[MEI-L] page sizes

[Craig Sapp]

Hi Don,

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 8:54 PM, Byrd, Donald A. <donbyrd at indiana.edu> wrote:

>
> Finally (and I suspect MEI already handles this), I'd like to point out
> that two sizes of staves -- "normal" and "cue-size" -- aren't always
> enough; there are published performing editions that use three staff sizes.
> (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if editions with _four_ sizes exist,
> though I don't know of any.)


I have seen at least three sizes in a score before, and this would
theoretically allow for four sizes:

In a piano/instrumental score, the piano part typically has the
instrumental part displayed above it in a slightly smaller size.  And I
have seen ossia parts for the instrumental staff which in turn would be
smaller than the instrumental staff size.  So if the piano part also had an
ossia, then there would be four staff sizes, unless the ossia for the piano
is the same size as the instrumental part (which it probably should).

> 1/72nd inch, which is not exactly the traditional value)

You must be older than me, as I didn't know that :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_(typography)

<<In the late 1980s to the 1990s, the traditional point was supplanted by
the desktop publishing point (also called the
PostScript<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript>
 point)>>

But then it seems that you need to be careful of your definition of the
inch which has also changed:

<<The desktop publishing
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Publishing> point
(DTP point) is defined as 1/72 of the Anglo-Saxon compromise inch of 1959
(25.4 mm) which makes it *0.0138 inch* or *0.3527 mm*.>>

But the pre-PostScript point size did not seem to be standardized:

<<By the end of the 19th Century, it had settled to around 0.35 to 0.38 mm,
depending on one’s geographical location.>>

And here is the one you must be referring to which I vaguely remember
seeing before:

<<In 1886, the Fifteenth Meeting of the Type Founders Association of the
United States approved the so-called *Johnson pica* be adopted as the
official standard. This makes the traditional American printer’s foot
measure 11.952 inches (303.6 mm), or 303.5808 mm exactly, giving a point
size of approximately 1⁄72.27 of an inch, or *0.3515 mm*.

This is the size of the point in the TeX
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX> computer
typesetting system by Donald Knuth<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth>,
which predates PostScript slightly. Thus the latter unit is sometimes
called the *TeX point*.>>


-=+Craig
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