Coloring individual staff lines - Revision history

Jean Abou Samra at 09:46, 7 April 2026

2026-04-07T09:46:10Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:46, 7 April 2026
Line 2:		Line 2:

	The <code>StaffSymbol</code> callback <code>color-staff-lines</code> takes a set of colors (using LilyPond's predefined colors or the functions <code>x11-color</code> and <code>rgb-color</code>) which are applied to each staff line in turn starting with the fifth line (for a standard staff), or each item in the list for custom staves defined with <code>line-positions</code>. To signal that a particular line between colored lines should remain black, use <code>#f</code>.		The <code>StaffSymbol</code> callback <code>color-staff-lines</code> takes a set of colors (using LilyPond's predefined colors or the functions <code>x11-color</code> and <code>rgb-color</code>) which are applied to each staff line in turn starting with the fifth line (for a standard staff), or each item in the list for custom staves defined with <code>line-positions</code>. To signal that a particular line between colored lines should remain black, use <code>#f</code>.

			Contributed by Neil Puttock.

	<lilypond version="2.24">		<lilypond version="2.24">
	~~%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=700~~

	~~%LSR This snippet was contributed by Neil Puttock~~

	#(define-public ((color-staff-lines . rest) grob)		#(define-public ((color-staff-lines . rest) grob)

Lemzwerg: New category

2025-11-21T23:14:24Z

New category

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:14, 21 November 2025
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	[[Category:Staff notation]]		[[Category:Staff notation]]
	[[Category:Version-specific]]		[[Category:Version-specific]]
	[[Category:Tweaks and overrides]][[Category:Snippet]]		[[Category:Tweaks and overrides]]
			[[Category:Snippet]]

Lemzwerg at 22:49, 21 November 2025

2025-11-21T22:49:54Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:49, 21 November 2025
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	[[Category:Staff notation]]		[[Category:Staff notation]]
	[[Category:Version-specific]]		[[Category:Version-specific]]
	[[Category:Tweaks and overrides]]		[[Category:Tweaks and overrides]][[Category:Snippet]]

Jean Abou Samra: Replace version="2.24.0" with version="2.24" now that the LilyWiki extension supports auto-selecting the latest release in a stable series

2025-11-16T18:46:51Z

Replace version="2.24.0" with version="2.24" now that the LilyWiki extension supports auto-selecting the latest release in a stable series

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:46, 16 November 2025
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	The <code>StaffSymbol</code> callback <code>color-staff-lines</code> takes a set of colors (using LilyPond's predefined colors or the functions <code>x11-color</code> and <code>rgb-color</code>) which are applied to each staff line in turn starting with the fifth line (for a standard staff), or each item in the list for custom staves defined with <code>line-positions</code>. To signal that a particular line between colored lines should remain black, use <code>#f</code>.		The <code>StaffSymbol</code> callback <code>color-staff-lines</code> takes a set of colors (using LilyPond's predefined colors or the functions <code>x11-color</code> and <code>rgb-color</code>) which are applied to each staff line in turn starting with the fifth line (for a standard staff), or each item in the list for custom staves defined with <code>line-positions</code>. To signal that a particular line between colored lines should remain black, use <code>#f</code>.

	<lilypond version="2.24.0">		<lilypond version="2.24">
	%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=700		%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=700

Jean Abou Samra: Import snippet from LSR

2025-10-26T22:45:33Z

Import snippet from LSR

New page

Staff lines can be colored independently by overriding the default stencil for <code>StaffSymbol</code>.

The <code>StaffSymbol</code> callback <code>color-staff-lines</code> takes a set of colors (using LilyPond's predefined colors or the functions <code>x11-color</code> and <code>rgb-color</code>) which are applied to each staff line in turn starting with the fifth line (for a standard staff), or each item in the list for custom staves defined with <code>line-positions</code>. To signal that a particular line between colored lines should remain black, use <code>#f</code>.

<lilypond version="2.24.0">
%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=700

%LSR This snippet was contributed by Neil Puttock

#(define-public ((color-staff-lines . rest) grob)

(define (index-cell cell dir)
(if (equal? dir RIGHT)
(cdr cell)
(car cell)))

(define (index-set-cell! x dir val)
(case dir
((-1) (set-car! x val))
((1) (set-cdr! x val))))

(let* ((common (ly:grob-system grob))
(span-points '(0 . 0))
(thickness (* (ly:grob-property grob 'thickness 1.0)
(ly:output-def-lookup (ly:grob-layout grob) 'line-thickness)))
(width (ly:grob-property grob 'width))
(line-positions (ly:grob-property grob 'line-positions))
(staff-space (ly:grob-property grob 'staff-space 1))
(line-stencil #f)
(total-lines empty-stencil)
;; use a local copy of colors list, since
;; stencil creation mutates list
(colors rest))

(for-each
(lambda (dir)
(if (and (= dir RIGHT)
(number? width))
(set-cdr! span-points width)
(let* ((bound (ly:spanner-bound grob dir))
(bound-ext (ly:grob-extent bound bound X)))

(index-set-cell! span-points dir
(ly:grob-relative-coordinate bound common X))
(if (and (not (ly:item-break-dir bound))
(not (interval-empty? bound-ext)))
(index-set-cell! span-points dir
(+ (index-cell span-points dir)
(index-cell bound-ext dir))))))
(index-set-cell! span-points dir (- (index-cell span-points dir)
(* dir thickness 0.5))))
(list LEFT RIGHT))

(set! span-points
(coord-translate span-points
(- (ly:grob-relative-coordinate grob common X))))
(set! line-stencil
(make-line-stencil thickness (car span-points) 0 (cdr span-points) 0))

(if (pair? line-positions)
(for-each (lambda (position)
(let ((color (if (pair? colors)
(car colors)
#f)))
(set! total-lines
(ly:stencil-add
total-lines
(ly:stencil-translate-axis
(if (color? color)
(ly:stencil-in-color line-stencil
(first color)
(second color)
(third color))
line-stencil)
(* position staff-space 0.5) Y)))
(and (pair? colors)
(set! colors (cdr colors)))))
line-positions)
(let* ((line-count (ly:grob-property grob 'line-count 5))
(height (* (1- line-count) (/ staff-space 2))))
(do ((i 0 (1+ i)))
((= i line-count))
(let ((color (if (and (pair? colors)
(> (length colors) i))
(list-ref colors i)
#f)))
(set! total-lines (ly:stencil-add
total-lines
(ly:stencil-translate-axis
(if (color? color)
(ly:stencil-in-color line-stencil
(first color)
(second color)
(third color))
line-stencil)
(- height (* i staff-space)) Y)))))))
total-lines))

\relative c' {
% color all lines in a standard five-line staff
\override Staff.StaffSymbol.stencil = #(color-staff-lines red green yellow blue cyan)
c1 \stopStaff
\revert Staff.StaffSymbol.stencil

\startStaff
% color the fifth, third and second lines only
\override Staff.StaffSymbol.stencil = #(color-staff-lines (rgb-color 0 0.3 0.8) #f grey (x11-color 'LightGreen))
c1 \stopStaff
\revert Staff.StaffSymbol.stencil

\startStaff
% color an individual line in a custom staff
\override Staff.StaffSymbol.line-positions = #'(-4 0 4)
\override Staff.StaffSymbol.stencil = #(color-staff-lines #f red)
c1
}
</lilypond>

[[Category:Staff notation]]
[[Category:Version-specific]]
[[Category:Tweaks and overrides]]