LilyPond Notation Reference: 4.3.1 Line breaking

### 4.3.1 Line breaking

Line breaks are normally determined automatically. They are chosen so that lines look neither cramped nor loose, and consecutive lines have similar density.

To manually force a line break at a bar line, use the `\break` command:

>     c4 c c c | \break
>     c4 c c c |

By default, a `\break` in the middle of a measure is ignored, and a warning is printed. To force a line break in the middle of a measure, add an invisible bar line with ‘`\bar ""`’:

>     c4 c c
>     \bar "" \break
>     c |
>     c4 c c c |

A `\break` occurring at a bar line is also ignored if the previous measure ends in the middle of a note, such as when a tuplet begins and ends in different measures. To allow `\break` commands to work in these situations, remove the `Forbid_line_break_engraver` from the `Voice` context. Note that manually forced line breaks have to be added in parallel with the music:

>     \new Voice \with {
>       \remove Forbid_line_break_engraver
>     } \relative c'' {
>       <<
>         { c2. \times 2/3 { c4 c c } c2. | }
>         { s1 | \break s1 | }
>       >>
>     }

Similarly, line breaks are normally forbidden when beams cross bar lines. This behavior can be changed by setting `\override Beam #'breakable = ##t`:

>     \override Beam #'breakable = ##t
>     c2. c8[ c | \break
>     c8 c] c2. |

The `\noBreak` command forbids a line break at the bar line where it is inserted.

The most basic settings influencing line spacing are `indent` and `line-width`. They are set in the `\layout` block. They control the indentation of the first line of music, and the lengths of the lines.

If `ragged-right` is set to true in the `\layout` block, then systems end at their natural horizontal length, instead of being spread horizontally to fill the whole line. This is useful for short fragments, and for checking how tight the natural spacing is.

The option `ragged-last` is similar to `ragged-right`, but affects only the last line of the piece.

>     \layout {
>       indent = 0\mm
>       line-width = 150\mm
>       ragged-last = ##t
>     }

For line breaks at regular intervals use `\break` separated by skips and repeated with `\repeat`. For example, this would cause the following 28 measures (assuming 4/4 time) to be broken every 4 measures, and only there:

>     <<
>       \repeat unfold 7 {
>         s1 \noBreak s1 \noBreak
>         s1 \noBreak s1 \break
>       }
>       { the actual music… }
>     >>

A linebreaking configuration can be saved as a ‘`.ly`’ file automatically. This allows vertical alignments to be stretched to fit pages in a second formatting run. This is fairly new and complicated. More details are available in Spacing.

#### Predefined commands

`\break`, `\noBreak`.

#### See also

Notation Reference: `\paper` variables for line breaking.

Snippets: Spacing.

Internals Reference: LineBreakEvent.

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