Spacing out syllables

To increase the spacing between lyrics, set the minimum-distance property of LyricSpace.

     
     {
       c c c c
       \override Lyrics.LyricSpace #'minimum-distance = #1.0
       c c c c
     }
     \addlyrics {
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
     }

To make this change for all lyrics in the score, set the property in the layout.

     
     \score {
       \relative c' {
       c c c c
       c c c c
       }
       \addlyrics {
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       }
       \layout {
         \context {
           \Lyrics
           \override LyricSpace #'minimum-distance = #1.0
         }
       }
     }

Selected Snippets

Checking to make sure that text scripts and lyrics are within the margins is a relatively large computational task. To speed up processing, LilyPond does not perform such calculations by default; to enable it, use

\override Score.PaperColumn #'keep-inside-line = ##t

To make lyrics avoid bar lines as well, use

\layout {
  \context {
    \Lyrics
      \consists "Bar_engraver"
      \consists "Separating_line_group_engraver"
      \override BarLine #'transparent = ##t
  }
}

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