Alignment and style of bar numbers

[Jean Abou Samra]

Hi all,

LilyPond currently aligns all bar numbers on their right side,  like in
this example (output attached):

\layout {
  \context {
    \Score
    \override BarNumber.break-visibility = #all-visible
  }
}

\repeat unfold 10 { c'1 }

I have found this to be confusing for musicians during rehearsal, because
each number overhangs the preceding measure. Therefore, I would like to 
start
a discussion about how the default alignment should be. I uploaded
https://gitlab.com/lilypond/lilypond/-/merge_requests/447 as a proof of 
concept
(it centers them, since that was my original idea). Note that we are 
only talking
about mid-staff bar numbers − those at the beginning of a system are a
different case and need padding to avoid system start delimiters (wether 
we could
add the padding only when the delimiter requires it is an interesting, but
separate, technical question).

I wanted to let you all know that this stuff is under discussion. Note that
I do *not* want the debate to move here (since the MR is easier to find and
link afterwards, and it already started there).

Furthermore, the general style of bar numbers is under question. For 
example,
should we print them in italics (which Gould recommends)?

At any rate, changes in this area shall be weighed with care, because they
will certainly have (more or less) large impact on existing scores and 
affect
the overall look of LilyPond output. At some point, we may want to ask users
for feedback.

Comments are very welcome on the MR.

Regards,
Jean

Bar_numbers_current.png
Description: PNG image