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Setting minimum lengths for spanners

The spanner-interface interface provides three properties that apply to several spanners.

The minimum-length property

The minimum length of the spanner is specified by the minimum-length property. Increasing this usually has the necessary effect of increasing the spacing of the notes between the two end points. However, this override has no effect on many spanners, as their length is determined by other considerations. A few examples where it is effective are shown below.

a'~ a'
a'
% increase the length of the tie
-\tweak minimum-length 5
~ a'

\relative \compressMMRests {
  a'1
  R1*23
  % increase the length of the rest bar
  \once \override MultiMeasureRest.minimum-length = 20
  R1*23
  a1
}

\relative {
  a' \< a a a \!
  % increase the length of the hairpin
  \override Hairpin.minimum-length = 20
  a \< a a a \!
}

This override can also be used to increase the length of slurs and phrasing slurs:

\relative {
  a'( g)
  a
  -\tweak minimum-length 5
  ( g)

  a\( g\)
  a
  -\tweak minimum-length 5
  \( g\)
}

For some layout objects, the minimum-length property becomes effective only if the set-spacing-rods procedure is called explicitly. To do this, the springs-and-rods property should be set to ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods. For example, the minimum length of a glissando has no effect unless the springs-and-rods property is set:

% default
e' \glissando c''

% not effective alone
\once \override Glissando.minimum-length = 20
e' \glissando c''

% effective only when both overrides are present
\once \override Glissando.minimum-length = 20
\once \override Glissando.springs-and-rods =
                  #ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods
e' \glissando c''

The same is true of the Beam object:

% not effective alone
\once \override Beam.minimum-length = 20
e'8 e' e' e'

% effective only when both overrides are present
\once \override Beam.minimum-length = 20
\once \override Beam.springs-and-rods =
                  #ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods
e'8 e' e' e'

The minimum-length-after-break property

The property minimum-length-after-break can be used to stretch broken spanners starting after a line break. As for the minimum-length property, it is often needed to set the springs-and-rods property to ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods.

{
  \once \override Tie.minimum-length-after-break = 20
  a1~
  \break
  a1

  \once \override Slur.minimum-length-after-break = 20
  a1(
  \break
  d'1)

  \once \override TextSpanner.springs-and-rods =
    #ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods
  \once \override TextSpanner.minimum-length-after-break = 20
  a1\startTextSpan
  \break
  a1\stopTextSpan

  \once \override Hairpin.after-line-breaking = ##t
  \once \override Hairpin.to-barline = ##f
  \once \override Hairpin.minimum-length-after-break = 20
  a1\<
  \break
  a1\!

  \once \override Glissando.springs-and-rods =
    #ly:spanner::set-spacing-rods
  \once \override Glissando.breakable = ##t
  \once \override Glissando.after-line-breaking = ##t
  \once \override Glissando.minimum-length-after-break = 20
  a1\glissando
  \break
  d'1
}