Inline-variables ($-variables)

This page describes the inline variables also known as dollar variables available in Karaoke Templater.

How to use inline variables #

All inline variables start with a dollar-sign. They only work in template lines, not in code lines. You can, however, use them in code blocks on template lines.

Here is an example of how a template text using inline variables could look:

{\pos(**$x**,**$y**)\t(**$start**,**$end**,\bord0)}

The highlighted parts are the inline variables in the template.

When a template is applied, the first thing that happens is that all inline variables are found and replaced with their value. E.g. in the above example $x and $y are replaced with the X and Y coordinates of the syllable the template is being applied to, and $start and $end are replaced by the start and end times of the syllable.

Case does not matter for inline variables. $start, $START and $StArT all work and give the same result.

Limitations #

Inline variables are not “intelligent”: they do the same no matter where you place them or use them and don’t “know” what tag it’s being used with. Not every variable can be used with success in all places, and the meaning of some are affected by usage of e.g. the retime function. In these cases, inline variables may not be appropriate and you need to use code blocks.

Because inline variables have their values determined as the very first thing when a template is applied you can’t affect their values in any way.

Using inline variables is an easy way to get started with an effect, but for many advanced effects they might not be the best choice.

All positioning and sizing inline variables (such as $y, $right and $width are rounded to the nearest whole pixel, unlike the values in the internal data structures which you can get in code blocks, which have sub-pixel precision.

Line and syllable variables #

The inline variables exist in both “line” and “syllable” variants. The “line” variants contain information about the entire line being processed, the “syllable” variants contain information about the current syllable being processed.

There are also “automatic” variants of most of the variables, there are either the line or the syllable variant depending on what kind of template they are used in. In pre-line templates the automatic inline variables refer to the line variants, and everywhere else they refer to the syllable variants.

The variables #

The line variables that also exist as automatic variants all start with a lowercase L (“ell”) letter. The syllable variants start with the letter S.

Line variants #

layer

line layer

lstart, lend, ldur, lmid

line start time, end time, duration and midway, all absolute times in milliseconds

style

name of the line style

actor

name of the line actor

margin_l, margin_r

effective left and right margin (line if nonzero, otherwise style)

margin_v, margin_t, margin_b

effective vertical, top and bottom margin, vertical and top is same

syln

number of syllables on line

li

line index (first physical line in file is 1)

lleft, lcenter, lright

line left, horizontal center and right edges, taking margins and alignment into account, rounded to an integer value

ltop, lmiddle, lbottom

line top, vertical middle and bottom edges, taking margins and alignment into account, rounded

lx, ly

line x and y position suitable for a \pos command when alignment is not overridden

lwidth, lheight

line width and height in pixels, this is rounded and might not match exactly with the positioning variables

Syllable variants #

sstart, send, smid

syllable start, end and midway times relative to start of line, suitable for putting into \t and \move

sdur, skdur

syllable duration in milliseconds and centiseconds

si

syllable index from start of line

sleft, scenter, sright

absolute left, horizontal center and right edges for syllable from left edge of screen, suitable directly for \pos and \move

sbottom, smiddle, stop

absolute bottom, vertical middle and top edges for syllable from top edge of screen, suitable directly for \pos and \move, adjusted for furigana positioning if needed

sx, sy

syllable absolute x and y position in default alignment, suitable for using directly in \pos and \move

swidth, sheight

syllable width and height in pixelsthis is rounded and might not match exactly with the positioning variables

Automatic variants #

start, end, mid

start and and midway time for line/syllable; absolute for lines and relative for syllables

dur, kdur

duration in milliseconds and centiseconds of line/syllable

i

line or syllable index

left, center, right

left, center and right edges of line/syllable, absolute from left screen edge

top, middle, bottom

top middle and bottom edges of line/syllable, absolute from top screen edge

x, y

x and y position of line/syllable when using default alignment

width, height

width and height of line/syllable in pixels, this is rounded and might not match exactly with the positioning variables