively. The default direction may be specified by setting
direction
to 0
or CENTER
. Alternatively,
in many cases predefined commands
exist to specify the direction. These are all of the form
\xxxUp
, xxxDown
, xxxNeutral
where xxxNeutral
means “use the default direction”.
See
Within-staff objects.
In a few cases, arpeggio being the only common example, the value
of the direction
property specifies whether the object
is to be placed to the right or left of the parent object. In
this case -1
or LEFT
means “to the left” and
1
or RIGHT
means “to the right”. 0
or CENTER
means “use the default” direction, as before.
These indications affect all notes until they are cancelled.
c2( c) \slurDown c2( c) c2( c) \slurNeutral c2( c)
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