Sibelius 6 Quick Tip: Page Numbers
In this video about Page Numbers, I talk about the traditional way page numbers are being used in printed scores and how you can change these defaults to your own liking. Before making this video, I never looked at how Sibelius was creating and defining the Page Number layout, but now I am actually happy I did. It’s interesting to see that there is a system that has been used since the beginning of music score printing and still is used today by the major publishers.
When I went through my collection of music scores I realised that placing Page Numbers at the Top Page and always Outside Edge the common way is and I found only 2 other publishers who put them at the Bottom Page center. There is a good reason for putting them always Outside Edge (meaning at the outside of the pages), and that is when you flip through the book, you can easily see where you are. Imagine that they would have been printed in the middle; now try to find that single page!
There is an exception though and that is when the pages are only printed on one side, page numbers are always printed at the Top Page right and for the same reason: flipping through them and always seeing the page numbers while doing this. This is especially important when you print the music on your home printer and mostly will not print on both sides of the page.
A last rule is that in books (not in the single side printed pages), the right hand pages are always numbered odd and the left hand pages alway numbered even. I am not sure why this is but everybody seems to do this and why change what apparently has worked for centuries!
If you have any questions, please use the form below and I will answer as soon as possible.
best regards,
André
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