Fw: Ultra-thick barlines in PDF output (PNG OK)

[Trevor Daniels]

Sandy Nicholson wrote Wednesday, December 23, 2009 7:24 PM
> I can confirm that Preview 5.0.1 in 10.6.2 behaves the same way. 
> The first
> example (which, according to Neil Puttock, uses default LilyPond 
> settings)
> shows thicker barlines at small viewing scales, and the two 
> barlines in that
> example vary in their relative thicknesses at intermediate scales; 
> the
> barlines also protrude noticeably above and below the staff lines. 
> The
> second example looks reasonably good in Preview at all scales.
>
> Adobe Reader 9.2.0 does a far worse job than Preview at 
> maintaining even
> line thicknesses except at the largest viewing scales. Not only 
> are barlines
> affected, but also note stems. Reader also shows the same 
> protrusion in the
> first example as seen in Preview.

I notice that Adobe Reader anti-aliases notes, slurs, etc
but not stems, staff lines or bar lines.  Instead it chooses
either 1 pixel or 2 pixel wide lines, depending on the
matching to the raster.  This is what causes the variation
in thickness or the protrusion of bar lines beyond the outermost
staff lines that I see in the rendering on screen of small
images.

Is this due to these being strictly vertical (or horizontal)
or something else?

Can this be influenced by the output that LilyPond produces?
It seems so, as nothing in Neil's second example is anti-aliased
by Adobe Reader, and this looks better at most image sizes on
screen.  (Neil - does your term "blotting" have the same meaning
as "anti-aliasing"?)

Trevor