1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
2 @setfilename index.info
3 @settitle LilyPond homepage
10 <img src="Documentation/pictures/out-www/lelie-logo.png" alt="[logo]">
13 @c @unnumberedsec LilyPond -- The GNU Project Music Typesetter
15 @c something breaks on 3.12 f
17 @unnumberedsec What is LilyPond?
19 LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music using
20 a high level description file as input. It excels at typesetting
21 classical music, but you can also print pop-songs. With LilyPond we
22 hope to make music publication software available to anyone on the
25 @unnumberedsec Why should I use it?
27 The input to LilyPond is plain text. So, you can use your favorite text
28 editor to enter it, you can put it in mail or embed it in an article like
32 @lilypond[fragment,verbatim]
33 \relative c'' { \key c \minor; r8 c16 b c8 g as c16 b c8 d | g,4 }
37 The output looks very good: the font and the layout algorithms were
38 inspired by engraved music, so you can expect that same clear and
39 elegant look from your LilyPond output. And if you don't like the
40 looks, you can tweak almost everything.
42 The program also has limited MIDI functionality: you can write MIDI files with
43 lilypond, and we have a simple MIDI to lilypond conversion tool,
44 @file{midi2ly}. Conversion tools for PMX, MUP, ABC, Finale and Musedata are
47 LilyPond is free software. It is licensed under GNU General Public
48 License, so you can use, modify and redistribute the program with
49 almost no restrictions. LilyPond is part of the
50 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/,GNU Project}.
52 The version numbers are in Linux-kernel style: even numbered versions
53 are `stable'. The webpages for the stable version (1.2) reside
54 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/lilypond, on the GNU servers}. Big
55 enhancements go into the latest odd numbered version (1.3), whose
56 webpages are on @uref{http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/,Han-Wen's
57 site}. Information on the latest and greatest features can be found in
58 the @uref{Documentation/out-www/CHANGES.html, Change Log}.
60 If want more information, you can browse the
61 @uref{Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond.html, manual} or other
62 @uref{Documentation/out-www/index.html, documentation}.
69 @unnumberedsec Sheet music
72 If you are interested in sheet music typeset by LilyPond, have a look at
73 the examples included. We have @uref{short-examples.html,short
74 examples} and @uref{long-examples.html,longer examples}. The
75 examples include sound bites in MIDI, pictures in PNG, printable scores
76 in PostScript, and LilyPond input.
78 Others use LilyPond too.
79 @uref{http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Studio/1714/harpsichord.html,John
80 Sankey}, harpsichordist to the internet, is typesetting the complete
81 @uref{http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Studio/1714/scarlattidwn.html,sonatas
82 by Scarlatti}. Jeff Covey, guitar player and overall nice guy, is
83 putting @uref{http://www4.smart.net/~jcovey/scores/,guitar music} on the
84 net. The @uref{http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/Mutopia/,Mutopia project} is an
85 archive of public domain sheet music under construction. Dirk Lattermann
86 also put some works @uref{http://www.alqualonde.de/lilypond.html,on the
90 <a name="download-source">
92 @unnumberedsec Download
94 If you want to compile LilyPond from source, download here:
96 @item Download stable releases at
97 @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/lilypond/,GNU}
98 @item Download development releases from
99 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/development/,the source}
100 @item @uref{http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/lilypond/, by http (Canadian
102 @uref{ftp://sca.uwaterloo.ca/pub/, ftp (Canadian mirror)}
104 @uref{ftp://ftp.lilypond.org/pub/LilyPond/, mirror (Europe)}
107 Installing and compiling requires many additional packages, which are
108 listed in the @uref{Documentation/topdocs/out-www/INSTALL.html,
109 installation instructions}.
112 <a name="download-binary">
114 Binaries are available, but are not updated for every version released.
116 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/RedHat/RPMS/, RedHat i386}
117 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/RedHat/RPMS/ppc, LinuxPPC}
119 @uref{ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/tex,
120 Debian GNU/Linux i386}
122 @uref{ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/binary-powerpc/tex,
123 Debian GNU/Linux PowerPC}
124 @item @uref{http://home.austin.rr.com/jbr/jeff/lilypond/, Windows Stable}
125 @item @uref{http://appel.lilypond.org/lilypond/gnu-windows, Windows
131 <a name="mailing-lists">
133 @unnumberedsec Mailing lists
135 If you have questions, do write to the mailing lists!
136 (But don't forget to read the
137 @uref{http://appel.dyndns.org/wiki?LilyPondFaqs,
138 Frequently Asked Questions} first.)
142 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music,info-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
143 is a low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
144 This list is moderated; ask
145 @email{drl@@gnu.org, David R. Linn} or
146 @email{hanwen@@cs.uu.nl, Han-Wen} to send announcements for this list.
147 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music,help-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
148 For help with using LilyPond.
149 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music,bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
150 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.
154 Please include in your bugreport the version of LilyPond that
155 you experience the problem with, a description of your system and sample
156 input to reproduce the problem. Do not send output files over the list,
157 they tend to be very big and don't help with describing the problem.
160 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-music-discuss,gnu-music-discuss@@gnu.org}
161 For discussions concerning LilyPond.
164 These pages were entirely created from a @strong{development snapshot}
165 of the LilyPond package. The version of this webpage is printed at the