General placement conventions for ornaments

Ornaments, including trills, are placed above the notes to which they apply. They are only placed below the staff when there are multiple voices on the staff.

Ornaments and trills are positioned outside of slurs by default. Similarly, they are positioned further from noteheads than articulations.

The center of ornaments should align with the center of the notehead to which they apply.

Trills are aligned differently, as the left side of trill glyphs should align with the left edge of the notehead to which the trill applies.

Dorico automatically positions ornaments correctly according to their type, and attaches them to their notehead.

You can change the default positions and styles of ornaments and trills on the Ornaments page in Engrave > Engraving Options.