<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <!-- header_tag --> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Direction and placement - GNU LilyPond Notation Reference</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="description" content="GNU LilyPond Notation Reference"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.11"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Useful-concepts-and-properties.html#Useful-concepts-and-properties" title="Useful concepts and properties"> <link rel="prev" href="Input-modes.html#Input-modes" title="Input modes"> <link rel="next" href="Distances-and-measurements.html#Distances-and-measurements" title="Distances and measurements"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- Copyright (C) 1999--2007 by the authors Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections. 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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. <p><strong>Default actions</strong> <p>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). <!-- TODO Add table showing these --> <p><strong>Context layout</strong> <p>Contexts are positioned in a system from top to bottom in the order in which they are encountered. Note, however, that a context will be created implicitly if a command is encountered when there is no suitable context available to contain it. <!-- TODO Add example ? --> <p>The default order in which contexts are laid out can be changed, see <a href="Aligning-contexts.html#Aligning-contexts">Aligning contexts</a> <p><strong>Articulation direction indicators</strong> <p>When adding articulations to notes the direction indicator, <code>^</code> (meaning “up”), <code>_</code> (meaning “down”) or <code>-</code> (meaning “use default direction”), can usually be omitted, in which case <code>-</code> is assumed. But a direction indicator is <strong>always</strong> required before <ul> <li><code>\tweak</code> commands <li><code>\markup</code> commands <li><code>\tag</code> commands <li>string markups, e.g. -"string" <li>fingering instructions, e.g. <code>-1</code> <li>articulation shortcuts, e.g. <code>-.</code>, <code>-></code>, <code>--</code> </ul> <p><strong>The direction property</strong> <p>The position or direction of many layout objects is controlled by the <code>direction</code> property. <p>The value of the <code>direction</code> property may be set to <code>1</code>, meaning “up” or “above”, or to <code>-1</code>, meaning “down” or “below”. The symbols <code>UP</code> and <code>DOWN</code> may be used instead of <code>1</code> and <code>-1</code> respectively. The default direction may be specified by setting <code>direction</code> to <code>0</code> or <code>CENTER</code>. Alternatively, in many cases predefined commands exist to specify the direction. These are all of the form <p class="noindent"><code>\xxxUp</code>, <code>xxxDown</code>, <code>xxxNeutral</code> <p class="noindent">where <code>xxxNeutral</code> means “use the default direction”. See <a name="index-Within_002dstaff-objects-2709"></a><a href="../lilypond-learning/Within_002dstaff-objects.html#Within_002dstaff-objects">Within-staff objects</a>. <p>In a few cases, arpeggio being the only common example, the value of the <code>direction</code> property specifies whether the object is to be placed to the right or left of the parent object. In this case <code>-1</code> or <code>LEFT</code> means “to the left” and <code>1</code> or <code>RIGHT</code> means “to the right”. <code>0</code> or <code>CENTER</code> means “use the default” direction, as before. <!-- footer_tag --><br><hr> <div class="node"> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Distances-and-measurements.html#Distances-and-measurements">Distances and measurements</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Input-modes.html#Input-modes">Input modes</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Useful-concepts-and-properties.html#Useful-concepts-and-properties">Useful concepts and properties</a> </div> <div style="background-color: #e8ffe8; padding: 2; border: #c0ffc0 1px solid;"> <p> <font size="-1"> This page is for LilyPond-2.11.57 (development-branch). <br> <address> Report errors to <a href="http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs">http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs</a>. </address> <br> Your <a href="http://lilypond.org/web/devel/participating/documentation-adding">suggestions for the documentation</a> are welcome. </font> </p> </div> <P> Other languages: <a href="Direction-and-placement.es.html">espaƱol</a>. <BR> </P> </BODY></html>