+@node The LilyPond story
+@section The LilyPond story
+
+Long before LilyPond had been used to engrave beautiful performance
+scores, before it could create university course notes or even simple
+melodies, before there was a community of users around the world or even
+an essay on music engraving, LilyPond began with a question:
+
+@quotation
+Why does most computer output fail to achieve the beauty and balance of
+a hand-engraved score?
+@end quotation
+
+@noindent
+Some of the answers can be found by examining the two scores
+@ifnottex
+below.
+@end ifnottex
+@iftex
+on the following pages.
+@end iftex
+The first score is a beautiful hand-engraved score from 1950 and the
+second is a modern, computer-engraved edition.
+
+@ifnottex
+@quotation
+@noindent
+Bärenreiter BA 320, @copyright{}1950:
+
+@sourceimage{baer-suite1-fullpage,,,png}
+@end quotation
+
+@quotation
+@noindent
+Henle no. 666, @copyright{}2000:
+
+@sourceimage{henle-suite1-fullpage,,,png}
+@end quotation
+@end ifnottex
+
+The notes here are identical, taken from Bach's first Suite for solo
+cello, but the appearance is different, especially if you print them out
+and view them from a distance.
+@ifnottex
+(The PDF version of this manual has high-resolution images suitable for
+printing.)
+@end ifnottex
+Try reading or playing from each of the scores and you will find that
+the hand-engraved score is more enjoyable to use. It has flowing lines
+and movement, and it feels like a living, breathing piece of music,
+while the newer edition seems cold and mechanical.
+
+It is hard to immediately see what makes the difference with the newer
+edition. Everything looks neat and tiny, possibly even @qq{better}
+because it looks more computerized and uniform. This really puzzled us
+for quite a while. We wanted to improve computer notation, but we first
+had to figure out what was wrong with it.
+
+The answer lies in the precise, mathematical uniformity of the newer
+edition. Find the bar line in the middle of each line: in the
+hand-engraved score the position of these bar lines has some
+natural variation, while in the newer version they line up almost
+perfectly. This is shown in these simplified page layout diagrams,
+traced from the hand-engraved (left) and computer-generated music
+(right):
+
+@quotation
+@iftex
+@sourceimage{pdf/page-layout-comparison,,,}
+@end iftex
+@ifnottex
+@sourceimage{page-layout-comparison,,,png}
+@end ifnottex
+@end quotation
+@noindent
+
+In the computer-generated output, even the individual note heads are
+aligned in vertical columns, making the contour of the melody disappear
+into a rigid grid of musical markings.
+
+There are other differences as well: in the hand-engraved edition the
+vertical lines are all stronger, the slurs lie closer to the note heads,
+and there is more variety in the slopes of the beams. Although such
+details may seem like nitpicking, the result is a score that is easier
+to read. In the computer-generated output, each line is nearly identical
+and if the musician looks away for a moment she will be lost on the
+page.
+
+LilyPond was designed to solve the problems we found in existing
+software and to create beautiful music that mimics the finest
+hand-engraved scores.
+
+@iftex
+@page
+@noindent
+Bärenreiter BA 320, @copyright{}1950:
+
+@sourceimage{baer-suite1-fullpage-hires,16cm,,}
+@page
+@noindent
+Henle no. 666, @copyright{}2000:
+@sp 3
+@sourceimage{henle-suite1-fullpage-hires,16cm,,}
+@page
+@end iftex