Engraver slurs

Engraver slurs avoid collisions with stems, beams, noteheads, “inside slur” articulations, and accidentals. Engraver slurs will make most of your slurs look perfect the first time, although nothing can completely replace an artistic judgement call from a human!

Font annotation is critical to proper functioning of Engraver slurs. If you’re using a MakeMusic font, such as Maestro or Jazz, we’ve already provided font annotation files. If you’re using a third-party music font, you should create a font annotation file. See Font Annotation dialog box.

Any manual edit to an Engraver slur will make it immune to Engraver slur settings. It will still be marked as an Engraver slur in the contextual menu, but will be frozen. When frozen, Engraver slurs will no longer reshape to changes in the notes. To revert the slur to behaving like an Engraver slur or unfreeze the slur, use the Remove Manual Adjustments command in the contextual menu or the Mass Edit Tool Utilities submenu.

Because Engraver slurs depend heavily on the spacing of notes, they may appear slightly different between Page View and Scroll View. Many factors, such as locked measure systems, cause this difference. We recommend that you make final adjustments to Engraver slurs in Page View, as this is the view that will print.

To define Engraver slurs

Engraver slurs can avoid collisions with stems, beams, noteheads, articulations, and accidentals. If you transpose the music, Engraver slurs will reshape to avoid collisions with the new layout. See Engraver Slurs.

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool  . The Smart Shape Menu appears.
2. Choose Smart Slur Options from the Smart Shape Menu. The Smart Slur Options dialog box appears.
3. Check the Use Engraver Slurs box. The Engraver slur settings become active.
4. Make adjustments to the Engraver Slur settings, if desired. See Smart Slur Options dialog box for details.
5. Click OK (or press return) when you’re ready to save the new settings. Or click Cancel if you want to discard changes.

Any manual edit to an Engraver slur will make it immune to Engraver slur settings. It will still be marked as an Engraver slur in the contextual menu, but will be frozen. When frozen, Engraver slurs will no longer reshape to changes in the notes. Remove Manual Adjustments in the contextual menu or the Selection Tool Utilities will revert the slur to behaving like an Engraver slur or unfreeze the slur.

To edit Engraver slurs

See To move, reshape, or delete Smart Shape slurs.