FrettyCharts Help Manual
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- Introduction
- Sample Gallery
- Using the Application
- Managing Projects
- Product Registration
- Editing
- Adding a Chord
- Adding a Scale
- Adding a Group
- Editing Chords
- Editing Scales
- Setting the Tuning
- Rendering
- Render Project
- Render Item
- Printing
- Styles
- Managing Styles
- General Settings
- Preview
- Colors
- Text and Fonts
- Sizing
- Spacing
- Fret Layout
- Markers
- Barre Chords
- Display Items
- Project Settings
- HTML Rendering
- MIDI Audio
- Chord Naming Rules
Styles - Markers
Markers are used to add information to chord/scale images, either by indicating fret or string details. This tab of the style editor lets you customize the positioning and type of information that is displayed.
Fret Marker Type
Fret markers can be disabled by selecting "No fret markers" from this list. The most common usage is to select "Mark lowest fingered fret only", where only one fret on the guitar neck will be marked. This will be the lowest fret that is fingered in the chord or scale, and will only be marked if it is greater than or equal to the "Minimum fret for marking" (see next item).
The third type is to "Mark every fret on display". In this case, the markers will be painted against every fret and so it is best to minimize the amount of text shown in each marker. The following settings show how to do this.
Minimum Fret for Marking
This setting only applies if the "Fret Marker Type" has been set to "Mark lowest fingered fret only". Only when the chord or scale's minimum fingered fret is greater than or equal to this, will the marker be shown. This avoids painting markers for first position chords where it is not necessary.
Text Before Fret Number
A fret marker will always indicate the fret number. In addition, this item lets you specify some text that will appear before this fret number. In the example above this is left blank, as the fret number is the first thing displayed. eg. 7th Fret
Text After Fret Number
This item lets you specify some text that will appear after the fret number. In the above example, we have:
<th> fret
NOTE: placing the "th" inside brackets like this, tells FrettyCharts to swap in "st". "nd" and "rd" for 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets. With this setting, we would have: "1st fret" "2nd fret" "3rd fret" "4th fret" etc...
Fret Marker Horizontal Justification
This specifies the horizontal positioning of the fret markers. When the image is aligned horizontally it is best to use "centered" for this option. For vertically oriented images, it might look better to justify the markers to the left.
Use Roman Numerals
When the fret number is written into the fret marker, this option will cause the number to be expressed using Roman numerals. In this case, it is best to leave the "Text Before Fret Number" and "Text After Fret Number" fields blank. This option also looks good when the "Fret Marker Type" is set to "Mark every fret on display".
Fret Markers at Treble
Selecting this option will cause the fret markers to always be painted along-side the treble string of the guitar neck. To switch the markers to the bass-string, uncheck this.
Leave Space for Empty Markers
This option is recommended when you want to make sure a collection of chords are sized consistently. In the following example, the first image has a fret marker, but not the second. With this option checked, the second image still leaves the empty space where a marker might have appeared, so that the two look consistent. With this option unchecked, we get the third image, where that empty space is removed.
String Markers Type
String markers provide some extra information at the end of each string. To disable these markers, select "No string markers". The second option "Transfer fingering text" will copy any fingering details in a chord (does not apply to scales) to the string marker. For example, in the first chord below we have the fingerings marked 1,2 and 3. Then in the second image, these values are transferred to the string marker. The third image shows the option "Show note value", where the note is displayed for that string.
Leave Space for Empty String Markers
This is the same setting as above for fret markers, where in the absence of a string marker the chord image is painted leaving the string marker space empty.