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@c @unnumberedsec LilyPond -- The GNU Project Music Typesetter
@c something breaks on 3.12 f
@unnumberedsec What is LilyPond?
@c also use keywords: music notation software
LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music
using a high level description file as input. It excels at typesetting
classical music, but you can also print pop-songs. With LilyPond we
hope to make music publication software available to anyone on the
internet.
@unnumberedsec Why should I use it?
The input to LilyPond is plain text. So, you can use your favorite text
editor to enter it, you can put it in mail or embed it in an article like
this:
@quotation
@lilypond[fragment,verbatim]
\relative c'' { \key c \minor; r8 c16 b c8 g as c16 b c8 d | g,4 }
@end lilypond
@end quotation
The output looks very good: the font and the layout algorithms were
inspired by engraved music, so you can expect that same clear and
elegant look from your LilyPond output. And if you don't like the
looks, you can tweak almost everything.
The program also has limited MIDI functionality: you can write MIDI files with
lilypond, and we have a simple MIDI to lilypond conversion tool,
@file{midi2ly}. Conversion tools for PMX, MUP, ABC, Finale and Musedata are
also included.
LilyPond is free software. It is licensed under GNU General Public
License, so you can use, modify and redistribute the program with
almost no restrictions. LilyPond is part of the
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/,GNU Project}.
The version numbers are in Linux-kernel style: even numbered versions
are `stable'. The webpages for the stable version (1.2) reside
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/lilypond, on the GNU servers}. Big
enhancements go into the latest odd numbered version (1.3), whose
webpages are on @uref{http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/,Han-Wen's
site}. Information on the latest and greatest features can be found in
the @uref{Documentation/out-www/CHANGES.html, Change Log}.
If want more information, you can browse the
@uref{Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond.html, manual} or other
@uref{Documentation/out-www/index.html, documentation}.
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@unnumberedsec Sheet music
If you are interested in sheet music typeset by LilyPond, have a look at
the examples included. We have @uref{short-examples.html,short
examples} and @uref{long-examples.html,longer examples}. The
examples include sound bites in MIDI, pictures in PNG, printable scores
in PostScript, and LilyPond input. Others use LilyPond too, and have put
scores on the web. Head over to @uref{http://appel.lilypond.org/wiki?DownloadLilyPondScores}
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@unnumberedsec Download
If you want to compile LilyPond from source, download here:
@itemize @bullet
@item Download stable releases at
@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/lilypond/,GNU}
@item Download development releases from
@uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/development/,the source}
@item @uref{http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/lilypond/, by http (Canadian
mirror)} and
@uref{ftp://sca.uwaterloo.ca/pub/, ftp (Canadian mirror)}
@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.lilypond.org/pub/LilyPond/, mirror (Europe)}
@end itemize
Installing and compiling requires many additional packages, which are
listed in the @uref{Documentation/topdocs/out-www/INSTALL.html,
installation instructions}.
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Binaries are available, but are not updated for every version released.
@itemize @bullet
@item @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/RedHat/RPMS/, RedHat i386}
@item @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/RedHat/RPMS/ppc, LinuxPPC}
@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lilypond,
Debian GNU/Linux Stable}
@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lilypond1.3,
Debian GNU/Linux Unstable}
@item @uref{http://home.austin.rr.com/jbr/jeff/lilypond/, Windows Stable}
@item @uref{http://appel.lilypond.org/lilypond/gnu-windows, Windows
Testing}
@end itemize
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@unnumberedsec Mailing lists
If you have questions, do write to the mailing lists. But don't forget
to read the @uref{Documentation/topdocs/out-www/FAQ.html,Very Frequently
Asked Questions} and @uref{http://appel.dyndns.org/wiki?LilyPondFaqs,
Frequently Asked Questions} first.
@itemize @bullet
@item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music,info-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
is a low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
This list is moderated; ask
@email{drl@@gnu.org, David R. Linn} or
@email{hanwen@@cs.uu.nl, Han-Wen} to send announcements for this list.
@item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music,help-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
For help with using LilyPond.
@item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music,bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.
Please include in your bugreport the version of LilyPond that
you experience the problem with, a description of your system and sample
input to reproduce the problem. Do not send output files over the list,
they tend to be very big and don't help with describing the problem.
@item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-music-discuss,gnu-music-discuss@@gnu.org}
For discussions concerning LilyPond.
@end itemize
These pages were entirely created from a @strong{development snapshot}
of the LilyPond package. The version of this webpage is printed at the
bottom.
@bye