Add a way to control number of frets and where on the fretboard the chord is shown

[grenmester]

Currently, you can use new-chordgen to change the number of strings in the diagram.

#let chord = new-chordgen()
#box(chord("x,x,x,9,8,8", name: "C"))
#box(chord("x,x,x,10,10,8", name: "F"))
#box(chord("x,x,x,7,8,7", name: "G"))
#box(chord("x,x,x,9,10,8", name: "Am"))

If you compile the above code, the fretboard is cut off at different frets (7 for G and 8 for C, F, and Am). Also, the last fret technically isn't needed since there's nothing there. I would like to be able to change the diagram to reflect that but based on the documentation, it doesn't seem like this is currently possible.

Is there a way to enable this to be possible? For example, I want to be able to do something like the following:

#box(chord("x,x,x,9,8,8", name: "C", at: 7, frets: 4))

[sitandr]

Thank you for the issue!

Yep, you are right. Unfortunately, that is not possible now. Well, to be accurate, displaying a chord starting from certain fret is possible, but that would have to directly use chords/draw-chord/render-chord function.

As for number of displayed frets, it is a very common notation with fixed amount of total frets (including empty ones). That way all chords have the same width and look the same, and it's aesthetically pleasing.

It is possible to make it an option, but I'm not sure how we should implement it in a "smart way". What happens if the full chord doesn't "fit" into fixed length with fret manually set too far away? If the set fret is too big and "cuts" part of the chord? What if the width is set that small?

Should we panic? Or could someone do that on purpose?

[grenmester]

Yeah, regarding the number of displayed frets, maybe one possibility would be to have that be passed to new-chordgen, so something like #let chord = new-chordgen(frets: 4).

In cases where frets is set too low where parts of the chord are missing, maybe we can have something similar to red-missing-fifth where the color is different if the tabs are cut off from the diagram?

[sitandr]

That's an option too, but I'm afraid it could end up pretty confusing: unlike missing fifth in chord building, which is a viable option, a diagram that misses parts of rendered chord is just incorrect.

I'm thinking now that making it a hard error would be the best, with some hints how to get rid of it. Maybe in future we will implement some smart options to deal with it, if the need emerges (like option to automatically expand chord width, option to color it and so on.

[grenmester]

Thanks for adding the option to control the number of frets displayed. You mentioned that it's possible to display a chord starting from a certain fret. Could you provide an example of that since I wasn't able to figure that out from the documentation.

[sitandr]

It is possible only wiith render-chord function that, unfortunately, currently requires manual layout:

  #import "@preview/conchord:0.4.0": render-chord

  #render-chord(
    /// coordinates of drawn points
    ((2, 3), (3, 3), (4, 3)),
    /// open strings
    (0, 1, ),
    /// closed strings
    (5,), 
    /// fret number shown
    7, 
    /// chord name
    "???",
    /// total number of shown fret lines
    shown-frets-number: 4)

By modifying fourth argument to whatever you want, you can set up the fret shown.

The documentation for that function is in the Reference, but it doesn't contain much useful information.

I think I've missed the need for setting the minimal fret automatically and focused on the missing variable shown-fret-number, that's my bad. If you still need it, I will reopen the issue and eventually add this option.

[grenmester]

Ah I see, thanks for the response. Yeah, it would be greatly appreciated if that's an option that can be added to new-chordgen. Maybe one way it could look is something like this

// this shows frets 4, 5, 6
#let chord = new-chordgen(starting-fret-number: 4, shown-frets-number: 3)