General placement conventions for hairpins relative to barlines

Hairpins that end on the first note of a bar extend across the preceding barline in certain cases.

• If there is not an immediate dynamic on the first note in the next bar.

• If there is a time signature or key signature change at the barline which increases the gap between the end of the current bar and the first note in the new bar.

Dorico Elements avoids hairpins overlapping barlines by a small amount, as this is less visually clear. However, this means that the same dynamic phrase on two different staves can appear differently if one of the staves does not have the barline extending below it.

Figure: The ends of the two hairpins are not aligned despite their duration being identical, as the barline does not extend to the bottom staff of the system.