musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Offset of barlines on adjacent systems

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feature request
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Your idea

I suggest adding a function to the score style settings that would automatically shift the barlines on adjacent systems for visual clarity, so that the performer suddenly does not perceive neighboring staves as part of the same system and accidentally skipped them. I suggest setting this function as the default settings.

Problem to be solved

Such an offset will not allow the performer's eye to accidentally miss the system, because two (or more) systems containing similar material look too similar.

Take a look at this example:
Снимок экрана (485)
The systems contain almost the same material. What is the probability that the performer will accidentally miss one of these systems? I think there is definitely such a possibility.

Instead, it would be more logical to somehow shift the barlines so that they are not located strictly on top of each other:
Снимок экрана (487)

Workarounds

At the moment, you can shift the barlines by reducing/increasing the bar width. But to do this, you first need to assign keyboard shortcuts that are convenient for such purposes in the settings, since the default "{" and "}" set for such purposes cannot be used (at least with a non-qwerty keyboard layout), and a beginner will not understand at all that this needs to be done.

I can also shift the notes with the mouse. Look what happened to me:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3609531c-21a0-4946-b5fd-f2df6e57d80b

Some shit happened. I think that this method is clearly not worth using.

Additional context

The example I gave above is not the only reason to ask for the implementation of the automatic barline offset function. There are many other cases where the contents of adjacent systems are very similar. This also applies to the grandstaff. Barlines located strictly on top of each other can confuse the performer and he can simply go astray and accidentally skip the system. It is better to avoid this.

Checklist

  • ✅ This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • ✅ I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No source files, tests, or entry points are named. Begin by locating the score-style and system-layout code, then determine how adjacent barlines are positioned; done would mean an automatic, configurable offset that improves visual separation without requiring manual bar-width or note adjustments.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
design, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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