Placing syllables horizontally

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

\relative c' {
  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 block.

\score {
  \relative {
  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

Lyrics alignment

Horizontal alignment for lyrics can be set by overriding the self-alignment-X property of the LyricText object. -1 is left, 0 is center, and 1 is right; however, you can use #LEFT, #CENTER and #RIGHT as well.

\layout { ragged-right = ##f }

\relative c'' {
  c1
  c1
  c1
}
\addlyrics {
  \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
  "This is left-aligned"
  \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #CENTER
  "This is centered"
  \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = 1
  "This is right-aligned"
}

Known issues and warnings

Checking to make sure that text scripts and lyrics are within the margins requires additional calculations. To speed up processing slightly, this feature can be disabled:

\override Score.PaperColumn.keep-inside-line = ##f

To make lyrics avoid bar lines as well, use

\layout {
  \context {
    \Lyrics
      \consists Bar_engraver
      \consists Separating_line_group_engraver
      \hide BarLine
  }
}