LilyPond – Music notation for everyone

LilyPond

... music notation for everyone

LilyPond is a music engraving program, devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts. LilyPond is free software and part of the GNU Project.

Beautiful Sheet Music

LilyPond is a powerful and flexible tool for engraving tasks of all kinds, for example classical music (like the example above by J.S. Bach), complex notation, early music, modern music, tablature, vocal music, lead sheets, educational materials, large orchestral projects, customized output, and even Schenker graphs.

Browse our gallery of Examples and be inspired!

News

LilyPond 2.25.21 released - October 27, 2024

LilyPond 2.24.4 released - July 21, 2024

More news...

Introduction

Our Goal

LilyPond came about when two musicians wanted to go beyond the soulless look of computer-printed sheet music. Musicians prefer reading beautiful music, so why couldn’t programmers write software to produce elegant printed parts?

The result is a program that creates beautiful sheet music following the best traditions of classical music engraving. It takes care of the details of layout programmatically, allowing composers, transcribers and publishers to focus on the music instead of improving their software’s default output. Performers will get parts that let them concentrate on playing music instead of reading it.

What LilyPond does

Features: What can LilyPond do?
Examples: I want to see some music!
Freedom: LilyPond is Free Software.
Background: Our computational aesthetics.

LilyPond in use

Productions: Real-life use of LilyPond.
Reviews: What do people say?

How LilyPond works

Text input: You write music as text?!
Easier editing: Other ways of working with LilyPond.

Features

Excellent classical engraving

LilyPond allows musicians to produce elegant sheet music that is easy to read. Its developer community has spent thousands of hours developing powerful music engraving software that results in beautifully engraved music. All of LilyPond’s style settings, font designs and algorithms have been inspired by the finest hand-engraved music. LilyPond output has the same strong, balanced and elegant look as the best-engraved classical scores. This is further explained in our Essay.

Text input

Everything is explicit

LilyPond processes text input, which contains all information about the content of your score and can easily be read by any human or another program. There are no obscure settings hidden behind menu items and binary file storage.

Read more about this concept on Text input.

Tweaks are robust and traceable

If you have to change anything in the layout this tweak will also be explicitly visible in the input file in human-readable form, so you will always be able to retrace what you’ve done. If you should accidentally break anything you can easily revert or modify any decision without being at the mercy of an Undo function.

Text files are failure- and future-proof

Text files are very robust against file corruption. And as they are human-readable, you will always be able to interpret them even if you don’t have access to the programs that created them.

Manage your scores with version control

Text files are applicable to be managed by version control. Go for it and experience infinite and selective undo/redo mechanisms and the full development history of your scores. Version control may also open up new (collaborative) workflows for you.

Usability

Effective layout choices

Spend less time with tweaking the output; LilyPond gets the formatting correct right from the start. It determines spacing by itself, and breaks lines and pages to provide a tight and uniform layout. Clashes between lyrics, notes, and chords are resolved and slurs and beams are sloped, automatically!

Mix music and text

Put fragments of music into texts without cutting and pasting pictures. Integrate music into LaTeX or HTML seamlessly, or add music to OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice with OOoLilyPond. Plugins are also available to allow LilyPond code in various blogs and wikis, making online collaboration possible.

Accessibility

Text-based input also makes score-writing possible for users with severe physical disabilities. Dexterity-impaired users who are unable to type or control a computer mouse can use speech-recognition software to edit LilyPond files. Even users who are totally blind can use screen-reading software to write LilyPond files – an impossible task in graphical-based score-writing programs. You can see a spectacular score on Examples.

Editor diversity

Several developers, themselves active LilyPond users, have written tools specifically aimed at making the process of editing LilyPond files faster and more effective; you are not tied to a single user interface but can use different tools for different tasks. You can even use a full-fledged LilyPond editor at home and use your mobile phone’s notepad app to edit the files on the go. For some examples, see Easier editing.

Extensible design

Easy management of style sheets

All layout settings can be changed to suit your personal typographical taste. So you can easily write style sheets that change every aspect of LilyPond scores’ default appearance. As these are also written as text and can be stored in separate files you can simply switch between two stylesheets to produce scores with a completely different appearance or layout. You want to print a score on A4 paper and project it with a beamer, one system per page? LilyPond’s layout engine will effortlessly produce both from the same input.

Add your own functions

If that still is not enough, there is always the built-in scripting language Scheme, which can access LilyPond’s layout engine at the same level as LilyPond itself does, making it a very powerful tool. Settings, variables and functions are all documented in the comprehensive program reference manual.

Process scores programmatically

LilyPond input files can fully be edited or even generated by programs and scripts. This can for example be used for algorithmical composition. But you can also access the musical content for analysis, or manage input fragments in a database. There are no limitations except your imagination.

Create new tools using LilyPond

As LilyPond isn’t a monolithic GUI program but a command-line tool it can be used from within other applications too. This way it is possible to equip tools like, e.g., web applications with LilyPond’s engraving power. There already exist several online tools using LilyPond.

Environment

Excellent support

LilyPond runs on all popular platforms: GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows. LilyPond comes with extensive documentation and hundreds of example files. There is an active user community answering questions on the lilypond-user mailing list, offering you friendly help. The response time is usually very short, and often brillant solutions to reported problems are developed. Thanks to the close interaction with the development team such solutions are regularly included in LilyPond itself. Read more in Community.

Free software

LilyPond can be downloaded free of charge! Yep - It’s free. Get it from the download page.

It’s also free (as in “speech”) software. It comes with source code, and permission to change and copy it. So, are you irritated by a bug, or yearning for a feature? Simply add it yourself, or pay someone else to do it. Read more on Freedom.

Where now?

Still not convinced? Look at some specific Examples. If you’ve already decided to try LilyPond, first read about our Text input.

Examples

Beautiful Examples

LilyPond is a powerful and flexible tool for engraving tasks of all kinds. Please browse our gallery of examples and be inspired!

Classical Music

This organ work by J.S. Bach is a fairly typical engraving project in LilyPond.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Complex Notation

This example from Goyescas by Enrique Granados shows some of the more advanced features of typesetting, including kneed beams, cross-staff stems, and voice-follow lines.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Early Music

LilyPond also supports various types of ancient notation, such as this passage of Gregorian chant.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Modern Music

Contemporary composers find LilyPond well-suited to displaying unusual notation. Here is an excerpt from Trevor Bača’s Čáry, for unaccompanied bass flute.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Efficient, flexible creation of performance materials

Various performance materials can be created from the same source code. This is an excerpt of Nicolas Sceaux’s engraving of Handel’s Giulio Cesare, in full score, piano-vocal reduction, and a violin part.

(click image to enlarge) source code

(click image to enlarge) source code

(click image to enlarge) source code

Tablature

LilyPond supports tablature notation, which can be customized to suit any instrument that reads from tablature. The tablature staff is generated automatically from notes entered for the 5-line staff.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Vocal Music

LilyPond is excellent for vocal music of all kinds, from sacred hymns to opera. Here is a medieval motet with slightly unusual requirements. The tenor voice is written in a different meter than the others, but must line up as if it were in the same meter. LilyPond handles this most elegantly. Note also the incipits with Vaticana style clefs, the slashed stems indicating plicated notes, and the ligature braces above certain groups of notes.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Lead Sheets

It is simple to create lead sheets with melody, lyrics, chord names, and fretboards. In this example you see some of the predefined fretboard diagrams, but these can be heavily customized to suit nearly any situation.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Educational Applications

LilyPond is perfectly suited for educational purposes as well. Here is an example of a simple counterpoint exercise.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Large Projects

LilyPond is excellent for large projects like operas or works for full symphony orchestra, as well. In addition, the text-based input provides greater accessibility – this example was contributed by Hu Haipeng, a blind composer.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Customized Output

A short excerpt from Stockhausen’s Klavierstück II to demonstrate LilyPond’s ability to provide customised output.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Schenker Graphs

Standard output can be modified heavily. Here is an impressive Schenkerian analysis, created by Kris Schaffer, for an article in Linux Journal. The colors have been added for better visibility.

(click image to enlarge) source code

Where now?

Still not convinced? LilyPond is Free software, granting you Freedom. If you’ve already decided to try LilyPond, first read about our Text input.

Freedom

Free Software

GNU LilyPond is written and maintained by a community of enthusiasts. It is published under the GNU General Public License and the GNU Free Documentation License, giving everybody the freedom to fix, modify, and extend the program. Creating beautiful music should not require hundreds of dollars of software!

What are the benefits to users?

No cost: download and try it out! What do you have to lose?
Sharing: if you like the program, give a copy to your friends, teachers, students, and colleagues!
Source available: if you are curious about how LilyPond creates some notation, you can see exactly how it is done.
Extendible: you can add features, fix bugs, and change the functionality. If you are not a programmer, you can hire somebody to do those tasks.
This may not seem appealing to casual musicians, but the ability to extend software can be highly valuable to serious composers, companies, and academics.
Future safety: if a commercial company goes bankrupt, what happens to any electronic music which depends on their products? This is not a concern with LilyPond; even if the entire development team quits (extremely unlikely), the program will still be legally available for copying, modifications, and distribution.

Why do LilyPond developers “give away” their work for free?

Most of us view LilyPond development as a hobby or volunteer work. So this question is really asking “why do people volunteer”?

Fun: working towards a goal can be enjoyable, especially when you work as a team!
Shared goals: we all want beautiful sheet music, but few people have the expertise (and nobody has the time!), to create a program which can handle all situations. By working together – one person improves the automatic beaming code, another person improves the shape of slurs, and a third person writes documentation explaining how to use these features – we can achieve our goal with only a fraction of the individual effort.
“Gift culture”: the Free Software movement has created many great software projects, such as GNU/Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and Battle for Wesnoth. Having benefitted from these projects, some developers want to “give back” to the community.
Work experience: contributing to free software projects is a great way to practice programming, documentation writing, documentation translation, or design. This experience has helped some developers gain job offers or scholarships.

Where now?

Still not convinced? Read our extensive essay about our engraving philosophy in Background. If you’ve already decided to try LilyPond, first read about our Text input.

Background

Background essay

We have an extensive essay describing computational aesthetics: the art of creating beauty with a computer.

This is interesting reading if you are interested in an in-depth discussion of our fundamental ideas. Due to its volume the essay is available as a "manual". If you would like to read it now, please progress to Essay. However, if you just want a quick introduction to LilyPond, you might skip it for now.

Where now?

Still not convinced? Read about some of our users’ Productions and sheet music. If you’ve already decided to try LilyPond, first read about our Text input.

Productions

Productions using LilyPond

Here you can read about people who actually use LilyPond in their productions, be it for performances of their music or as published scores. The list is limited to works released as public domain or under open content licenses.

Performances and Concerts

LilyPond engravings have been used for performances around the world. Some highlights:

Marc Hohl has written musical scores for children and adolescents. Engraved using LilyPond (with LaTeX) and available for free, in German, from https://www.singspielschmiede.de/, all of the music was performed on stage at the School where Marc works.
Aurélien Bello arranged a version of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for four singers and a chamber orchestra of thirteen players. This was a commission by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra who performed it in 2015 at the Baden-Baden and also at the Berlin. We are pleased to see musicians of such reputation playing from LilyPond scores (who were reportedly very happy with them).
Aurélien also re-orchestrated Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner for a family concert (ages 7 and above). It was written for a standard symphony orchestra, but with a reduced cast of singers and was performed by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in 2014 at the Atze Musiktheater, Berlin. The Conductor was Heiko Matthias Förster.

Another re-orchestration by Aurélien was Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition which he also conducted for the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg in 2011 and again in 2012.
Joe Smeets created sheet music for the children’s book Zing Mee (Sing along) by Annie M.G. published by Querido – ISBN 9789045106205. He also worked on the score and parts for an arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov for wind quartet, piano and percussion which was performed in 2014 by Muziektheater Hollands Diep.
Joe also created the choir rehearsal scores for the Dutch translation of Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicolas which was performed in 2011 by Muziektheater Hollands Diep see www.muziektheaterhollandsdiep.nl.
Luca Rossetto Casel, for his Ph.D. thesis, created a critical edition of Tommaso Traetta’s Enea nel Lazio (1760), opera seria on a libretto by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi, in four parts: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four
Kieren MacMillan, composer and musical director of many works including; Go Thy Way, performed by the Salt Lake Choral Artists in 2012; The Just Out of Reach Suite performed by the Chrysalis Duo; and thrafsmata performed by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble in 2011.
Mike Solomon was the winner of 172 entries from 22 countries for the 2011 Left Coast Composition Contest with his work Anonymous Student Compliment or Complaint.
Other works for Mike include, Norman (age 1) for clarinet solo, performed at the University of Florida’s Electroacoustic Music Festival (FEMF) in October 2010.
Thomas Griffin, Musicologist (Rome, Italy), edited a modern edition of the Serenata Erminia by Alessandro Scarlatti, which was performed in 2010 at the Galleria of the Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, Naples, Italy in celebration of the composer’s 350th birthday. See http://www.ascarlatti2010.net.
Nicolas Sceaux engraved the work of Lully’s Armide which was performed by Mercury Baroque in 2009.
Nicolas also engraved the instrumental excerpts from Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie which were performed by Frederick Renz and his ensemble at St. James’s Church, Manhattan, New York in 2009. See Early Music New York.
Valentin Villenave engraved a libretto of Affaire étrangère, an opera by Lewis Trondheim, which was premiered in 2009 at the L’Opéra National de Montpellier, France.

Published sheet music

Sheet libraries

Mutopia Project, with over 2000 pieces of classical sheet music for free download, is the main showcase of LilyPond scores. Every piece comes with its LilyPond source file, allowing you to learn from other typesetters and also make your own edition.
baroquemusic.it, started in 2005, collects over 800 scores of baroque music. The archive includes scores, separate parts and midi files, distributed with a Creative Commons license and available to subscribers only.
Partitura Organum is a growing collection of organ pieces in the public domain, typeset by LilyPond and distributed under a Creative Commons license.
Clairnote offers free sheet music in Clairnote notation. Clairnote is an alternative notation system that aims to make music easier to read and understand. The scores on the website are taken from Mutopia and other online resources and then converted to Clairnote’s own notation.

Sheet source repositories

Mutopia Project repository: source files of all pieces in Mutopia library.
LilyPond website examples: source files of the example gallery shown in Examples.
Nicolas Sceaux: baroque music scores typeset with LilyPond by one of its developers.

If you are aware of any other concerts or sheet music which could be listed here, please let us know by writing a message to the bug-lilypond mailing list. If you’re not subscribed yet you can do so on the list’s info page.

Where now?

Still not convinced? Read some of our users’ Reviews. If you’ve already decided to try LilyPond, first read about our Text input.

Reviews

What do people say about LilyPond?

Published articles

April 2011
Linux Magazine publishes an article titled Projects on the Move. It is an introductory article on MuseScore, LilyPond and Chordii. Author Carla Schroder states “LilyPond is driven from the command line, but don’t let the lack of a GUI scare you away; LilyPond is user-friendly and easy to learn”, and provides a hands-on example.
May 2010
Peter Kirn, on the Create Digital Music website, publishes a LilyPond review. He takes a balanced view on usage, praises LilyPond’s high-quality notation and suggests to try it out.
September 2009
The German LinuxUser magazine wrote an article about LilyPond.
August 2009
Ann Drinan, on the Polyphonic.org website, presents comments by two orchestra librarians who talk about using software to maintain their libraries.
June 2009
In an article published in the French National Conservatory Parent Association’s yearly magazine, French composer and LilyPond contributor Valentin Villenave explains how Free licenses, and specifically LilyPond-engraved scores, are instrumental in making written music accessible to all.
February 2008
In articles on his personal site, Andrew Hawryluk compares Finale and LilyPond in general terms, and evaluates engraving capabilities of both pieces of software in detail. The second article is an instructive analysis of engraving issues in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Prelude No. 6, including comparisons with a hand-engraved reference edition.
June 2006
DistroWatch awards LilyPond and writes “Ladies and Gentleman, we are pleased to announce that, based on readers’ requests, the DistroWatch May 2006 donation has been awarded to LilyPond (€190.00) and Lua (US$250.00).”
December 2005
Linux Journal publishes an article titled Make Stunning Schenker Graphs with GNU LilyPond. It is an in-depth but hands-on feature article with crisp LilyPond graphics. Author Kris Shaffer remarks “GNU LilyPond generates beautiful graphics that make commercial alternatives seem second-rate.”
August 20, 2005
The Belgian newspaper De Standaard investigates what drives Free Software authors in an article titled Delen van KENNIS zonder WINSTBEJAG (Non-profit sharing of knowledge) in its ‘DS2 bijlage’. LilyPond is used as an example and the article is interspersed with quotes from an email interview with Jan Nieuwenhuizen. This marks LilyPond’s first appearance in mainstream printed press.
June 2005
A French article on the LilyPond 2.6 release appeared on linuxfr.org.
October 2004
The editors of Computer!Totaal, a Dutch computer magazine, describe LilyPond in the October 2004 issue as: “Wonderful free (open source) software […] The sheet music produced by LilyPond is exceptionally pretty […] a very powerful system that can do almost anything.”
July, August 2004
Dave Phillips wrote an introductory article for Linux Journal: At the sounding edge: LilyPond, parts one and two.
March 2004
Chris Cannam interviewed Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen on linuxmusician.com (original site defunct). This interview was also reviewed in a slashdot story.
February 2004
Jazz singer Gail Selkirk writes about Diving into LilyPond. “… you can make lead sheets or full orchestral parts, and the results can be stunning.” Computer Music Special, issue CMS06.

User testimonials

Carter Brey, Principal Cellist, New York Philharmonic

“… I’ve written a couple of encore pieces for solo cello which I’ve printed with LilyPond and which I’m going to submit to Schirmer for publication. I’ll bet their engraved version wouldn’t look half as sharp as mine!”

Orm Finnendahl, professor of Composition, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main

“Although I don’t know [LilyPond] very well yet, I’m *very impressed. I used the program to input a motet of Josquin Desprez in mensural notation and there’s no doubt that lilypond outscores all other notation programs easily concerning speed, ease of use and look!”

Darius Blasband, composer (Brussels, Belgium)

“[..after the first orchestra rehearsal] I got numerous compliments about the quality of the scores. Even more importantly, while LilyPond provides numerous hacks to improve the way its scores look, what the orchestra got from me is basically the raw, untouched output.”

Kieren MacMillan, composer (Toronto, Canada)

“thanks and kudos to the development team for their incredible work. I’ve never seen anything approaching the output that I get from LilyPond – I’m totally confident that my music publishing needs will be fulfilled beyond my expectations using this great application. […] basically untweaked LilyPond output […] looks better than most recent ‘professional’ publications I’ve compared it to (q.v., just about any Warner Bros. score, and even many of the most recent by ‘the old houses’). […]” “Beat that, Finale/Sibelius/Igor/whatever!!!”

Chris Cannam, lead programmer of the RoseGarden project

“LilyPond is obviously the zillion-ton gorilla [of great music typesetting].”

Chris Snyder, Adoro Music Publishing

“The way that music is entered for LilyPond causes me to think in a more musical way – there have been times when I’ve been stumped as to how to tell Lily to engrave something, only to realize that even if I did get it exactly as the composer wanted, the music would be confusing to read. LilyPond makes it much easier for me to work in my dual editor+engraver role.”

“I’ve been using LilyPond exclusively for my fledgling music publishing business. Virtually without exception, every composer has been blown away by the quality of the engraving when presented with the proofs of their music about to be published. I deserve some of the credit for this – I spend a lot of time tweaking output, especially ties (mainly in chords) – but LilyPond gives me an excellent starting point, a very intuitive interface, and the ability to modify absolutely anything if I want to take the time. I’m convinced that no commercial product can come close.”

David Bobroff, Bass Trombone, Iceland Symphony Orchestra

“I think LilyPond is great […] The more I learn about LilyPond the more I like it!”

Vaylor Trucks, Electric guitar player (Yes, related to)

“I am super impressed with LilyPond […]”

“THIS IS THE BEST PROGRAM EVER!!!”

“Thank you all SO MUCH for your hard work and dedication!”

Nicolas Sceaux, Mutopia contributor

“I had a kind of hate-passion relationship with it. Passion because the first score I saw was so amazing! The description of LilyPond lies about its beautifulness, it is too modest! […] as LilyPond is getting always better, and as I look closer how things are done in scheme, I have less and less frustrations. Anyway, what I mean is: thank you for providing LilyPond, it is really good.”

Werner Lemberg, Conductor at the Theater in Koblenz, Germany and distinguished GNU Hacker

“Anyway, LilyPond does an amazingly good job!”

Paul Davis, developer of JACK and Ardour

“I think [LilyPond is] an incredible program, and it produces wonderful, wonderful output. when i read an interview about it last year, i was raving to several friends of mine about its potential.”

Dr. Mika Kuuskankare, researcher at the Sibelius Academy Finland, composer and author of Expressive Notation Package (ENP)

“I have the deepest respect towards LilyPond and towards its creators and maintainers as I know from personal experience how difficult this kind of software can be.”

David Cameron, Musician, professional typesetter and long time SCORE user

“My heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributes to this project. I was a power SCORE user for big typesetting houses way back in the ’90s, but I feel LilyPond finally makes it possible for me to get exactly what I want on the page, especially when it isn’t "standard" practice.”

If you are aware of any other news articles or testimonals which could be listed here, please let us know by writing a message to the bug-lilypond mailing list. If you’re not subscribed yet you can do so on the list’s info page.

Where now?

Read about our Text input.

Text input

“Compiling” Music

(click to enlarge)

LilyPond is a compiled system: it is run on a text file describing the music. The resulting output is viewed on-screen or printed. In some ways, LilyPond is more similar to a programming language than graphical score editing software.

You do not write music by dragging notes from a graphical toolbar and placing them on a dynamically refreshing score; you write music by typing text. This text is interpreted (or “compiled”) by LilyPond, which produces beautifully engraved sheet music.

People accustomed to graphical user interfaces might need to learn a new way of working, but the results are definitely worth it!

Note: We present a quick overview of our text input – it’s not as complicated as it sounds! Don’t worry about understanding every detail in these examples; our beginner documentation covers everything at a much more gradual pace.

It’s as simple as A B C

Notes are encoded with letters and numbers. Special commands are entered with backslashes.

Alterations are made with different names: add -is for sharp, and -es for flat (these are Dutch note names, other languages are available). LilyPond figures out where to put accidentals.

Pop music

Put chords and lyrics together to get a lead sheet:

Orchestral parts

The input file contains the notes of piece of music. Score and parts can be made from a single input file, so that changing a note always affects the score and parts. To be able to include the same music in multiple places, the music is assigned to a “variable” (a name).

This variable is then used in a single part (here transposed, with condensed rests spanning several measures):

The same variable is used in the full score (here in concert pitch):

Beginner Documentation

We realize that many users find this way of entering music a bit odd. For this reason, we have written extensive documentation to help new users, beginning with Learning. The Learning Manual is the best place to start, as many questions are answered before they come up!

Occasionally new users are unnecessarily confused by some aspects of LilyPond’s behavior. Please read this manual before doubting whether LilyPond is working correctly.

More in-depth information is available in Manuals.

Ben Lemon, a LilyPond user, has created a range of video tutorials on his blog and which are aimed at new users.

Easier editing environments

(click to enlarge)

LilyPond is primarily concerned with producing top-quality engraved sheet music; creating a Graphical User Interface (GUI) would distract us from this goal. However, there are other projects aimed at making it easier to create LilyPond input files.

Some editing environments include syntax highlighting, automatic command completion, and pre-made templates. Other programs actually provide a GUI which allows direct manipulation of a graphical score. For more information, see Easier editing.

Where now?

You are now ready to Download LilyPond. Still not convinced? Read about Easier editing.

Easier editing

Note: The following programs and packages are developed outside the core of LilyPond, by enthusiastic users who have seen a need or a way to add LilyPond to their own workflow. This means the packages may not reflect current LilyPond syntax, although their output can be brought up to date using convert-ly.

Front-end Applications

Frescobaldi

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https://www.frescobaldi.org

Frescobaldi is a lightweight, yet powerful, music and text editor with many features added and enhanced particularly for LilyPond. Major features include point-and-click links between the code and music views, detailed score wizards, built-in LilyPond documentation browser, syntax highlighting and automatic completion. Frescobaldi is written in Python, with PyQt5 for its user interface, and will run on all major operating systems (GNU/Linux, macOS and Windows).

Denemo

(click to enlarge)

http://denemo.org

Denemo is a graphical editor which generates LilyPond source code, and also allows audio playback. It allows users to view the LilyPond source code in parallel to the graphical view. Extra LilyPond tweaks can be attached to notes, chords, etc., and are stored with the Denemo file, so that users can continue to edit graphically.

Moving the cursor in the LilyPond text moves the cursor in the graphical view, and any syntax errors in your LilyPond tweaks are highlighted in the text view when printed from there.

Spontini-Editor

(click to enlarge)

https://github.com/paopre/Spontini

Spontini-Editor is a text-combined-with-graphic music editor that speeds up the creation and fine graphic tuning of complex scores edited with LilyPond through two main features:

It allows the positioning of musical objects (articulations, texts, pedals, curves, brackets etc.) with the mouse. Once the positioning is graphically done, the text editor reports the corresponding changes on the input file.
It assists in the creation of piano music by inserting notes in tabular and formatted form and it provides quick tools for cross-staff notation.

It works both as a standalone application and as a web-based server + multi-client system.

Browser-based editors

Hacklily

https://www.hacklily.org/

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An online sheet-music editor and publishing tool powered by LilyPond, with additional features such as autocompletion and contextual help. The underlying web hosting code is available under the AGPL license, on its own development page. Hacklily uses LilyPond 2.18.2, and although there is an open issue for updating to version 2.24, it has not been updated since 2022.

www.omet.ca

http://www.omet.ca/

(click to enlarge)

Since 2010, Online Music Editing Tools (OMET) offers a ready-to-use LilyPond service with a specifically-tailored web interface. Registration is required but free of charge.

Word processor plug-ins

OOoLilyPond

https://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/OOoLilyPond

An OpenOffice.org extension that converts LilyPond files into images within OpenOffice.org documents.

IDE Plug-ins

Elysium

https://github.com/thSoft/elysium

A complete environment for editing scores with LilyPond in Eclipse, offering a rich toolkit for conveniently managing LilyPond.

Text editors

Emacs

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ Emacs is a text editor with language-sensitive capabilities for many different computer languages. Emacs is a highly extensible editor and can be used as an Integrated Development Environment. There is a ‘lilypond mode’ which supplies the language definitions for working with LilyPond source files. A developer has written lyqi, an Emacs major mode.

If you are not already familiar with Emacs then you may probably prefer to use a different editor for writing LilyPond input files.

More information on setting up Emacs can be found in Text editor support.

Vim

https://www.vim.org Vim is a minimal text editor and is an extension of the older Unix vi editor. It is also extensible and configurable.

If you are not already familiar with Vi then you may probably prefer to use a different editor for writing LilyPond input files.

More information on setting up Vim can be found in Text editor support.

Neovim

https://neovim.io Neovim is a minimal text editor and fork of vim. It is highly extensible and configurable through the vimscript and lua programming languages. LilyPond support is provided by the nvim-lilypond-suite plugin. The plugin supports playback of MIDI files through external programs, point-and-click when using a supported PDF viewer, snippets and code completion when combined with other plugins, in addition to the full range of tools available in the neovim ecosystem. For more details on how to set it up, consult the plugin’s github page. You will also want to spend some time with some of the numerous online tutorials for learning vim/neovim to get the most out of your editing experience.

TeXShop

https://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/

The TeXShop editor for macOS can be extended to run LilyPond, lilypond-book and convert-ly from within the editor, using the extensions contributed by Nicola Vitacolonna. These must be moved from the TeXShop “inactive” subdirectory to the “Engines” one, in order to make them available for use.

Other programs that can export LilyPond code

Score, tab and MIDI editors:

bwwtolily attempts to convert a .bww or .bmw file to LilyPond. While not all of the embellishments may get converted properly (this is especially true with piobaireachd), the program will list them.
Canorus, a score editor, can also export to LilyPond, but is still beta-software. Testers are welcome, though.
Enc2ly is a GNU/Linux program which converts an Encore music score into a LilyPond one.
go-enc2ly is a Go tool that converts Encore files to LilyPond. It was created using Felipe Castro’s research and reverse engineering by tweaking existing .enc files and loading them using the 4.55 demo version. It was last updated in 2014.
NtEd, a score editor based on the Cairo library, it has experimental support for exporting to LilyPond.
NW2LY is a C# program which converts a NoteWorthy composer song into LilyPond.
Ripple is a program that helps create scores and parts, including a mode for mixing different musical works together in a single score or part. It was last updated in 2012.
Rosegarden, an audio and MIDI sequencer, which also has a score editor for single-staff editing.

Algorithmic code generators

Abjad, a Python API for Formalized Score Control designed to help composers build up complex pieces of LilyPond notation in an iterative and incremental way.
FOMUS, (FOrmat MUSic) is a music notation tool for computer music composers. It is written in the Lisp programming language, and has been tested in a variety of interpreters. A C++ port is also available.
TuxGuitar, a multitrack tablature editor and player, includes a score viewer and can export to LilyPond.

Other programs no longer being actively developed

LilyBin is a web-based LilyPond editor where you can typeset your scores directly online without needing to install LilyPond. Code snippets are kept available with a unique URL, like on so-called ‘pastebin’ websites. Although https://lilybin.com, where it used to be hosted, has been discontinued, its source code continues to be freely available under the MIT license; it may be found on its GitHub page.
LilyPondTool was created as a plugin for the jEdit text editor.
LilyComp is a graphical note entry program, acting much like a number-pad which produces LilyPond notes.
MuseScore, a score editor. LilyPond export was dropped in version 2.0 but earlier versions are still available for download at Sourceforge.
NoteEdit, which imported MusicXML, has been forked into NtEd and Canorus.
Rumor, a realtime monophonic MIDI-to-LilyPond converter.
tunefl Typeset your mini-scores directly online without needing to install LilyPond locally. It allows trying out all the program’s features using a convenient web interface.
Strasheela, an environment built on top of the The Mozart Programming System.

Where now?

You are now ready to Download LilyPond.

Still not convinced? Many composers, musicians, and conductors have learned how to write music in our input format. Experienced users even report that they can enter a full score in LilyPond faster than with a piano keyboard or mouse+GUI! Perhaps you would like to review the Features, Examples, or the Freedom that LilyPond provides, or read about users’ Productions and Reviews. In addition, our approach to the computational aesthetics of classical engraving is explained in our Background.

Legalese

All logos and product images are copyright and trademark acknowledged.

Tux the Linux Penguin was created by lewing@isc.tamu.edu with the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.

The FreeBSD logo is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.

The “X image” is not a registered trademark. It was created by Nihonjoe and CyberSkull, and placed under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later. We found the image on this Wikimedia Commons page.

The “four colored rectangles image” is not a registered trademark. It was created by Rohitbd and placed under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2. We found the image on this Wikimedia Commons page.

Download

Downloads for LilyPond 2.24.4

Essential links

For new users

Text input: LilyPond is a text-based music engraver; it is more similar to a programming language than a graphical score editing program. Read this to understand the basic LilyPond editing workflow.

Learning: This gentle introduction to LilyPond shows how to install it and guides you through your first steps with the program.

For users who upgrade from a previous version

Changes: What’s new in LilyPond 2.24.4.

Usage: Explains how to run convert-ly to effortlessly update existing input files written for older versions.

Learning: The installation method shown in the tutorial allows installing several versions of LilyPond in parallel seamlessly.

GNU/Linux

Generic Packages or Distribution-Specific Packages?

Many distributions include LilyPond within their normal package repositories. However, these may be significantly older than the current stable version. If this is the case for you, we strongly recommend that you use our generic packages.

Downloads for Generic Packages

GNU/Linux x86_64: LilyPond 2.24.4

Windows

Downloads for Generic Packages

These binaries work under current Windows versions (Windows 7 and Windows 8 are not supported).

Windows x86_64: LilyPond 2.24.4

macOS

Downloads for Generic Packages

These binaries work on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and higher. For older macOS versions, please use MacPorts.

macOS x86_64: LilyPond 2.24.4

Using a Package Manager

MacPorts, a package manager for macOS, has a LilyPond port.
Homebrew, another package manager for macOS, has a LilyPond formula.

For developers

Source: for packagers

Old downloads: old versions

Development: latest unstable version

Software License

LilyPond is published under the GNU General Public License.

Legalese

All logos and product images are copyright and trademark acknowledged.

Tux the Linux Penguin was created by lewing@isc.tamu.edu with the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.

Source

Note: We do not recommend that you attempt to build LilyPond yourself; almost all user needs are better met with the pre-built version.

Source tarball

Source: lilypond-2.24.4.tar.gz

Compiling instructions are listed in Compiling.

Old downloads

All versions

To obtain the source and binaries for any release, visit our GitLab releases page for versions since 2.23.6, or the previous download site for earlier versions.

GPL

Software license

GNU LilyPond is published under the GNU General Public License. An introduction to this license, and our reasons for choosing it, is given in Freedom.

GNU General Public License

Version 3, 29 June 2007

Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
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THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively state the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the “copyright” line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.
Copyright (C) year name of author

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

program Copyright (C) year name of author
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details.

The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, your program’s commands might be different; for a GUI interface, you would use an “about box”.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school, if any, to sign a “copyright disclaimer” for the program, if necessary. For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But first, please read https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html.

Manuals

Manuals for LilyPond 2.25.21

The LilyPond manuals generally come in three formats: split HTML, big HTML, and PDF. Split HTML is good for reading online. Big HTML (and some of these files can be very big) contains the whole manual as a single page. PDF is available for downloading and using offline. To get to these three formats, follow the links that read ‘details of’ and then the manual name.

Introduction

Text input: LilyPond is a text-based music engraver. Read this first!
Learning: a “must-read” gentle introduction to LilyPond. (details of Learning)
Glossary: (optional reading) musical terms and translations. (details of Glossary)
Essay: (optional reading) background information about computer engraving. (details of Essay)

Regular use

Notation: syntax reference. (details of Notation)
Usage: running the programs. (details of Usage)
Snippets: short tricks and tips. (details of Snippets)

Infrequent Use

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions.
Web: this document. (details of Web)
Changes: what’s new? (details of Changes)
Extending: fancy tweaks. (details of Extending)
Internals: tweaks reference. (details of Internals)

Other material

All: previous stable versions and current as a compressed archive.
LilyPond Snippet Repository: user-created examples, hints and tips.
Video Tutorials: Ben Lemon, a LilyPond user, has created a range of video tutorials on his blog and which are aimed at new users.
LilyPond’s Scheme: an external tutorial to learn Scheme, the language used to program LilyPond. Recommended if you are an absolute beginner when it comes to programming.
Extending LilyPond: an external documentation resource about extending LilyPond in Scheme. It also contains a Scheme tutorial, which is recommended if you have some experience with programming in another language.
Development: manuals for the unstable version.
FDL: these manuals are published under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Learning

Learning manual

This book explains how to begin learning LilyPond, as well as explaining some key concepts in easy terms. You should read these chapters in a linear fashion.

There is a paragraph See also at the end of each section, which contains cross-references to other sections: you should not follow these cross-references at first reading. When you have read all of the manual, you may want to read some sections again and follow those cross-references for more information.

Read it

Learning (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Learning (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
learning.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 3.4M)

Glossary

This explains musical terms, and includes translations to various languages. If you are not familiar with music notation or music terminology (especially if you are a non-native English speaker), it is highly advisable to consult the glossary.

Read it

Music glossary (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Music glossary (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
music-glossary.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 568K)

Essay

This book gives a brief history of music typography, followed by an examination of LilyPond’s engraving techniques. A comparison between LilyPond and other music engraving systems is given.

Note: the detailed typographical examples are easier to analyze in the PDF version due to its higher resolution.

Read it

Essay (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Essay (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
essay.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 1.3M)

Notation

Notation reference

This book explains all the LilyPond commands which produce notation.

Note: the Notation reference assumes that the reader knows basic material covered in the Learning manual and is familiar with the English musical terms presented in the glossary.

Read it

Notation (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Notation (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
notation.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 6.4M)

Usage

Usage manual

This book explains how to execute the programs, how to integrate LilyPond notation with other programs, and suggests “best practices” for efficient use. It is recommended reading before attempting any large projects.

Read it

Usage (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Usage (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
usage.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 436K)

Snippets

This shows a selected set of LilyPond snippets from the LilyPond Snippet Repository (LSR). All the snippets are in the public domain.

Please note that this document is not an exact subset of LSR. LSR is running a stable LilyPond version, so any snippet which demonstrates new features of a development version must be added separately. These are stored in Documentation/snippets/new/ in the LilyPond source tree.

The list of snippets for each subsection of the Notation Reference is also linked from the See also portion.

Read it

Snippets (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Snippets (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
snippets.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 3.9M)

FAQ

Introductory questions

Where are the graphical canvas, menus, and toolbars?

LilyPond requires you to write music as text. Please read about our Text input.

There’s a lot of documentation! Do I need to read it?

You need to read the Learning manual. As for the rest of documentation, you only need to read the sections which discuss the notation that you wish to create.

That’s still a lot of reading! Is it worth it?

Please decide for yourself; the reasons why you might want to use LilyPond are given in the Introduction.

Usage questions

Something isn’t working! How do I fix it?

This is explained in Troubleshooting.

Why do you change the syntax?

This is explained in Why does the syntax change?.

Web

This manual supplies general information about LilyPond. It also contains information about various community forums, bug reporting, and development.

Read it

Latest manual

Web manual in 2.25.21

Web (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Web (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
web.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 2.5M)

Changes

This is a summary of important changes and new features in LilyPond since the previous stable version.

Read it

Changes (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Changes (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
changes.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 188K)

Extending

Extending LilyPond

This manual explains how to write extensions to LilyPond.

Read it

Extending (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Extending (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
extending.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 364K)

Internals

Internals reference

This is a set of heavily cross linked pages which document the nitty-gritty details of each and every LilyPond class, object, and function. It is produced directly from the formatting definitions in the source code.

Almost all formatting functionality that is used internally is available directly to the user. For example, most variables that control thickness values, distances, etc., can be changed in input files. There are a huge number of formatting options, and all of them are described in this document. Each section of the Notation Reference has a See also subsection, which refers to the generated documentation.

Read it

Internals (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Internals (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
internals.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 5.2M)

All

Downloadable versions

Downloadable tarballs only available at https://lilypond.org

Previous stable versions

FDL

Documentation license

The documentation for GNU LilyPond is published under the GNU Free Documentation License. An introduction to this license, and our reasons for choosing it, is given in Freedom.

GNU Free Documentation License 1.3

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.

A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

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The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.

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A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.

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The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.
VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.
COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
9. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the “History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
11. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
13. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
14. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
15. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

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The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”
COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document’s Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.

If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “History”, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.
TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any rights to use it.
FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.
RELICENSING
“Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.

“CC-BY-SA” means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco, California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization.

“Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part of another Document.

An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.

The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

  Copyright (C)  year  your name.
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
  or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
  with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
  Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
  Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with…Texts.” line with this:

    with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
    the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
    being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

Community

Interacting with the community

Contact: get help, discuss, and keep in touch!
Tiny examples: these are highly recommended when discussing LilyPond.
Bug reports: something went wrong.

Making LilyPond better

Help us: your assistance is requested.
Sponsoring: financial contributions.
Development: for contributors and testers.
Google Summer of Code: ideas for Google Summer of Code (GSoC).
Authors: the people who made LilyPond what it is today.

Miscellaneous

Publications: what we wrote, and have had written about us.
News: news from the LilyPond project.
Attic: announcements and changelogs from past versions, old news, etc.

Contact

User Discussions and Help

User mailing list: `lilypond-user@gnu.org`

This mailing list is the main place for users to discuss and help each other.

lilypond-user subscribe and info

user archive 1 archive 2

Note: When asking questions, please use Tiny examples!

Other languages

French forum

German forum

Italian mailing list

Portuguese group

Spanish mailing list

LilyPond Snippet Repository

The LilyPond Snippet Repository is a large collection of user-submitted examples, which can freely be copied and used in your own works. See what other people have written, and add your own!

https://lsr.di.unimi.it

Particularly instructive examples from LSR are included in our official documentation, in Snippets.

Developer Discussions and Translations

Developer mailing list: `lilypond-devel@gnu.org`

Developer discussions take place on this list. Patches can also be sent here.

lilypond-devel subscribe and info

devel archive 1 archive 2

Bug mailing list: `bug-lilypond@gnu.org`

Bug reports and discussions should be sent here. Do not send patches to this list.

bug-lilypond subscribe and info

bug archive 1 archive 2

Note: Before sending a message to the bug list, please read our guidelines for Bug reports.

Release announcements

Releases mailing list: `info-lilypond@gnu.org`

This mailing list is a low-volume, read-only list that receives notifications of new releases.

info-lilypond subscribe and info

info archive 1 archive 2

IRC

Some level of support is provided on our IRC channel,

#lilypond@irc.libera.chat

This channel has no public archive, so any question that may be useful for others would better be posted to one of the mailing lists.

Tiny examples

What are “Tiny examples”?

A tiny example is an example from which nothing can be removed.

Why create them?

The simpler the example is, the quicker potential helpers can understand it and help you.
A tiny example demonstrates that you have put effort towards solving the problem yourself. When people send huge portions of input, it looks like they don’t care if we help them or not.
Creating a tiny example helps you to understand what is happening. Many false problem reports can be avoided by attempting to create a tiny example; if you cannot replicate a “bug” in a tiny example, then the problem was probably an insufficient understanding of LilyPond, not an actual bug!

How to create them?

Include the \version number.
Make it small! Examples about spacing or page layout might require many bars of music, but most issues can be reproduced using less than a single measure.
When trying to create an example, try commenting out (% or %{ … %}) sections of your file. If you can comment something while still demonstrating the main idea, then remove the commented-material.
Avoid using complicated notes, keys or time signatures, unless the bug is about the behavior of those items.
Do not use \override or \set commands unless the bug is about those specific commands.
Optionally, attach an image showing the desired graphical output.

How tiny should they be?

Is the code below a minimal example?

\version "2.14.1"
\include "english.ly"

\score {
  \new Staff {
    \key d \major
    \numericTimeSignature
    \time 2/4
    <cs' d'' b''>16 <cs' d'' b''>8.
    %% Here: the tie on the D's looks funny
    %% Too tall? Left-hand endpoint is not aligned with the B tie?
    ~
    <cs' d'' b''>8 [ <b d'' a''> ]
  }
}

Well, it is not very big, but a truly minimal example is here:

\version "2.14.1"
{
  % middle tie looks funny here:
  <c' d'' b''>8. ~ <c' d'' b''>8
}

Very few tiny examples exceed 10 lines of code - quite often 4 lines are enough to demonstrate the problem!

Bug reports

If you have input that results in a crash or wrong output, then that is a bug.

Step 1: Known bugs

We may already know about this bug. Check here:

https://gitlab.com/lilypond/lilypond/-/issues

Note: Please DO NOT add bug reports directly to the bug tracker. Once an issue has been added to the tracker, feel free to add more information to that report.

Step 2: Creating a bug report

If you have discovered a bug which is not listed, please help us by creating a bug report.

Note: We only accept reports in the form of Tiny examples. We have very limited resources, so any non-minimal example will be rejected. Almost every bug can be demonstrated in four notes or less!

Here is an example of a good bug report:

% Accidentals should be printed for only
% the first note in a tie, but this version
% prints flats on both notes.
\version "2.10.1"

\relative c'' {
 bes1 ~
 bes1
}

Step 3: Sending a bug report

Once you have verified that the issue is not already known and created a bug report, please send it to us!

Unfortunately there is no longer an interface for posting to the bug-lilypond list without subscribing; see

https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-lilypond

for more information.

Step 4: Wait for a response

Once your bug report has been sent to the list, our Bug Squad will examine it; they may ask you for more information. You will be notified when the report will be added to the bug tracker. Please allow up to 4 days, as we have a limited number of volunteers for this task.

Once a bug has been added to the tracker, you can comment it to add more information about it. In order to be automatically notified about any activity on the tracker issue, you may subscribe by clicking the envelope symbol next to the issue title.

Optional help: show the desired behavior

Once an issue has been added to the tracker, it can be very helpful if we can see the desired output. Feel free to add input code and/or images (possibly created with other tools) which demonstrate what you think it should look like!

Help us

We need you!

Thank you for your interest in helping us – we would love to see you get involved! Your contribution will help a large group of users make beautifully typeset music.

Even working on small tasks can have a big impact: taking care of them allows experienced developers to work on advanced tasks instead of spending time on those simple tasks.

For a multi-faceted project like LilyPond, sometimes it’s tough to know where to begin. In addition to the avenues proposed below, you can send an e-mail to the lilypond-devel@gnu.org mailing list, and we’ll help you to get started.

Simple tasks

No programming skills required!

Mailing list support: answer questions from fellow users. (This may entail helping them navigate the online documentation; in such cases it may sometimes be appropriate to point them to version-agnostic URL paths such as ‘latest’ or ‘stable’, which are automatically redirected.)
Bug reporting: help users create proper Bug reports, and/or join the Bug Squad to organize Issues.
Documentation: small changes can be proposed by following the guidelines for Documentation suggestions.
LilyPond Snippet Repository (LSR): create and fix snippets following the guidelines in Adding and editing snippets.
Discussions, reviews, and testing: the developers often ask for feedback about new documentation, potential syntax changes, and testing new features. Please contribute to these discussions!

Advanced tasks

These jobs generally require that you have the source code and can compile LilyPond.

Note: We suggest that contributors using Windows or macOS do not attempt to set up their own development environment; instead, use Lilydev as discussed in Quick start.

Contributors using Linux or FreeBSD may also use Lilydev, but if they prefer their own development environment, they should read Working with source code, and Compiling.

Begin by reading Summary for experienced developers.

Documentation: for large changes, see Documentation work.
Website: the website is built from the normal documentation source. See the info about documentation, and also Website work.
Translations: see Translating the documentation, and Translating the website.
Bugfixes or new features: read Programming work.

Sponsoring

Bounties

In the past,

some users have paid for new features
some developers have added new features for hire

The LilyPond project does not organize such efforts; we neither endorse nor discourage such agreements. Any contracts between private individuals is the business of those individuals, not ours.

Guidelines

Any user wanting to offer money in exchange for work should bear in mind the following points:

LilyPond developers may advertise their services on the lilypond email lists from time to time.
Any agreements between private individuals should include the normal precautions when conducting business: who pays, how much do they pay, with what method of payment, and upon what set of conditions. We suggest that any ambiguity or uncertainty in these questions should be resolved before any work begins.

Development

Development for LilyPond 2.25.21

Note: These are unstable development versions. If you have the slightest doubt about how to use or install LilyPond, we urge you to use the stable Download, and read the stable Manuals.

Release numbers

There are two sets of releases for LilyPond: stable releases, and unstable development releases. Stable versions have an even-numbered ‘minor’ version number (e.g., 2.14, 2.16, 2.18). Development versions have an odd-numbered ‘minor’ version number (e.g., 2.15, 2.17, 2.19).

Download

Instructions for git and compiling are in the Contributor’s Guide.

lilypond git repository

Documentation writers and testers will generally want to download the latest binary:

GNU/Linux x86_64: LilyPond 2.25.21

macOS arm64: LilyPond 2.25.21

macOS x86_64: LilyPond 2.25.21

MacPorts package

Windows x86_64: LilyPond 2.25.21

Source: lilypond-2.25.21.tar.gz

If you are unsure about how to install these binaries, please read the start of the Learning.

Contributor’s Guide

LilyPond development is a fairly complicated matter. In order to help new contributors, and to keep the whole system (mostly) stable, we have written a manual for development tasks.

Contributor’s Guide (split HTML) − the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page)
Contributor’s Guide (big HTML) − read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download)
contributor.pdf − download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 812K)

Regression tests

Regression tests: This release’s regtests. (pdf version)
MusicXML tests: This release’s musicXML tests. (pdf version)
abc2ly tests: This release’s abc2ly tests. (pdf version)

Manuals

Note: These manuals are for LilyPond 2.25.21; the latest manuals can be found at https://lilypond.org

Introduction
Learning (split HTML)	Learning (big HTML)	learning.pdf
Glossary (split HTML)	Glossary (big HTML)	music-glossary.pdf
Essay (split HTML)	Essay (big HTML)	essay.pdf

Regular
Notation (split HTML)	Notation (big HTML)	notation.pdf
Usage (split HTML)	Usage (big HTML)	usage.pdf
Snippets (split HTML)	Snippets (big HTML)	snippets.pdf
Visual Index (PDF)

Infrequent
Web (split HTML)	Web (big HTML)	web.pdf
Changes (split HTML)	Changes (big HTML)	changes.pdf
Extending (split HTML)	Extending (big HTML)	extending.pdf
Internals (split HTML)	Internals (big HTML)	internals.pdf

Google Summer of Code

What is Google Summer of Code?

GSoC is a global program that offers stipends to contributors to write code for free software and open source projects. Within a flexible time frame of three months or more, contributors work to complete a given task as part of the project’s community and under the guidance of experienced mentors. The program is an excellent opportunity for students and non-professionals to gain experience with real-world software development and make a contribution that benefits everyone. It brings new contributors to LilyPond and enables people who are already involved to become more involved. LilyPond participates in GSoC as part of the GNU project.

We had GSoC participants in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020. This site is current for the 2023 program.

Project Ideas List

Below is a list of GSoC project ideas, but if you have other ideas for a project you are welcome to make a suggestion on our developer mailing list (see Contact). There are a number of areas where LilyPond could be improved, and our development team is always willing to help those who would like to tackle a project similar to those listed below. As mentor availability varies from project to project and from year to year it is wise to get in touch with us as early as possible.

Note that we also have “Community Mentors”. We aim at assigning one Community Mentor to each active project who is not responsible for discussing the implementation or reviewing the code. Instead they will on the one hand discuss the design of the planned features from the (power) user perspective, and they will look after the communication between participant and mentor, and between the two and the community.

A full list of all the current open issues can be found here.

Adding more glyphs to LilyPond’s Emmentaler music font

More SMuFL glyphs: The World Wide Web (W3C) consortium has been maintaining the Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) with a reference font called Bravura since a few years; this font contains a large amount of glyphs not part of LilyPond’s Emmentaler music font. A mapping between LilyPond glyph names and SMuFL glyph names and encoding can be found in this ongoing project.
‘On’ and ‘between’ staff-line variants: For some glyphs it would be beneficial to have different glyphs, depending on whether they sit on a staff line or between two staff lines. Examples are shaped note heads.
Shorter and narrower variants of some glyphs: For tight typesetting situations (i.e., only a small amount of horizontal space is available) it would help to have glyph variants that need less horizontal space, for example narrower accidentals (issues #2141ff). Another, more specific example could be an ancient notation breve notehead coming in two variants (with a smaller or bigger ‘hole’).

Difficulty: easy to medium

Requirements: MetaFont/MetaPost, C++, good eye for details

Recommended knowledge: basic LilyPond knowledge

Size: 175h/350h, depending on the selected sub-tasks

Mentor: Werner Lemberg

Improve/Extend Export to MusicXML

There is experimental support for exporting scores to MusicXML. So far there is limited coverage that should be extended, and the export should become more robust with regard to unconventionally organized input files. Several strategies can be thought of in that regard.

Significant progress in coverage has been made in a GSoC Project hosted by Frescobaldi in 2017, but there is still much to be done that could make a nice GSoC project.

Working in this project will mainly be done in the python-ly repository.

Difficulty: easy to hard (depending on the targeted improvements)

Size of project: 175h/350h

Requirements: Python, MusicXML

Mentor: Peter Bjuhr (?)

Fix Beaming Patterns/Beam Subdivisions and Tuplets

Subdivision is an important way to improve the readability of beamed music. However, despite several attempts at fixing it LilyPond still does not always produce correct results. In order to properly fix this issue it seems necessary to rewrite the responsible code from the ground up. Much work has already been done assessing the issue (see this discussion and issue #5547).

In the course of this assessment it has been found that LilyPond’s conception of tuplets is somewhat flawed as well (see this discussion), and that this has to be fixed as well.

Difficulty: medium

Size of project: 350h

Requirements: C++

Recommended knowledge: Good musical and mathematical understanding of timing issues

Mentors: Carl Sorensen (?)

Support for Style Sheets

LilyPond’s engraving output can be tweaked to the least detail, and one important addition in recent years was the ability to use alternative notation fonts. It is possible to create reusable modules for “house styles”, but this project aims at bringing this to a new level by creating a convenient extension package with support for creating, applying, and sharing modular style sheets. We are looking for a hierarchical structure that allows to mix and match style elements for “house” (e.g., “my-personal-style”, “client-a”, “client-b”, etc.), score type, paper size, etc.

Work can be built upon the existing notation-fonts openLilyLib package. We would like to see a further improvement of the loading mechanism for notation fonts (for example, a better separation of loading notation and text fonts) as part of the project, and optionally (this would involve working on Lilypond’s C++ code) support for notation fonts that are installed system-wide.

Difficulty: medium

Size of project: 175h/350h

Requirements: Scheme, aesthetic competence

Recommended: sense of building hierarchical frameworks

Optional: C++ (for font loading internals)

Mentor: Abraham Lee (?)

Community Mentor: Kieren MacMillan

Information for Applicants/Participants

For all GSoC issues related to LilyPond, please contact our ‘lilypond-devel’ mailing list (see Contact)!

In order to have a satisfying experience with GSoC applicants are strongly advised to thoroughly read the following recommendations. Some of these are relevant for the application process, others for the time within the project.

Read all applicable information on the program’s website, particularly the students’ manual. Make sure you fulfill all of Google’s prerequisites and are willing to join the program as specified.
Please get in touch with us as soon as possible if you are interested in applying with a project. Mentor availability may change without notice, project proposals may need fine-tuning, and many other reasons might require us to reject or ignore an application that hasn’t been discussed before.
We do not know in advance how many “slots” we will have available for projects, so please be aware that you may find yourself in competition with other applicants or not. Interested or even enthusiastic response from our mentors is no guarantee of eventually being accepted, and not being accepted does not necessarily indicate a negative evaluation of your application. If we have to decide between different applicants there may be various aspects to consider.
Integration in the LilyPond community is a fundamental part of GSoC, and we expect our participators to make substantial efforts to become community members. Within the bonding period we expect you to be active on our mailing lists, introducing yourself but also communicating about unrelated tasks. This goes beyond the mere setting up of a working environment and familiarizing yourself with the relevant code, but we think it is crucial for the GSoC project to be mutually satisfying.
If you are accepted to the program you will have one mentor explicitly assigned to your project. With this mentor you will have to agree upon a communication strategy, be it emails, chatrooms, issue trackers or voice/video chats. Regular communication is absolutely crucial for the success of a GSoC project so you are stricly required to keep talking to your mentor. But keep in mind that your mentor has explicitly taken over the responsibility for your project, and while unlike you he isn’t paid for this activity you are still entitled to get regular attention from him.
In order to get support from your mentor you have to give him a chance to follow your progress and efforts. Therefore it is important to regularly commit your changes to the versioning repository you are working on. Don’t hesitate making unfinished code available because you are afraid of criticism, and don’t suppress questions because you think they might be considered stupid. But ideally your code should at any time be accompanied by compatible testing code. Your mentor may not be able to properly assess your code by only reading it without the opportunity to apply it in a real example.

There is a list of inactive projects in the Attic. We list projects there that are still considered valuable but for which there are currently no mentors available.

Authors

Current Development Team

Colin Campbell: cpkc.music@shaw.ca, Patch Meister
Dan Eble: nine.fierce.ballads@gmail.com, Core developer
Jonas Hahnfeld: hahnjo@hahnjo.de https://www.hahnjo.de/ Core developer, release unbreaker, GitLab manager
Phil Holmes: mail@philholmes.net http://www.philholmes.net Build unentangler, Bug squad member
David Kastrup: dak@gnu.org, hard core developer, user and programming interfaces, bug squashing and swamp drainage.
Werner Lemberg: wl@gnu.org, Fonts, bug squasher
Han-Wen Nienhuys: hanwen@xs4all.nl, https://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen/, Main author
Francisco Vila: Translation Meister

Previous Development Team

Jean Abou Samra: jean@abou-samra.fr, https://jean.abou-samra.fr, Factotum
Mats Bengtsson: mats.bengtsson@ee.kth.se, https://www.kth.se/profile/matben/, Support guru
Bertrand Bordage: bordage.bertrand@gmail.com, Core developer, font designer
Trevor Daniels: t.daniels@treda.co.uk, Assistant documentation editor
Colin Hall: Bug Meister
Ian Hulin: Core developer
Reinhold Kainhofer: reinhold@kainhofer.com, https://reinhold.kainhofer.com, Core developer, Music2xml wrangler
Pedro Kroeger: Build Meister
Jonathan Kulp: Assistant documentation editor
James Lowe: Documentation, Patch Meister
Joe Neeman: Core developer
Jan Nieuwenhuizen: janneke@gnu.org, https://JoyofSource.com, https://AvatarAcademy.nl, Main author
John Mandereau: john.mandereau@free.fr, Translation Meister
Patrick McCarty: SVG guru, bug squad member, bug squasher, text handling
Graham Percival: https://percival-music.ca, Bug Meister, Grand Documentation Project leader
Mark Polesky: Documentation, Code cleanup
Neil Puttock: Core developer
Jürgen Reuter: reuter_j@web.de, https://www.juergen-reuter.de, Ancient notation
Mike Solomon: mike@mikesolomon.org, Core developer, Frog Meister
Erik Sandberg: Bug Meister
Nicolas Sceaux: Core developer, Schemer extraordinaire
Carl Sorensen: c_sorensen@byu.edu, Core developer
Valentin Villenave: Core developer
Janek Warchoł: janek.lilypond@gmail.com, Core developer

Current Contributors

Programming

Martín Rincón Botero, Amir Czwink, Jiří Hon, Masamichi Hosoda, Thomas Morley, Lukas-Fabian Moser, Benkő Pál, Mark Polesky, Alen Šiljak, Kim Shrier, Christoph Wagner, John Wheeler, Jason Yip, David Zelinsky

Font

Documentation

Federico Bruni, Amir Czwink, Felix Janda, Thomas Morley, Paolo Prete, David Zelinsky

Translation

Walter Garcia-Fontes, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Gon Solo

Previous Contributors

Programming

Erlend Aasland, Maximilian Albert, Aleksandr Andreev, Guido Amoruso, Don Armstrong, Guido Aulisi, Joe Austin, Sven Axelsson, Kevin Barry, Robin Bannister, Kristof Bastiaensen, Étienne Beaulé, Davide Bonetti, Martín Rincón Botero, Frédéric Bron, Federico Bruni, Tim Burgess, Nathan Chou, Juliusz Chroboczek, Peter Chubb, Angelo Contardi, Thibaut Cuvelier, Vicente Solsona Della, Hajo Dezelski, Michael Welsh Duggan, Hassan Elfatihi, Jefferson Felix, David Feuer, Bertalan Fodor, Richard Gay, Mathieu Giraud, Frederic Gohier, Lisa Opus Goldstein, Adam Good, John Gourlay, David Stephen Grant, Torsten Hämmerle, Yuval Harel, Andrew Hawryluk, Jordan Henderson, Karlin High, Christian Hitz, Karin Hoethker, Rutger Hofmann, Marc Hohl, Masamichi Hosoda, Bernard Hurley, Yoshinobu Ishizaki, Chris Jackson, Felix Janda, David Jedlinsky, Nihal Jere, Martin Joerg, Heikki Junes, Michael Käppler, Doug Kearns, Thomas Klausner, Marek Klein, Mark Knoop, Michael Krause, Tobias Kretschmar, Jean-Baptiste Lamy, John Lemcke, Patrice Levesque, Vincent Le Ligeour, Jonatan Liljedahl, Urs Liska, Peter Lutek, Kieren MacMillan, Andrew Main, John Mandereau, Hendrik Maryns, Malte Meyn, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Morley, Paul Morris, Lukas-Fabian Moser, Alexander Myltsev, David Nalesnik, Matthias Neeracher, Martin Neubauer, Joram Noeck, Keith OHara, Justin Ohmie, Tatsuya Ono, Antonio Ospite, Benkő Pál, Benjamin Peterson, Knut Petersen, Valentin Petzel, Matthew Peveler, Guy Gascoigne-Piggford, Anders Pilegaard, Henning Hraban Ramm, Nathan Reed, Julien Rioux, Johannes Rohrer, Ben Rudiak-Gould, Stan Sanderson, Andreas Scherer, Johannes Schindelin, Patrick Schmidt, Devon Schudy, Boris Shingarov, Kim Shrier, Pete Siddall, Alen Šiljak, Edward Sanford Sutton, Adam Spiers, Tim Starling, David Svoboda, Samuel Tam, Simon Tatham, Heikki Taurainen, Timofey, Piers Titus van der Torren, Owen Tuz, Sebastiano Vigna, Jan-Peter Voigt, Arno Waschk, Nathan Whetsell, Bernhard M. Wiedemann, John Williams, Andrew Wilson, Jaap de Wolff, Milan Zamazal, Rune Zedeler, Boris-Chengbiao Zhou, Rodolfo Zitellini

Font

Jay Anderson, Tom Cato Amundsen, Johannes Feulner, David Stephen Grant, Torsten Hämmerle, Marc Hohl, Masamichi Hosoda, Chris Jackson, Alexander Kobel, Owen Lamb, Daniel Benjamin Miller, Abraham Lee, Keith OHara, Carsten Steger, Arno Waschk, Rune Zedeler

Documentation

Erlend Aasland, Simon Albrecht, Trevor Bača, Kevin Barry, Bernhard Bloechl, Alard de Boer, Frédéric Bron, Federico Bruni, Torsten Hämmerle, Jay Hamilton, Joseph Harfouch, Andrew Hawryluk, Karlin High, Cameron Horsburgh, Geoff Horton, Masamichi Hosoda, Heikki Junes, Michael Käppler, Kurtis Kroon, Daniel Tobias Johansen Langhoff, Davide Liessi, Urs Liska, Dave Luttinen, Kieren MacMillan, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Malte Meyn, Christian Mondrup, Mike Moral, Thomas Morley, Paul Morris, Eyolf Østrem, Ralph Palmer, Pierre Perol-Schneider, François Pinard, Noam Postavsky, David Pounder, Michael Rasmussen, Till Rettig, Pavel Roskin, Patrick Schmidt, Andrej Shadura, Alberto Simoes, Fr. Samuel Springuel, Guy Stalnaker, Greg Swinford, Martin Tarenskeen, Arnold Theresius, Anh Hai Trinh, Eduardo Vieira, Stefan Weil, John Wheeler, Rune Zedeler, Rodolfo Zitellini

Bug squad

Simon Albrecht, James E. Bailey, Federico Bruni, Eluze, Phil Holmes, Derek Klinge, Marek Klein, Urs Liska, Kieren MacMillan, Ralph Palmer, Dmytro O. Redchuk

Support

Simon Albrecht, Eluze, Anthony Fok, Christian Hitz, Marc Hohl, Phil Holmes, Chris Jackson, Heikki Junes, Marek Klein, Urs Liska, Alex Loomis, Kieren MacMillan, Tim McNamara, Thomas Morley, Paul Morris, David Nalesnik, Ralph Palmer, Pierre Perol-Schneider, Neil Puttock, David Svoboda, Tao

Translation

Caio Barros, Alard de Boer, Federico Bruni, Luca Rossetto Casel, Felipe Castro, Abel Cheung, Frédéric Chiasson, Simon Dahlbacka, Orm Finnendahl, Rafael Fontenelle, Pavel Fric, Hiroshi Fukuhara, Walter Garcia-Fontes, David González, Tommaso Gordini, Nicolas Grandclaude, Erika Griechisch, Guyutongxue, Dénes Harmath, Damien Heurtebise, Masamichi Hosoda, Bjoern Jacke, Matthieu Jacquot, Neil Jerram, Heikki Junes, Nicolas Klutchnikoff, Chengrui Li, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Adrian Mariano, Christian Mondrup, Tineke de Munnik, Steven Michael Murphy, Till Paala, Benkő Pál, François Pinard, Gauvain Pocentek, Till Rettig, Ludovic Sardain, Yoshiki Sawada, Thomas Scharkowski, Clytie Siddall, August S. Sigov, Roland Stigge, Tomohiro Tatejima, Paco Tomillo, Risto Vääräniemi, Andrea Valle, Ralf Wildenhues, Olcay Yıldırım

Publications

What we wrote about LilyPond

Server Acim. GNU/LilyPond (Turkish Language). 2013. (PDF 2100k).
Graham Percival. Sustainability in F/OSS: developers as a non-renewable resource. In Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre 2010 (RMLL2010), 2010. (PDF 333k).
Han Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen. LilyPond, a system for automated music engraving. In Colloquium on Musical Informatics (XIV CIM 2003), May 2003. (PDF 95k).
Han Wen Nienhuys. LilyPond, Automated music formatting and the Art of Shipping. In Forum Internacional Software Livre 2006 (FISL7.0), 2006. (PDF 1095k).
Margarethe Maierhofer Lischka & Florian Hollerweger. Lilypond: music notation for everyone!. In Linux Audio Conference 2013 (LAC2013), 2013. (PDF 890k).
Reinhold Kainhofer. OrchestralLily: A Package for Professional Music Publishing with LilyPond and LATEX. In The Linux Audio Conference 2010 (LAC2010), 2010. (PDF 767k).
Erik Sandberg. Separating input language and formatter in GNU LilyPond. Master’s thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Information Technology, March 2006. (PDF 750k).
Francisco Vila. Tipografía musical para la educación y análisis de la dinámica del software libre (Spanish language). PhD thesis, Universidad de Extremadura, 2015. (PDF 20M).

What people did with LilyPond

Kevin C. Baird. Real-time generation of music notation via audience interaction using python and GNU LilyPond. In New Interfaces for Music Expression, May 2005.
Alexandre Tachard Passos, Marcos Sampaio, Pedro Kröger, and Givaldo de Cidra. Functional Harmonic Analysis and Computational Musicology in Rameau. In Proceedings of the 12th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, pages 207–210, 2009.
Graham Percival, Tosten Anders, and George Tzanetakis. Generating Targeted Rhythmic Exercises for Music Students with Constraint Satisfaction Programming. In International Computer Music Conference, 2008.
Alberto Simões, Anália Lourenço, and José João Almeida. (J. Neves et al., editor). Using Text Mining Techniques for Classical Music Scores Analysis. In New Trends in Artificial Intelligence, 2007.

If you are aware of any other academic papers which could be listed here, please let us know by writing a message to the bug-lilypond mailing list. If you’re not subscribed yet you can do so on the list’s info page.

News

LilyPond 2.25.21 released October 27, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.21. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.4, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.24.4 released! July 21, 2024

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.24.4. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version contains a number of fixes since the release of the previous stable version in November 2023. We recommend all users to update. Scores converted to or written for 2.24.0 will continue to work with this release. A list of added features and other user-visible changes for 2.24 can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/changes/. Among others, version 2.24.0 switched to Guile 2.2 and features a completely rewritten infrastructure for creating the official packages, finally allowing us to offer 64-bit binaries for macOS and Windows.

For distributions, Guile 3.0 is officially supported since the previous LilyPond 2.24.3, even though the recommended version will remain Guile 2.2 for the LilyPond 2.24 series.

Old News

Older news can be found in the Attic, along with older announcements and changelogs

Attic

Announcements

Announcements and news by version: v2.24, v2.22, v2.20, v2.18, v2.16, v2.14, v2.12, v2.10, v2.8, v2.6, v2.4, v2.2, v2.0, v1.2, v1.0, v0.1

Descriptive list of changes by version: v2.24, v2.22, v2.20, v2.18, v2.16, v2.14, v2.12, v2.10, v2.8, v2.6, v2.4, v2.2, v2.0, v1.8, v1.6, v1.4, v1.2

Thanks

Thanks to developers, contributors, bug hunters and suggestions for v2.24, v2.22, v2.20, v2.18, v2.16, v2.14, v2.12, v2.10, v2.8, v2.6, v2.4, v2.2, v2.0, v1.8

Changelogs

Developers’ changelogs by version: v2.10, v2.3, v2.1, v1.5 (1), v1.5 (2), v1.4, v1.3, v1.2, v1.1, v1.0, v0.1, v0.0

Inactive Google Summer of Code project suggestions

The following list describes GSoC projects that had been proposed in recent years and which are still considered valuable but for which we currently don’t have mentors available.

Automated testing and documentation for openLilyLib

openLilyLib is an extension framework for LilyPond code providing a “snippets” repository and a suite of integrated packages such as for example page layout tools or scholarly annotations. It is very powerful and promising, but to really get off the ground two features are missing: automated testing and documentation generation.

Automated testing is necessary to ensure modifications to functionality don’t break other functions within the library. There is already some Automated Testing of the “snippets” repository with Github’s Travis server, but this has to be reconsidered and extended to cover the standalone packages too.

In order to be usable for a wider range of LilyPond users on a “consumer level” openLilyLib needs proper documentation. This documentation has to be generated from the sources, so a system is needed that requires package authors to document the input files and provide additional usage examples, from which documentation is generated. Ideally but not necessarily this is implemented as a Git hook, i.e., automatically upon each update to the repository. We don’t prescribe the tools and approaches to be used, but the most widely used language in the LilyPond domain is Python, so there would be some bias towards that. Alternatively a Scheme solution could be fine so generating the documentation would actually be triggered by “compiling” a certain LilyPond input file. In general it is advisable to make use of proven concepts and tools from other languages.

The eventual output of the documentation should be a static HTML site that can be viewed locally and/or uploaded to a website. But it would be beneficial if the tool would first generate an intermediate representation (e.g., a JSON file with additional media files) from which a Single Page Application could retrieve content for display on openLilyLib’s website. Development of such a SPA can be part of the GSoC project, but is optional.

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: Python or Scheme, static website generator(s) or (Node.js based) dynamic web application technology. Continuous Integration (can be learned during the bonding period)

Contemporary Notation

LilyPond is very good at creating non-standard notation. Having to code every graphical element instead of simply drawing it may seem cumbersome but is in fact a strong asset. New notational functionality can be provided with consistent appearance, automatic layout and a natural syntactic interface.

Within the openLilyLib library system the student will create a fundamental infrastructure and building blocks to make creating contemporary notation easier. Additionally (at least) one concrete package is developed to cover specific contemporary notation, such as for example the style of a given composer, extended playing techniques for a specific instrument or a certain category of effects.

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: Scheme (interaction with LilyPond internals), contemporary notation techniques

Recommended: sense of building hierarchical frameworks

Mentors: NN, Urs Liska

Frescobaldi Extensions

Starting with the current release 3.1 Frescobaldi has an extension API that allows the easy integration of arbitrary functionality in the editing environment. These could range from, say, document statistics and accounting functionality to fancy features like a built-in video chat client or a stock market ticker.

We would welcome project suggestions about arbitrary Frescobaldi extensions of appropriate complexity that add substantial functionality for working with LilyPond scores which might not be suitable to be included into Frescobaldi itself.

As suggestions and examples may serve: a project management extension that can manage repetoire of arbitrary complexity, handle the generation of template files and the compilation process. Or an extension to manage the openLilyLib infrastructure.

Difficulty: easy/medium

Requirements: Python, (PyQt)

Optional: Guile Scheme (if functionality involves LilyPond internals)

Mentor: Urs Liska

Implement a System to Handle Scores System by System

One strategy that may improve the issue of LilyPond’s compilation time is to handle scores in a system-by-system manner through partial compilation. This project explores one approach to achieve this and may lay the ground for future development towards a “LilyPond server”. It is very ambitions because it involves working with LilyPond’s internals and optionally a reference user interface in Frescobaldi.

The idea behind this project is the implementation of a music viewer that doesn’t display pages but sees a scores as a continuous sequence of systems that are stitched together. LilyPond can produce such a sequence of files, and it can be made aware of the moments of each line break. That way only systems have to be recompiled that are affected by a modification, thus saving significant waiting times. Optionally there could be new engraving modes in LilyPond that don’t try to optimize the line breaking, saving even more time, at least while in content editing mode.

The project is fairly complex and has many more aspects than could be listed on this page. So if you are interested in this please get in touch with us as early as possible to evaluate options and discuss the topics before you write an application.

Difficulty: hard

Requirements: LilyPond/Scheme, Python/PyQt

Optional: C++ if it’s necessary to modify LilyPond itself

Mentors: NN (, Urs Liska)

Community Mentor: Kieren MacMillan

MusicXML

Improving MusicXML import and export functions:

File interchange between LilyPond and other applications using MusicXML is still a difficult matter. To import MusicXML it has to be converted manually by the musicxml2ly script. Export to MusicXML is only available as a rudimentary feature inside Frescobaldi. In order to provide natural interchange between LilyPond and MusicXML based applications there’s the need of actual import functionality and a dedicated export backend.

Importing XML shall provide file, line and column to add origin attributes to generated objects. That way point and click can be made available in Frescobaldi or other supported IDEs.

Exporting XML shall be realized with an exporter class like the MIDI export. This may be based on the work already done in GSoC 2015 by David Garfinkle. It should be checked if it is possible to use another XML library than the one provided by guile-2 in order to have this feature available in current LilyPond (which is based on guile-1.8).

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: MusicXML, Python, Scheme, basic LilyPond knowledge

Recommended: Familiarity with other scorewriters (for cross-testing)

Improve slurs and ties

The engraving quality of slurs and ties is often unsatisfactory. Ties ‘broken’ by clef or staff changes are not handled well. The project could include collecting and sorting examples of bad output, deciding on the intended output and writing code to improve them.

Difficulty: hard

Requirements: C++, experience with writing heuristics

Recommended knowledge: LilyPond knowledge, aesthetic sense

Grace notes

Fix problems with synchronization of grace notes. Grace notes can interfere with LilyPond’s timing and cause odd effects, especially when multiple staffs are used where some have grace notes and others don’t. This is one of the longest-standing and one of the more embarrassing bugs in LilyPond.

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: C++, MIDI

Recommended: familiarity with LilyPond internals

Improve default beam positioning

For regular, cross-staff, broken and kneed beams. Beaming should depend on context and neighbor notes (see section 2.2 of this book). If possible also reduce beaming-computation time.

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: C++, experience with writing heuristics

Recommended knowledge: aesthetic sense

Help improve compilation behavior

Automatic code analysis tools, like valgrind memory leak detection or callgrind code profilers, provide valuable information about possible flaws in our C++ code.

Difficulty: medium

Requirements: C++

Old News

Older news items dating back to July 2003. Newer news can be found on the News page.

LilyPond 2.25.20 released September 29, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.20. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.4, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.19 released August 24, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.19. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.4, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.18 released July 14, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.18. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.17 released June 15, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.17. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.16 released May 12, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.16. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.15 released April 20, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.15. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.14 released March 23, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.14. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.13 released Feburary 10, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.13. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.12 released January 7, 2024

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.12. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.11 released December 10, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.11. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.3, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.24.3 released! November 19, 2023

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.24.3. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version contains a number of fixes since the release of the previous stable version in August 2023. We recommend all users to update. Scores converted to or written for 2.24.0 will continue to work with this release. A list of added features and other user-visible changes for 2.24 can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/changes/. Among others, version 2.24.0 switched to Guile 2.2 and features a completely rewritten infrastructure for creating the official packages, finally allowing us to offer 64-bit binaries for macOS and Windows.

For distributions, LilyPond 2.24.3 most notably includes a fix to restore PDF conversion with the recent Ghostscript 10.02.1. Also Guile 3.0 is now officially supported, even though the recommended version will remain Guile 2.2 for the LilyPond 2.24 series.

LilyPond 2.25.10 released November 11, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.10. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.9 released October 7, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.9. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.8 released September 16, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.8. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.24.2 released! August 12, 2023

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.24.2. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version contains a number of fixes since the release of the previous stable version in February 2023. This includes an update of the library for garbage collection, addressing crashes when compiling very large scores (several hundreds of pages) on Windows. We recommend all users to update. Scores converted to or written for 2.24.0 will continue to work with this release. A list of added features and other user-visible changes for 2.24 can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/changes/. Among others, version 2.24.0 switched to Guile 2.2 and features a completely rewritten infrastructure for creating the official packages, finally allowing us to offer 64-bit binaries for macOS and Windows.

LilyPond 2.25.7 released July 30, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.7. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.6 released June 24, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.6. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.5 released May 21, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.5. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.4 released April 22, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.4. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.3 released April 1, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.3. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.2 released February 18, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.2. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.1, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.24.1 released! February 12, 2023

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.24.1. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version includes a number of fixes since the release of the previous stable version in December 2022, and we recommend all users to update. Scores converted to or written for 2.24.0 will continue to work with this release. A list of added features and other user-visible changes for 2.24 can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/changes/. Among others, version 2.24.0 switched to Guile 2.2 and features a completely rewritten infrastructure for creating the official packages, finally allowing us to offer 64-bit binaries for macOS and Windows.

LilyPond 2.25.1 released January 21, 2023

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.1. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.0, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.25.0 released December 23, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.25.0, the start of the next development cycle. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable for testing new features and recent bug fixes. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.24.0, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.24.0 released! December 15, 2022

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.24.0. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version includes improvements and fixes since the branching of the previous stable release in October 2020. A list of added features and other user-visible changes can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/changes/. This release switches to Guile 2.2 and features a completely rewritten infrastructure for creating the official packages, finally allowing us to offer 64-bit binaries for macOS and Windows.

LilyPond 2.23.82 released November 27, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.82. This is the third release candidate towards the next stable version 2.24.0 expected in December. Please test your scores with this version and report back the experience as well as any problems you encounter.

LilyPond 2.23.81 released November 13, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.81. This is the second release candidate towards the next stable version 2.24.0 expected in December. Please test your scores with this version and report back the experience as well as any problems you encounter.

LilyPond 2.23.80 released October 22, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.80. This is the first release candidate towards the next stable version 2.24.0 expected in December. Please test your scores with this version and report back the experience as well as any problems you encounter.

LilyPond 2.23.14 released October 9, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.14. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.13 released September 18, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.13. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.12 released August 23, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.12. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.11 released July 24, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.11. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.10 released June 26, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.10. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.9 released May 20, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.9. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. However, if you require stability, we recommend using version 2.22.2, the current stable release.

LilyPond 2.23.8 released April 24, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.8. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.2 version.

In this release, dropping Guile 1.8 support has finally become possible also for our sources. We’d like to dedicate this release to Ian Hulin who was one of the first systematically working on our numerous roadblocks for Guile 2 migration after tackling a few other high-level problems. In the time spans where his health permitted it, he was able to significantly reduce the amount of remaining problems for the Guile 2 migration after having started working on them in 2010, making the goal that we finally reached now more tangible for others to work on after he left us in 2015.

LilyPond 2.23.7 released March 26, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.7. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.2 version.

LilyPond 2.22.2 released! February 22, 2022

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.22.2 on 2-22-22. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version includes improvements and fixes since the release of the previous stable release in April 2021.

LilyPond 2.23.6 released February 06, 2022

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.6. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.1 version.

LilyPond 2.23.5 released November 28, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.5. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.1 version.

LilyPond 2.23.4 released October 10, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.4. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.1 version.

LilyPond 2.23.3 released July 4, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.3. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.1 version.

LilyPond 2.22.1 released! April 25, 2021

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.22.1. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version includes improvements and fixes since the release of the previous stable release in January 2021.

LilyPond 2.23.2 released April 11, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.2. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.0 version.

LilyPond 2.23.1 released March 23, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.1. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.0 version.

LilyPond 2.23.0 released January 24, 2021

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.23.0. This is termed a development release, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.22.0 version.

LilyPond 2.22.0 released! January 10, 2021

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.22.0. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version includes improvements and fixes since the branching of the previous stable release in August 2017 (even though the final 2.20.0 was only released in March 2020). A list of added features and other user-visible changes can be found at https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.22/Documentation/changes/ Behind the scenes, this release switches to Python 3 and includes a number of performance improvements that should be noticeable for larger scores.

LilyPond 2.21.82 released December 14, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.82. This is a further pre-release test version, but these are usually reliable. We encourage all users and developers to download this version to test it to allow us to release a new stable version. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.81 released November 29, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.81. This is a further pre-release test version, but these are usually reliable. We encourage all users and developers to download this version to test it to allow us to release a new stable version. If you want to use the current stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.80 released November 1, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.80. This is a pre-release test version, but these are usually reliable. We encourage all users and developers to download this version to test it. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.7 released October 11, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.7. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.6 released September 13, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.6. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.5 released August 16, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.5. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.4 released July 28, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.4. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.3 released July 12, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.3. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.2 released June 21, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.2. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.1 released April 28, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.1. This is a development version, but these are usually reliable. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.21.0 released April 9, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.21.0. If you want to use the latest stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.20.0 version.

LilyPond 2.20.0 released! March 1, 2020

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.20.0. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version provides a number of updates, including updated manuals. We recommend all users to upgrade to this version.

LilyPond 2.19.84 released February 4, 2020

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.84. This release is the final pre-release test version for the upcoming stable 2.20 release. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.83 released October 16, 2018

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.83. This release is a further pre-release test version for the upcoming stable 2.20 release. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.82 released June 24, 2018

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.82. This release is a further pre-release test version for the upcoming stable 2.20 release. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.81 released January 28, 2018

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.81. This release is a further pre-release test version for the upcoming stable 2.20 release. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.80 released October 14, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.80. This release is a pre-release test version for the upcoming stable 2.20 release. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.65 released August 06, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.65. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.64 released July 15, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.64. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.63 released June 28, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.63. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.62 released June 10, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.62. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.61 released May 21, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.61. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.60 released May 08, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.60. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.59 released April 09, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.59. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.58 released March 26, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.58. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.57 released March 12, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.57. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.56 released February 26, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.56. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.55 released February 12, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.55. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.54 released January 4, 2017

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.54. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.53 released December 17, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.53. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.52 released December 4, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.52. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.51 released November 20, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.51. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.50 released November 6, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.50. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.49 released October 16, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.49. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.48 released September 13, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.48. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.47 released August 31, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.47. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.46 released July 26, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.46. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.45 released July 09, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.45. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.44 released June 21, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.44. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.43 released June 8, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.43. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.42 released May 15, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.42. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.41 released May 1, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.41. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

Two LilyPond projects in Google Summer of Code 2016 April 23, 2016

We are happy to see two students, Nathan Chou and Jeffery Shivers, working on LilyPond as participants in the Google Summer of Code this year. We hope they produce great results and stay in the developer community afterwards.

Nathan will tackle an annoying limitation, namely the unability of spanners to cross voices. His work will make a class of ugly workarounds obsolete. Jeffery will bring the ScholarLY package[1] to production quality and add a LaTeX package to it, making it possible to create beautiful critical reports from data encoded directly in the LilyPond score.

[1] https://github.com/openlilylib/scholarly

LilyPond 2.19.40 released April 17, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.40. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.39 released March 27, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.39. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.38 released March 13, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.38. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.37 released February 28, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.37. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.36 released January 31, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.36. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.35 released January 02, 2016

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.35. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.34 released December 22, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.34. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.33 released December 6, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.33. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.32 released November 22, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.32. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.31 released November 8, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.31. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.30 released October 25, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.30. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.29 released October 18, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.29. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.28 released September 27, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.28. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.27 released September 12, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.27. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.26 released August 27, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.26. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.25 released August 9, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.25. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.24 released July 26, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.24. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.23 released July 12, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.23. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.22 released June 28, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.22. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.21 released May 24, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.21. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.20 released May 10, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.20. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.19 released April 26, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.19. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.18 released April 5, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.18. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.17 released March 15, 2015

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.17. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.16 released February 28, 2015

At long last, we are very happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.16. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

We would like to acknowledge and thank Masamichi Hosoda for making this release possible with his work on updating GUB, the build tool.

LilyPond 2.19.15 released September 28, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.15. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.14 released September 14, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.14. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.13 released August 31, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.13. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.12 released August 17, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.12. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.11 released August 3, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.11. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.10 released July 13, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.10. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.9 released June 29, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.9. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.8 released June 15, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.8. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.7 released May 25, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.7. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.6 released May 11, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.6. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.5 released April 20, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.5. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.4 released April 6, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.4. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.18.2 released! March 23, 2014

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.18.2. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

This version provides a number of updates to 2.18.0, including updated manuals. We recommend all users to upgrade to this version.

LilyPond production named BEST EDITION 2014 March 11, 2014

We are thrilled that the edition of the songs of Oskar Fried (1871-1941), published recently by our fellow contributors Urs Liska and Janek Warchoł [1], received the "Musikeditionspreis BEST EDITION 2014" of the German Music Publishers’ Association [2]. The ceremony took place at the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

We congratulate Janek and Urs for gaining such public recognition of typographical and editorial excellence of their work. We are also delighted to inform you that they intend to make their work available under a Free license as soon as the publisher expenses are covered. Please support this initiative by buying the printed volume through the publisher [3].

[1] https://lilypondblog.org/category/fried-songs
[2] https://www.best-edition.de
[3] http://www.sound-rel.de

LilyPond 2.19.3 released March 2, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.3. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.18.1 February 16, 2014

We have released updated manuals for LilyPond’s stable version, 2.18. The manuals are now for 2.18.1 and have a number of updates and improvements over 2.18.0. There will be a further release of 2.18 in the future (2.18.2), and this will include the updates to the manuals as well as some minor enhancements to the LilyPond core functionality.

To summarise the current situation: stable LilyPond application: 2.18.0; stable LilyPond manuals: 2.18.1; development for both: 2.19.2.

LilyPond 2.19.2 released February 2, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.2. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.1 released January 19, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.1. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.19.0 released January 5, 2014

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.19.0. This release includes a number of enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.18 version.

LilyPond 2.18.0 released! December 29, 2013

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.18.0. LilyPond is a music engraving program devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

Among the numerous improvements and changes, the following might be most visible:

Many items are now positioned using their actual outline rather than a rectangular bounding box. This greatly reduces the occurrence of unsightly large gaps.

Sets and overrides can now use the syntax

\override Voice.TextSpanner.bound-details.left.text = "rit."

instead of the previous

\override Voice.TextSpanner #'(bound-details left text) = "rit."

Triplets with a given group length can now be written as

\tuplet 3/2 4 { c8 c c  c c c }

instead of

\times 2/3 { c8 c c }  \times 2/3 { c8 c c }

A full list of noteworthy new features is given in:

https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/changes/index.html

Great thanks go to the large number of LilyPond enthusiasts whose financial backing enabled one core developer, David Kastrup, to focus exclusively on LilyPond during the entire development cycle.

LilyPond 2.18 has been brought to you by

Main Developers:: Bertrand Bordage, Trevor Daniels, Colin Hall, Phil Holmes, Ian Hulin, Reinhold Kainhofer, David Kastrup, Jonathan Kulp, Werner Lemberg, John Mandereau, Patrick McCarty, Joe Neeman, Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen, Graham Percival, Mark Polesky, Neil Puttock, Mike Solomon, Carl Sorensen, Francisco Vila, Valentin Villenave, Janek Warchoł
Core Contributors:: Aleksandr Andreev, Frédéric Bron, Torsten Hämmerle, Marc Hohl, James Lowe, Andrew Main, Thomas Morley, David Nalesnik, Keith OHara, Benkő Pál, Anders Pilegaard, Julien Rioux, Johannes Rohrer, Adam Spiers, Heikki Tauriainen
Documentation Writers:: Frédéric Bron, Federico Bruni, Colin Campbell, Urs Liska, James Lowe, Thomas Morley, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Guy Stalnaker, Martin Tarenskeen, Arnold Theresius, Rodolfo Zitellini
Bug Squad:: Colin Campbell, Eluze, Marc Hohl, Phil Holmes, Marek Klein, Ralph Palmer
Support Team:: Colin Campbell, Eluze, Marc Hohl, Marek Klein, Kieren MacMillan, Urs Liska, Ralph Palmer
Translators:: Federico Bruni, Luca Rossetto Casel, Felipe Castro, Pavel Fric, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Till Paala, Yoshiki Sawada

and numerous other contributors.

LilyPond 2.17.97 released! December 8, 2013

We are excited to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.97 as a potential final beta release for the upcoming stable release 2.18. The developers believe this to be feature-complete, the documentation to be accurate, and no important issues to be overlooked. For upgrading the syntax of your input files to the latest version, see Updating files with convert-ly. Please test this release and report back any problems, see Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.17.96 released! November 24, 2013

We are excited to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.96 as a further beta release for the upcoming stable release 2.18. The developers believe the release to be feature-complete, the documentation to be accurate, and no important issues to be overlooked. For upgrading the syntax of your input files to the latest version, see Updating files with convert-ly. Please test this release and report back any problems, see Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.17.95 released! November 3, 2013

We are excited to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.95 as beta release for the upcoming stable release 2.18. The developers are still busy finding solutions for some last-minute problems, but the release is supposed to be feature-complete, the documentation to be accurate, and no important issues to be overlooked. For upgrading the syntax of your input files to the latest version, see Updating files with convert-ly. Please test this release and report back any problems, see Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.17.29 released! October 20, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.29. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.28 released! October 6, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.28. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.27 released! September 26, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.27. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.26 released! September 8, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.26. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.25 released! August 25, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.25. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.24 released! August 11, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.24. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.23 released! July 28, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.23. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.22 released! July 14, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.22. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

This update cures the issue with the Windows version crashing with a problem with positioning text.

LilyPond 2.17.21 released! June 30, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.21. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.20 released! June 9, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.20. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond blog. June 2, 2013

Janek Warchoł has created a LilyPond blog. You can find it at lilypondblog.org!

LilyPond 2.17.19 released! May 26, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.19. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.18 released! May 11, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.18. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.17 released! April 27, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.17. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.16 released! April 13, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.16. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.15 released! March 30, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.15. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.14 released! March 10, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.14. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes (including putting span bars back where they should be) and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.13 released! February 23, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.13. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.12 released! February 8, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.12. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.11 released! January 26, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.11. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.10 released! January 12 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.10. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.16.2 released! January 4, 2013

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.16.2. This release is mainly to correct a problem with lilypond-book running on Windows. We recommend that only people requiring this functionality upgrade to this version.

LilyPond 2.17.9 released! December 15, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.9. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.8 released! December 1, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.8. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.7 released! November 17, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.7. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

The LilyPond Report #28. November 12, 2012

The October issue of the LilyPond Report focuses on the meeting of LilyPond developers and users in Waltrop, Germany last August. Of course, there are also some musings on LilyPond triggered by the release of 2.16.0 and 2.17.0 occuring from that venue.

There are also two monthly financial reports from David Kastrup whose work on LilyPond is solely paid for by financial contributions from other developer and users (thank you!), and a report about experiences from a web-based music typesetting service using LilyPond internally.

Come read LilyPond Report 28 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.16.1 released! November 9, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.16.1. This has a number of updates to the previous stable version, and should cause no problems. We recommend that everybody upgrade to this version.

LilyPond 2.17.6 released! November 3, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.6. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.5 released! October 20, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.5. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes and enhancements, and contains some work in progress. You will have access to the very latest features, but some may be incomplete, and you may encounter bugs and crashes. If you require a stable version of LilyPond, we recommend using the 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.4 released! October 6, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.4. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.3 released! September 23, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.3. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.2 released! September 10, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.2. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.1 released! August 28, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.1. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.17.0 released! August 26, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.17.0. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.16 version.

LilyPond 2.16.0 released! August 24, 2012

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.16.0. LilyPond is a music engraving program, devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

Many improvements have been made in the past year since the previous main stable version. A few major improvements are:

Support for kievan square notation
User and programming interfaces have greatly improved
Music functions have become quite more versatile

A full list of new features is given in:

https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.16/Documentation/changes/index.html

Happy music typesetting! LilyPond 2.16 was brought to you by...

Main development team:

Bertrand Bordage, Trevor Daniels, Colin Hall, Phil Holmes, Ian Hulin, Reinhold Kainhofer, David Kastrup, Jonathan Kulp, Werner Lemberg, John Mandereau, Patrick McCarty, Joe Neeman, Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen, Graham Percival, Mark Polesky, Neil Puttock, Mike Solomon, Carl Sorensen, Francisco Vila, Valentin Villenave, Jan Warchoł

Programming contributors:

Aleksandr Andreev, Sven Axelsson, Peter Chubb, Karin Hoethker, Marc Hohl, David Nalesnik, Justin Ohmie, Benkő Pál, Julien Rioux, Patrick Schmidt, Adam Spiers, Heikki Taurainen, Piers Titus van der Torren, Jan-Peter Voigt, Janek Warchol

Documentation contributors:

James Lowe, Pavel Roskin, Alberto Simoes, Stefan Weil

Bug squad:

Colin Campbell, Eluze, Phil Holmes, Marek Klein, Ralph Palmer, James Lowe

Support:

Colin Campbell, Christian Hitz, Phil Holmes

Translation contributors:

Jean-Charles Malahieude, Till Paala, Yoshiki Sawada

LilyPond 2.15.95 released! August 11, 2012

We are excited to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.95. With this release, development on version 2.15 is frozen for the upcoming 2.16 stable release and only open to bug fixes.

All users are urged to try this version to ensure the best quality of the upcoming stable release. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

LilyPond 2.15.42 released! August 02, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.42. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

The LilyPond Report #27. August 2, 2012

The LilyPond Report is back, with some interesting insights on new Scheme-related features recently added by our community’s only paid developer David Kastrup (thanks to your continuing donations). Also to be found in this issue are an overview of some lesser-known LilyPond companion projects, and a handful of more shallow factoids.

Come read LilyPond Report 27 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

Release candidate withdrawn July 11, 2012

We have discovered a regression since 2.14.2, so lilypond 2.15.41 is no longer a candidate for the 2.16.0 release. However, please continue testing it – we would like to discover (and fix!) any more regressions as soon as possible. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 8 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.41 released! July 4, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.41 is out; this is the eighth release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 18 July 2012. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.15.40 released! June 05, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.40. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

Release candidate withdrawn June 01, 2012

We have discovered a regression since 2.14.2, so lilypond 2.15.39 is no longer a candidate for the 2.16.0 release. However, please continue testing it – we would like to discover (and fix!) any more regressions as soon as possible. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 7 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.39 released! May 22, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.39 is out; this is the seventh release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 05 June 2012. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

The LilyPond Report #26. May 22, 2012

The LilyPond Report is back, with a new editor on board - Pavel Roskin, who tells us about his adventures in strange lands of compiler bugs! There is also a detailed report about current development status, and an analysis of example LilyPond output - see for yourself how close (or how far?) are we from matching the quality of hand-engraved scores.

Come read LilyPond Report 26 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

Release candidate 6 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.38 released! May 3, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.38 is out; this is the sixth release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

Update: Due to a few Critical bugs, another release candidate will be required.

LilyPond takes part in Google Summer of Code 2012! April 25, 2012

Being a part of GNU project, we are participating in Google Summer of Code program, which offers students stipends for working on open source software.

Our contributor Janek Warchoł was accepted for 2012 edition of GSoC. He will be working on advanced lyrics positioning in LilyPond.

Release candidate 5 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.37 released! April 19, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.37 is out; this is the fifth release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 03 May 2012. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 4 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.36 released! April 6, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.36 is out; this is the fourth release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 20 April 2012. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

The LilyPond Report #25. Apr 1st, 2012

The LilyPond Report is back, with a rather unusual issue featuring our young Polish contributor Janek Warchoł! Also included in this issue are quite a few unexpected items, including (but not limited to)… a cooking recipe!

Come read LilyPond Report 25 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.15.35 released! Mar 28, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.35. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.34 released! Mar 19, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.34. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.33 released! Mar 08, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.33. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

The LilyPond Report #24. Mar 5, 2012

A new issue of the LilyPond Report is now available for reading; topics include a request for funding, an article about exciting new features in LilyPond grammar, and an overview of LilyPond-based web applications.

Come read LilyPond Report 24 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.15.32 released! Mar 03, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.32. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.31 released! Feb 29, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.31. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

Release candidate 3 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.30 released! Feb 17, 2012

LilyPond 2.15.30 is out; this is the third release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 02 March 2012. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.15.29 released! Feb 9, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.29. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.28 released! Feb 3, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.28. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.27 released! Jan 24, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.27. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

The LilyPond Report #23. Jan 20, 2012

The LilyPond Report is back, with developer David Kastrup as a new editor! This issue features an exposé on some of the new, handy commands recently added to LilyPond, as well as an interview with LilyPond contributor and composer Mike Solomon.

Come read LilyPond Report 23 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.15.26 released! Jan 16, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.26. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

The 2.15.25 has been skipped due to build problems.

LilyPond 2.15.24 released! Jan 07, 2012

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.24. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.23 released! Dec 21, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.23. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.22 released! Dec 15, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.22. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.21 released! Dec 6, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.21. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.20 released! Nov 24, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.20. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.19 released! Nov 18, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.19. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.18 released! Nov 12, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.18. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.17 released! Nov 10, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.17. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.16 released! October 28, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.16. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.15 released! October 24, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.15. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.14 released! October 7, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.14. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.13 released! September 27, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.13. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

Release candidate 2 cancelled Sep 23, 2011

The release countdown is cancelled due to the discovery of a Critical regression.

Release candidate 2 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.12 released! Sep 20, 2011

LilyPond 2.15.12 is out; this is the second release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 27 Sep 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.15.11 released! September 11, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.11. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to the possibility of a few Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.10 released! September 6, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.10. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version. Please note that due to a few outstanding Critical bugs, this is not the next release candidate.

LilyPond 2.15.9 released! August 30, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.9. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes, and also adds support for MacOS X 10.7.

Release candidate 1 of 2.16 - LilyPond 2.15.8 released! Aug 01, 2011

LilyPond 2.15.8 is out; this is the first release candidate of the upcoming 2.16 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.14.2 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.16.0 release will be on 08 Aug 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.15.7 released! July 29, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.7. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.15.6 released! July 26, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.6. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.14.2 released! July 25, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.14.2. This fixes a few minor bugs in the stable version, and should cause no problems. We recommend that everybody upgrade to this version.

LilyPond 2.15.5 released! July 12, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.5. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.15.4 released! July 4, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.4. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.15.3 released! June 27, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.3. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.15.2 released! June 18, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.2. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.14.1 released! June 12, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.14.1. This fixes a few minor bugs in the stable version, and should cause no problems. We recommend that everybody upgrade to this version.

LilyPond 2.15.1 released! June 11, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.1. This is the beginning of a new unstable development effort, and adds the usual number of bugs.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.15.0 released! June 7, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.15.0. This is the beginning of a new unstable development effort, and adds the usual number of bugs.

It is strongly recommended that normal users do not use this release, and instead use the stable 2.14 version.

LilyPond 2.14.0 released! June 6, 2011

We are proud to announce the release of GNU LilyPond 2.14. LilyPond is a music engraving program, devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts.

Many improvements have been made in the past two and a half years since the previous main stable version. A few major improvements are:

LilyPond is now licensed under the GNU GPL v3 or higher.
The vertical spacing engine has been drastically changed, making it much more flexible and easier to control.
Automatic beaming is now more flexible, and beam collisions are avoided.

A full list of new features is given in:

https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.14/Documentation/changes/index.html

Happy music typesetting! LilyPond 2.14 was brought to you by...

Main development team:

Trevor Daniels, Reinhold Kainhofer, David Kastrup, Jonathan Kulp, Werner Lemberg, John Mandereau, Patrick McCarty, Joe Neeman, Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen, Graham Percival, Mark Polesky, Neil Puttock, Mike Solomon, Carl Sorensen, Francisco Vila, Valentin Villenave.

Programming contributors:

Sven Axelsson, Pál Benkő, Bertrand Bordage, Frédéric Bron, Peter Chubb, Hajo Dezelski, Richard Gay, Keith OHara, Andrew Hawryluk, Christian Hitz, Marc Hohl, Henning Hraban Ramm, Ian Hulin, Michael Käppler, Marek Klein, Kieren MacMillan, Thomas Morgan, Benjamin Peterson, Nathan Reed, Julien Rioux, Boris Shingarov, Patrick Schmidt, Owen Tuz, Jan Warchoł, Andrew Wilson, Rodolfo Zitellini.

Font contributors:

Keith OHara, Marc Hohl, Alexander Kobel, Carsten Steger.

Documentation contributors:

Colin Campbell, Andrew Hawryluk, James Lowe, Mike Moral, Ralph Palmer, David Pounder, Patrick Schmidt.

Bug squad:

James E. Bailey, Colin Campbell, Phil Holmes, Urs Liska, Ralph Palmer, Kieren MacMillan, Dmytro O. Redchuk.

Binaries support contributors:

Christian Hitz.

Translation contributors:

Federico Bruni, Dénes Harmath, Jean-Charles Malahieude, Tineke de Munnik, Till Paala, Ralf Wildenhues, Yoshiki Sawada.

Release candidate 7 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.63 released! May 30, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.63 is out; this is the seventh release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on June 6, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.62 released! May 24, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.62. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the next release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

LilyPond 2.13.61 released! May 1, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.61. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the next release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

LilyPond 2.13.60 released! April 16, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.60. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the next release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

Linux Journal Magazine article - April 2011

Linux Magazine publishes an article in the May 2011 issue titled Projects on the Move. It is an introduction to MuseScore, LilyPond and Chordii. Author Carla Schroder states “LilyPond is driven from the command line, but don’t let the lack of a GUI scare you away; LilyPond is user-friendly and easy to learn”, and provides a hands-on example.

LilyPond 2.13.59 released! April 10, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.59. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the next release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

Release candidate 6 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.58 released! April 7, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.58 is out; this is the sixth release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on April 14, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 5 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.57 released! April 3, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.57 is out; this is the fifth release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on April 10, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 4 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.56 released! Mar 29, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.56 is out; this is the fourth release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on April 5, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.55 released! Mar 22, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.55. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the fourth release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

Release candidate 3 withdrawn Mar 15, 2011

We have discovered a regression since 2.12.3, so lilypond 2.13.54 is no longer a candidate for the 2.14.0 release. However, please continue testing it – we would like to discover (and fix!) any more regressions as soon as possible. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 3 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.54 released! Mar 13, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.54 is out; this is the third release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on March 27, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.53 released! Mar 6, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.53. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the third release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

LilyPond 2.13.52 released! Mar 1, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.52. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the third release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

LilyPond 2.13.51 released! Feb 22, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.51. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the third release candidate, due to a few remaining Critical bugs.

LilyPond 2.13.50 released! Feb 13, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.50. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes.

Please note that this is not the third release candidate. Due to a number of untested changes to our build process, we cannot be at all confident about the quality of this release.

New Chinese and Czech translations of the web page! Feb 11,2011

Two new languages are added to our web page: Chinese by Ben Luo, and Czech by Pavel Fric. It is a work in progress but they are fully functional. That makes ten languages to choose from!

Release candidate 2 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.49 released! Feb 9, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.49 is out; this is the second release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on Feb 23, 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.48 released! Feb 5, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.48. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.47 released! Jan 28, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.47. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Release candidate 1 withdrawn Jan 13, 2011

We have discovered a regression since 2.12.3, so lilypond 2.13.46 is no longer a candidate for the 2.14.0 release. However, please continue testing it – we would like to discover (and fix!) any more regressions as soon as possible. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

Release candidate 1 of 2.14 - LilyPond 2.13.46 released! Jan 12, 2011

LilyPond 2.13.46 is out; this is the first release candidate of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. All users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are no known Critical issues with this release. If no Critical bugs are found, then the official 2.14.0 release will be on 26 Jan 2011. If you discover any problems, please send us Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.45 released! Jan 3, 2011

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.45. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Beta test three of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.44 released! Dec 25, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.44 is out; this is the third beta test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There is still one Critical problem with this release: in one case, the vertical spacing is much too compressed. If you decide to test this version, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

Beta test two of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.43 released! Dec 14, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.43 is out; this is the second beta test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

LilyPond 2.13.42 released! Dec 8, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.42. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Please note that this is not the second beta test. Due to a number of untested changes to our build process, we cannot be at all confident about the quality of this release.

LilyPond 2.13.41 released! Dec 4, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.41. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Please note that this is not the second beta test. Due to a number of untested changes to our build process, we cannot be at all confident about the quality of this release.

LilyPond 2.13.40 released! Nov 21, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.40. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Please note that this is not the second beta test. Due to a number of untested changes to our build process, we cannot be at all confident about the quality of this release.

Beta test one of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.39 released! Nov 15, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.39 is out; this is the first beta test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are still some Critical problems with this release: the vertical spacing is suspicious in two cases, and lilypond can crash with some odd input. If you decide to test 2.13.39, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

The LilyPond Report #22. Nov 3, 2010

The LilyPond Report is back, with some surprises and exciting news for the whole LilyPond community! To be found in this issue is an up-to-date, complete list of all LilyPond mailing lists and forums around the world. Also, for the very first time our special guest today is LilyPond’s co-founder and core developer Jan Nieuwenhuizen, who has been busy these past months – read on to find out what for!

Come read LilyPond Report 22 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

Alpha test four of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.38 released! Oct 31, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.38 is out; this is the fourth alpha test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are still some Critical problems with this release: the vertical spacing is suspicious in two cases, and lilypond can crash with some odd input. If you decide to test 2.13.38, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

Alpha test three of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.37 released! Oct 25, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.37 is out; this is the third alpha test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

There are still some Critical problems with this release: the vertical spacing is suspicious in two cases, and lilypond can crash with some odd input. If you decide to test 2.13.37, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.36 released! Oct 19, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.36. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Please note that this is not the third alpha test. Due to a number of untested changes to our build process, we cannot be at all confident about the quality of this release.

The LilyPond Report #21. Oct 3, 2010

The LilyPond Report is back, with its two “grumpy-and-fluffy” editors! This issue mainly deals with microtonal notation in LilyPond, but does also include a how-to about running LilyPond from an USB key, not to forget the regular release news, the bug report of the Report, and some news from the frog pond!

Come read LilyPond Report 21 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

Alpha test two of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.35 released! Sep 29, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.35 is out; this is the second alpha test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

Three known regressions against 2.12.3 still exist: Issue 1173 MetronomeMarks cannot be aligned on a note if a multi-measure rest exists in another voice, and two spacing bugs: Issue 1240 and Issue 1252. If you decide to test 2.13.35, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

Alpha test of 2.14 – LilyPond 2.13.34 released! Sep 21, 2010

LilyPond 2.13.34 is out; this is the first alpha test of the upcoming 2.14 stable release. Users are invited to experiment with this version. New features since 2.12.3 are listed in the “Changes” manual on the website section about Development.

One known regression against 2.12.3 still exist: Issue 1173 MetronomeMarks cannot be aligned on a note if a multi-measure rest exists in another voice, but we expect to find more. If you decide to test 2.13.34, do not be surprised to discover problems; just send us polite Bug reports.

LilyPond 2.13.33 released! Sep 10, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.33. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.32 released! Sep 3, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.32. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond Report #20. Sep 2, 2010

The LilyPond Report is back, with its two “grumpy-and-fluffy” editors! This issue contains a review of an online notation editor using lilypond, along with the regular release news, snippet of the report, news from the frog pond, and the bug report of the report!

Come read LilyPond Report 20 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.13.31 released! Aug 24, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.31. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.30 released! Aug 13, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.30. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond Report #19. Aug 9, 2010

The LilyPond Report is back, with its two “grumpy-and-fluffy” editors! This issue contains some conference news, along with the regular release news, snippet of the report, news from the frog pond, and the bug report of the report!

Come read LilyPond Report 19 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.13.29 released! Aug 4, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.29. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

This release radically changes the autobeaming rules, so use extra caution and expect breakage.

LilyPond 2.13.28 released! July 13, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.28. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

This release includes some major untested changes to the windows lilypad editor. Windows users should not be using this release because it is intended for developers only, but you ignore these warnings and try it anyway, use extra caution.

LilyPond 2.13.27 released! July 5, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.27. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Testing our new website! June 29, 2010

We’re testing our new website! For the next 24 hours, the new website will be the default website; after that, we will switch back to the old website while we examine feedback and make improvements to the new website.

Please send feedback to lilypond-user; you can find more information on our page about Contact.

Note: There are a few known problems with translations. If you are a non-English speaker, you may prefer to view the old lilypond website at: https://lilypond.org/web/

LilyPond 2.13.26 released! June 26, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.26. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.25 released! June 20, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.25. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.24 released! June 14, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.24. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.23 released! June 3, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.23. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.22 released! May 27, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.22. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.21 released! May 12, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.21. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

This release should be of particular interest to package maintainers: we have made a few changes to the configure script and the required libraries. Barring any urgent bug reports, this is the build system and libraries that will be used for the next stable release.

LilyPond Report #18. May 11, 2010

The LilyPond Report is back, with its two “grumpy-and-fluffy” editors! This issue will be filled with emotion and coolness, paper bags and zigzag-ending staves, plus the usual Frogs and Bugs.

Come read LilyPond Report 18 now; comments and contributions are warmly encouraged!

LilyPond 2.13.20 released! May 5, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.20. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, a number of critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

Minor syntax change: the undocumented \cresc and \decresc have changed. In addition, the [options] for the LaTeX mode of lilypond-book now comes after the {lilypond}, following normal LaTeX practice. As always, see the Changes document for more information.

LilyPond 2.13.19 released! April 24, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.19. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes. However, 11 critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.18 released! April 16, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.18. This release contains the usual number of bugfixes, along with improved website translations. However, 14 critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.17 released! April 2, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.17. This release includes bugfixes for 4 critical issues. However, 15 critical issues still remain, so this release is intended for developers only.

LilyPond 2.13.16 released! March 15, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.16. This release is intended for developers only, and includes the usual round of bugfixes.

LilyPond 2.13.15 released! March 4, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.15. This release is intended for developers only, and includes a few updates to the binary build process in addition to the usual round of bugfixes.

LilyPond Report #17. March 1, 2010

Yay, the Report is back, with a new team! It has been said that two heads are better than one — does it apply to newsletters as well? Read on and let us know! In this issue we’ll talk about websites and poetry, frogs and bugs, not to mention an extensive review of the Frescobaldi editor!

What are you waiting for? Come read LilyPond Report 17 now!

LilyPond 2.13.14 released! February 27, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.14. This release is intended for developers only, and includes a large translation update in addition to the usual round of bugfixes.

LilyPond 2.13.13 released! February 13, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.13. This release is intended for developers only, and fixes various problems with documentation build system as well as adding an output-preview-framework for our SVG backend. In addition, the binaries are now approximately 6 megabytes smaller.

LilyPond 2.13.12 released! February 2, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.12. This release is intended for developers only, and brings more stability and fewer bugs to the build system and Contributor’s Guide.

LilyPond 2.13.11 released! January 16, 2010

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.11. This release is intended for developers only, and brings a number of improvements to the build system, Contributor’s Guide, and fixes 4 critical regressions against earlier versions.

LilyPond 2.13.10 released! December 31, 2009

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.13.10. This release is intended for developers only, and brings a number of improvements such as predictable regression test output filenames and English names for feta filenames.

LilyPond 2.12.3 released! December 20, 2009

We are happy to announce the release of LilyPond 2.12.3. This version contains the long-awaited fix for our GUI on MacOS X 10.5 and 10.6. In addition to the GUI fixes, this version contains dozens of bugfixes backported from the unstable development version.

We recommend that all users upgrade to this version. This is the last planned release in the 2.12 stable series; development now shifts towards the upcoming 2.14 series.

LilyPond 2.13.9 released! December 12, 2009

LilyPond 2.13.9 is now out. From 2.13.9 onwards, LilyPond is licensed under the GNU GPL v3+ for code, and the GNU FDL 1.3+ for documentation. In addition to the usual round of bugfixes, this release adds a shortcut for repeated chords.

Please note that 2.13 is an unstable development branch; normal users should continue to use 2.12.

New Website! October 3, 2009

As you can see, we have a new website design. Many thanks to texi2html and CSS for being so flexible!

LilyPond Report #16. September 6, 2009

The LilyPond Report is back! This short, informal opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Read issue 16 now!

LilyPond 2.13.3. July 2, 2009

This unstable release contains working menus in OSX 10.5; many thanks to Christian Hitz for fixing this long-standing problem! This release also contains numerous other bugfixes and features such as ties with variable thickness, partially dashed slurs, and eyeglasses.
We are planning another 2.12 release in the next week or two, which will include the menu fixes for OSX 10.5. Normal users may wish to wait for this release rather than using an unstable release.
Changes, Development.

A LilyPond weboldala magyarul. May 22, 2009

Elkészült a lilypond.org nagy részének magyar fordítása a LilyPond honosítási projekt első lépéseként. A projekt célja a LilyPond szabad kottaszedő szoftver minél széleskörűbben elérhetővé tétele a magyar felhasználók számára a teljes weboldal és dokumentáció lefordítása révén. A teljes dokumentáció lefordításához közreműködőket keresünk. Ha részt vennél a honosításban, küldj egy e-mailt a harmathdenes AT gmail.com címre!
Harmath Dénes, a LilyPond honosítási projekt vezetője

The LilyPond Report #15. May 18, 2009

The LilyPond Report is a short, informal opinion column about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

The LilyPond Report #14. April 13, 2009

The LilyPond Report is back, on a new website! This short, informal, weekly opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

LilyPond 2.12.2 and 2.13.0 — March 21, 2009

As a very belated announcement, the stable version of LilyPond is now 2.12.2, and the next development version has begun with 2.13.0.

LilyPond 2.12.0 “Rune” — December 27, 2008

A new stable release of LilyPond is available.
Announcement, Changes, Download.

LilyPond 2.11.65 — Release Candidate. December 2, 2008

This release has improvements to MusicXML import, contributed by Reinhold Kainhofer, and adds support for splitting a book in several book parts, contributed by Nicolas Sceaux. Nested contexts of the same type are now allowed with any depth, and overriding nested properties can be done with list syntax, thanks to Neil Puttock. This is hopefully the last Release Candidate before stable release 2.12, so you are welcome to test this release if you can to report new issues.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.64. November 18, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.64 is available. MusicXML import has been improved, including church modes support, and a few bugs in the compilation and documentation building processes are fixed. The three documentation manuals are now fully translated in Spanish, thanks to Francisco Vila. The font cache problem in Windows binaries which used to cause excessive slowness should be fixed.
Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.63. October 29, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.63 is available. This release has lots of updates to the documentation and translations. Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.62 – Release Candidate. October 11, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.62 is available. This is is one of the last releases before 2.12, so testing it is encouraged. In addition to a bugfix in \tempo command, this release has lot of updates to Spanish and German documentation translations, and the stylesheet for HTML documentation has been improved.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.61 available. October 1, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.61 has been released. It has updates to documentation translations, and a new automatic accidentals style (teaching) has been added.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.60 available. September 25, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.60 has been released. A new style of double repeat bar line has been added, and printallheaders variable in score block has been renamed to print-all-headers. Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.59 available. September 20, 2008

Release 2.11.59 is out. LilyPond now uses 64 bit integers for rational numbers, which allows typesetting more complex polymetric music. This release also has updates to German and Spanish translations of the documentation. Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.58 available. September 13, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.58 is a beta release, which means the next stable release is expected in a few weeks. This release is also special, as it includes code which supports more flexible automatic accidentals rules, written several months ago by Rune Zedeler, deceased since then. All the development team express their condolences to his family and his friends. Besides this, automatic beaming has been improved by Carl Sorensen, support for creating stem flags in a new style has been contributed by Reinhold Kainhofer, and a few bugs have been fixed.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.57 available. August 27, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.57 is out. This release adds support for harp pedal diagrams, contributed by Reinhold Kainhofer, and some changes in markup command names have been made.
Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.56 available. August 17, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.56 is out. This release features transposable fret diagrams, contributed by Carl Sorensen. Translations status pages are now available from the documentation start page. Two predefined commands \pointAndClickOn, \pointAndClickOff have also been added.
Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.55 available. August 6, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.55 is out. This release fixes several bugs, and for octavation brackets set-octavation has been replaced by a more user-friendly command, \ottava.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.54 available. July 30, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.54 is out. This release fixes a bug in tie formatting following a line break, and changes the behavior of short-indent so that short instrument names are no longer indented in the margin.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.53 available. July 23, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.53 is out. This release fixes a lot of bugs.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.52 available. July 14, 2008

Release 2.11.52 fixes wrong offset of a bar number when it follows a breath mark, and syntax changes made in recent development releases are now fully listed on the News page.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.51 available. July 8, 2008

Release 2.11.51 has a couple of bugfixes, and a lot of changes in predefined command names. Fret diagrams formatting has been improved by Carl Sorensen, it is now controlled by fret-diagram-details property.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.50 available. July 2, 2008

Release 2.11.50 adds support for metronome marks with text, and backslashed numbers for figured bass, contributed by Reinhold Kainhofer.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

The LilyPond Report #13. June 23, 2008

This short, informal, weekly opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

The LilyPond Report #12. June 16, 2008

This short, informal, weekly opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

LilyPond 2.11.49 released. June 12, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.49 is out. It fixes a number of bugs, including bugs in beams formatting.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.48 released. June 9, 2008

LilyPond 2.11.48 is out. This release fixes a few bugs, and \compressMusic has been renamed to \scaleDurations.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

The LilyPond Report #11. June 9, 2008

This short, informal, weekly opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

The LilyPond Report #10. June 2, 2008

Welcome to this special tenth issue of the LilyPond Report, entirely dedicated to Algorithmic Composition systems.
Follow this link to read the full issue...

LilyPond 2.11.47 released. May 28, 2008

LilyPond now allows all text context properties to be markups, except in \lyricmode. This release also fixes regression tests maintenance for developers.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.46 available. May 22, 2008

Release 2.11.46 fixes a lot of bugs and includes a rewrite of dynamics engravers. Support for slur-shaped arpeggios has been added.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

RSS feed - May 21, 2008

A RSS feed is now available on lilypond.org. It contains all news announced on the web site start page: releases, LilyPond report, new translations of the site and publications. Feed URL. The info mailing list (see Contact) is still used to announce releases and special events.

The LilyPond Report #9. May 05, 2008

Welcome to this ninth issue of the LilyPond Report!
This short, informal, weekly opinion column is about the LilyPond project: its team, its world, its community. Follow this link to read the full issue...

LilyPond 2.11.45 available. April 26, 2008

Release 2.11.45 fixes a couple of bugs in the formatting engine. lilypond-book has been improved, with better performance, a bugfix about included files, and more flexibility for preprocessing documents with LaTeX variants. Support for enclosing text in a rounded box has been contributed by Valentin Villenave.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.44 available. April 14, 2008

Release 2.11.44 is available. Support for figured bass and chord names has been added to the MusicXML converter.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

lilypond.org日本語訳 (lilypond.org Japanese translation). 2008年4月8日 (April 4, 2008)

lilypond.orgのいくつかのページの日本語訳が出来ました。

LilyPond 2.11.43 available. March 31, 2008

Release 2.11.43 has been available since March 27. It fixes a couple of formatting bugs, and the font cache problem with MS-Windows binaries which caused excessive slowness has been fixed.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.42 available. March 9, 2008

Release 2.11.42 is out. It fixes some formatting and spacing bugs.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

Comparison of music engraving with Finale and LilyPond. February 25, 2008

In three articles, Andrew Hawryluk compares Finale and LilyPond in general terms, and evaluates in detail engraving capabilities of both pieces of software. The second article is an instructive analysis of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Prelude 6 engraving, including comparisons with a reference hand-engraved edition. Read the articles.

LilyPond 2.11.41 available. February 25, 2008

Release 2.11.41 is available. It has a few bugfixes, updated program messages in French, German, Spanish and Vietnamese, and updates to the MusicXML converter.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.37 available. January 3, 2008

Release 2.11.37 is available. It has a few bugfixes, and documentation changes. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.11.36 available. December 13, 2007

Release 2.11.36 is now available. It has many bugfixes, updates for MusicXML import, and it includes major documentation changes from Grand Documentation Project.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.33 and 2.11.33 available. September 20, 2007

Release 2.11.33 is now available.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.32 available. September 2, 2007

Release 2.11.32 is now available.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.31 available. August 31, 2007

Release 2.11.31 is now available. It has more bugfixes, updates for MusicXML import and lots of updates for the translations.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.30 available. August 20, 2007

Release 2.11.30 is now available. It has various bugfixes among others in the new spacing code, MusicXML import and lots of updates for the translations.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.29 and 2.11.29 available. August 11, 2007

Release 2.11.29 is now available. 2.10.29 has a few small fixes. 2.11.29 has several bugfixes, among others in the new spacing code, and lots of updates for the translations.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.28 for FreeBSD x86_64. August 10, 2007

Release 2.11.28 is now available as a binary installer for FreeBSD x86_64. Download the installer and do sh lilypond-2.11.28-1.freebsd-64.sh in a command window.

LilyPond 2.11.28 available - July 25, 2007

Release 2.11.28 has several updates to the manual and its translations, an plethora of bugfixes and a complete cleanup of the spacing engine code.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.26 available - June 8, 2007

Release 2.11.26 supports page markers, e.g., for use in tables-of-contents. In addition, it fixes a number of bugs. Enjoy!
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.25 and 2.11.25 available - May 20, 2007

Release 2.11.25 has support for toplevel page breaking commands, and page breaking as a whole has been sped up significantly. Enjoy!
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.23 and 2.11.23 available - May 1, 2007

This has lots of bugfixes.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Old downloads.

Übersetzung der Dokumentation - 10. April 2007

Die Kapitel 1-5 (der Abschnitt für Anfänger) des LilyPond-Benutzerhandbuchs sind auf deutsch übersetzt — sie sind erhältlich für die Changes online und Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.22 available - April 10, 2007

This release has updates of the dot collision code.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.21 available - March 24, 2007

This release has some documentation updates.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

Traduction de la documentation en français - 25 février 2007

Les chapitres 1 à 4 et 6 du manuel de l’utilisateur sont désormais traduits, et disponibles en ligne — version 2.10, version 2.11. Les traductions sont également incluses dans la documentation téléchargeable.

LilyPond 2.10.20 and 2.11.20 available - February 25, 2007

This release fixes many bugs.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.19 and 2.11.19 available - February 18, 2007

This release fixes many bugs.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.18 available - February 12, 2007

This release fixes still more bugs, and included singing support through festival contributed by Milan Zamazal.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.17 available - February 9, 2007

This release fixes still more bugs.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.16 and 2.11.16 available - February 4, 2007

This release fixes many bugs. (Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.10.15 and 2.11.15 available - February 1, 2007

This release will stretch piano staves on a system-by-system basis and add a few glyphs: a black harmonic note head and the slashed mirrored flat.
Bugfixes 2.10, Bugfixes 2.11, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.14 and 2.11.14 available - January 26, 2007

This release has a rewrite of the line-spanner code, responsible for among other glissandi and text-crescendos, making them more flexible.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads

LilyPond 2.10.13 and 2.11.13 available - January 17, 2007

This release fixes a few minor but irritating bugs. In addition, the 2.11 release has updates of the tutorial.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.12 available - January 17, 2007

This release fixes lots of bugs. In particular, the tie formatting has been further improved, and memory usage has been improved enormously.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.12 available - January 17, 2007

This release mirrors 2.11.12. Notably, it has the same memory usage improvements.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.11 available - January 12, 2007

This release mostly has the same fixes as 2.11.11.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.11 available - January 11, 2007

This release has further fixes for popular bugs. Timing of the MIDI output won’t get confused by tuplets and grace notes anymore. Some fat has also been trimmed of the skyline code performance.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.10 available - January 8, 2007

LilyPond 2.11.10 has further review of the test-suite, performance and code coverage. This brought to light several problems that were fixed. Notably, 2.11.10 fixes lots of regressions in optical correction spacing and MIDI dynamics. Also, this version is 20 to 50 % faster than previous 2.11 releases.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.10 available - January 8, 2007

This release fixes several popular bugs, among others: MIDI files that go silent after (de)crescendi, and tuplets problems with quoting and part-combining.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.9 and 2.10.9 available - January 3, 2007

This release has a couple of bugfixes, and —in 2.11.9— further improvements in the regression test suite
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.8 and 2.10.8 available - January 3, 2007

New! Improved! With even more bugfixes!
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

`lilypond.org` auf deutsch - 31. Dezember 2006

Die LilyPond-Webseiten sind jetzt auch auf deutsch übersetzt!

`lilypond.org` en español - December 29, 2006

¡Ya está disponible la versión en español del sitio web de LilyPond!

LilyPond 2.11.7 and 2.10.7 available - January 1, 2007

New! Improved! With even more bugfixes!
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.6 available - December 30, 2006

This release supports arbitrary fractional alterations, allowing music with different microtonal conventions to be typeset.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.6 available - December 30, 2006

New! Improved! With even more bugfixes!
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.5 available - December 24, 2006

These releases complete the translation infrastructure for Documentation.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.5 available - December 24, 2006

New! Improved! With even more bugfixes!
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.4 available - December 21, 2006

The vertical spacing improvements that were introduced in 2.11.0 now work within a system as well as between systems.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.3 available - December 19, 2006

This release has graphical test results and several website build improvements.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.3 available - December 19, 2006

This release fixes several bugs.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LinuxPPC binaries available! - December 19, 2006

From now on, our GUB binary builds include support for Linux/PPC. (Old downloads)

Traduction du tutoriel en français. December 13, 2006

Fruit du travail d’une équipe de traducteurs, le tutoriel en français est maintenant disponible en ligne. Version 2.10, Version 2.11.

LilyPond 2.11.2 available - December 12, 2006

This release supports glissandi and harmonics in tablature.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.2 available - December 12, 2006

A new stable release of LilyPond is available.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.1 available - December 4, 2006

This release has improved support for horizontal spacing.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.10.1 available - December 3, 2006

A new stable release of LilyPond is available.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.11.0 available - November 27, 2006

This release has improved support for vertical spacing. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.10.0 available - November 11, 2006

A new stable release of LilyPond is available. (Announcement, Changes, Old downloads)

GIT repository online - November 11, 2006

LilyPond development has moved over its source code to GIT, the fast version control system. Check out our repository at gnu.org.

LilyPond 2.9.29 available - November 5, 2006

This release has many more bugfixes.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.9.28 available - November 3, 2006

This release has many more bugfixes.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.9.27 available - October 28, 2006

This release has a new FretBoards context, and some further bugfixes.
Bugfixes, Changes, Old downloads.

Music streams thesis available - October 21, 2006

The last months, Erik Sandberg has been overhauling the internals of Lily. This change introduces a new intermediate format, Music Streams, which will make it easier get music data out of LilyPond. A copy of the thesis is now available from lilypond.org (Publications).

LilyPond 2.9.26 available - October 20, 2006

This release has further bugfixes.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.9.25 available - October 18, 2006

This release has more bugfixes; from now on, binaries are also available for x86/64.
Bugfixes, Old downloads.

LilyPond 2.9.24 available - October 15, 2006

This release has support for right hand guitar fingerings, and offers some bugfixes. (Changes, Bugfixes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.23 available - October 12, 2006

This release cuts fragments of EPS directly from your finished score, and makes it easier to insert ties into lyrics. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.22 available - October 9, 2006

Test this release candidate for LilyPond 2.10! (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.21 available - October 4, 2006

Test this release candidate for LilyPond 2.10! (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.20 available - October 3, 2006

Test this release candidate for LilyPond 2.10! (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.17 available - September 2, 2006

This release fixes many bugs. Among others, MacOS X QuickTime now honors tempo changes are in the MIDI output. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.16 available - August 25, 2006

In this release, chords may be partially tied and lyric extenders have tunable padding. Moreover, many bugs were fixed (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.15 available - August 20, 2006

This releases fixes many bugs in the 2.9.14 release. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.8.6 available - August 8, 2006

This release contains a few minor bugfixes; the source tarball is also available. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.14 available - August 4, 2006

This release supports instrument name changes, dotted barlines and better spacing for floating grace notes. In addition, it contains ongoing work by Erik Sandberg to extend the interpretation phase with stream support. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.13 available - July 23, 2006

This release supports doits and falls, and more tuning options for grace note spacing and tuplet brackets. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.12 available - July 18, 2006

This release supports pdftex for lilypond-book, and uses pdfTeX for generating manuals, so page numbers and references are now clickable. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.11 available - July 12, 2006

This release wraps improvements of the last two weeks. As a new feature, it supports tunable tuplet number formatting for nested tuplets. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.10 available - June 15, 2006

This releases fixes a couple of bugs in 2.9.9. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.9 available - June 15, 2006

This releases fixes many bugs in 2.9.8 and earlier. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.8 available - June 6, 2006

2.9.8 has support for different spacing sections within a single score, and better infrastructure for automated regression testing. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.8.4 available - June 4, 2006

2.8.4 fixes some minor bugs, and includes a backport of the infrastructure for automated regression testing. (Old downloads)

First test results available - June 4, 2006

After a week of frantic tweaking, the first automated testing results are available. You can now see in full glory what features are broken in the development release

LilyPond 2.9.7 available - May 30, 2006

2.9.7 has improvements in the formatting for figured bass, and includes a new framework for detecting bugs earlier, which will make the development releases even better

LilyPond 2.9.6 available - May 24, 2006

This release has new features in beam formatting: beams may now be put on single stems, and obey the beatGrouping property. MusicXML converter. (Changes, Old downloads)

New essay pages! - May 22, 2006

The Automated Engraving essay has been updated with material from the FISL talk, with pages on modeling notation and algorithms for esthetics. Happy reading!

LilyPond 2.9.5 available - May 17, 2006

This release supports object rotation, hairpins with circled tips, hairpins that run to barlines before notes and improvements in the MusicXML converter. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.4 available - May 12, 2006

This release has support for feathered beaming, and note head styles in the markup \note command. In addition, it has a lot of updates of the manual and a clean up of the spring spacer. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.8.2 available - May 12, 2006

This release has fixes for minor bugs and compilation issues. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.3 is out! - May 7, 2006

This new release has lots of updates of the manual, courtesy Graham and the contributors of the mailing. It handles formatting for ties in arpegiated chords better (feature sponsored by Steve Doonan), it has al niente hairpins, courtesy of Erlend Aasland, and some cleanups of the PostScript output, courtesy David Feuer. (Changes, Old downloads)

FISL7.0 slides available - April 22, 2006

The slides for Han-Wen’s talk at FISL 7 are now online. (Publications)

LilyPond 2.8.1 is out! - April 3, 2006

Important bugfixes include CJK font handling and a Darwin/x86 port. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.9.1 is out! - April 3, 2006

It’s mostly a bugfix release, and it’s almoste the same as 2.8.1. This release mainly fixes problems with CJK font loading. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond on MacOS X/Intel - March 31, 2006

LilyPond now also runs on Intel based macs, offering a 400% speedup over the emulated PowerPC binaries. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.8.0 is out! - March 22, 2006

Version 2.8 is here! Read the release announcement. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.39 is out - March 17, 2006

This release has even more bug fixes. Please test before 2.8 is released. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.38 is out - March 12, 2006

This is likely to be the last release candidate before we release 2.8, so report any bugs that you might find. New attractions include: lilypond postscript files now work with GSView, cut & pasting lily code from PDF files should now work, and spacing fixes for multi-measure rests. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.37 is out - March 4, 2006

This release has more bug fixes. Please help us by testing it! (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.36 is out - February 24, 2006

This is another release candidate for 2.8. It has lots of bug fixes and polishes to the documentation. It also contains support for creating ties that are only on their right side connected to note heads, which is handy for repeats (feature sponsored by Steve Doonan). The documentation suite can now be downloaded as a separate tarball from lilypond.org. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.35 is out - February 19, 2006

This release has lots of bugs fixes. The plan is to release 2.8 at the end of this month, so bug reports are very welcome. By definition a bug is release critical if it wasn’t present in version 2.6. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.34 is out - February 16, 2006

This release has a bunch of bugfixes, and new features. Newly created contexts may also be named with \new Voice = "alto". Thicknesses of tie and slurs may be tuned separately for the endings and the middle part. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.33 is out - February 10, 2006

Items directly connected with a music input element may be parenthesized, for example,

{
  c4 -\parenthesize -.
  <d \parenthesize fis a>
}

This feature was sponsored by Ramana Kumar. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.32 is out - February 7, 2006

This release contains some syntax changes: words inside the \paper and \layout block are henceforth written with dashes, for instance:

{
  \layout {
    ragged-right = ##t
  }
}

Furthermore, in this release, we have dropped some legacy code from our library. Now, lily uses standard C++ strings and the STL vector. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.31 is out - February 2, 2006

This release fixes a load of bugs, and has some internal cleanups. Exported C++ members are now named ly:class-name::function-name in Scheme instead of Class_name::function_name. We are now using C++ vectors and strings instead of our own. The Linux/FreeBSD builds now include wrappers for Python scripts too, so you can run convert-ly and midi2ly. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.30 is out - January 30, 2006

This release has a few bug fixes, like the solfa note head shape and collisions, the \epsfile command, and in getting No. ligature in normal words. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.29 is out - January 27, 2006

This release has the following new features. Alignments of staves may be tuned per system (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca), individual systems may be positioned manually (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca and Nicolas Sceaux), a linebreaking configuration can now be saved as a ‘.ly’ file automatically. This allows vertical alignments to be stretched to fit pages in a second formatting run (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca and Nicolas Sceaux). (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.28 is out - January 22, 2006

This release contains numerous small fixes that were already in our GUB binaries. In addition, it has further polish for formatting of tied chords. Theses improvements were sponsored by Steve Doonan. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.27, release 4 - January 13, 2006

The fourth release of our Grand Unified Binary for 2.7.27 is available. This release uses Pango 1.11.1, which has support for ligatures and kerning. Enjoy! (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.27, release 3 - January 12, 2006

The third release of our Grand Unified Binaries is available. This release fixes external font-support, the decompression flag for Linux. Also, we have support for FreeBSD as well! Jump to the Old downloads get them!

LilyPond 2.7.27 binaries are out - January 7, 2006

Starting with 2.7.26, the development team has been working on the installers. We’re proud to announce another version of these: they are now available for Linux/x86, MacOS X and Windows.

LilyPond 2.7.27 is out - January 7, 2006

This release allows you to switch staff lines on and off individually (feature sponsored by Andrea Valle). (Changes, Old downloads)

Linux Journal article - January 2006

Linux Journal publishes an article on Make Stunning Schenker Graphs with GNU LilyPond. It is a in-depth but hands-on feature article with crisp LilyPond graphics.
Author Kris Shaffer remarks “GNU LilyPond generates beautiful graphics that make commercial alternatives seem second-rate.” This article is now available on-line.

New binaries for LilyPond 2.7.26 - January 4, 2006

The Development team has been working around the clock to improve to fix the first wave bugs reported by you. The new results for MacOS and Windows are up on the Old downloads page. Let us know how you fare!

LilyPond 2.7.26 is out - December 31, 2005

This release has an improvement in the MusicXML importer (feature sponsored by Mark vd Borre’s Music Academy): now, staves and voices are also setup, so you can readily run LilyPond on the .ly output. The important occasion for this release is our new build environment: we have completely revamped it, which means that binaries for all platforms (including MacOS, Windows, Linux/x86, but probably FreeBSD too) will be more quickly available for download. A happy 2006 from the LilyPond Development Team! (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.25 is out - December 24, 2005

This release has various bugfixes. Also, stems on the center line now have their directions interpolated to minimize the number of direction changes (feature sponsored by Basil Crow and Mike Rolish). (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.24 is out - December 20, 2005

This release fixes a couple of bugs, but more importantly, slurs now avoid TupletNumbers, and tuplet numbers may enter the staff (feature sponsored by Trent Johnston), tuplet brackets and numbers are implemented as separate grobs, TupletBracket and TupletNumber (rewrite sponsored by Trent Johnston), string arguments for music functions may be specified without # marks. This allows syntactical constructs (like \clef and \bar) to be expressed in generic music functions. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.23 is out - December 19, 2005

This release has the following new features:

Ties in chords are also formatted using score based formatting. This reduces the number of collisions for ties in chords (feature sponsored by Steve Doonan).
With the \tweak music function, layout objects that are directly connected to input may be tuned easily (feature sponsored by Sean Reed and Bertalan Fodor).
Generic music functions may now also be used on articulations and chord elements (feature sponsored by Sean Reed and Bertalan Fodor).
Better support for MusicXML, more options for spacing Lyrics; it is now possible to separately specify minimum distances for normal and hyphenated syllables (features sponsored by Mark van den Borre and Bertalan Fodor.

(Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.22 is out - December 9, 2005

This release has better support for MusicXML: it also supports ties, beams and editorial accidentals. It also has more options for spacing Lyrics; it is now possible to separately specify minimum distances for normal and hyphenated syllables. These features were sponsored by Mark van den Borre and Bertalan Fodor. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.21 is out - December 5, 2005

Saint Nicholas brings you ... a MusicXML convertor for LilyPond! The convertor is basic, but working. Check out the LilyPond Software Design pages for MusicXML features that can be sponsored.

LilyPond 2.7.20 is out - December 2, 2005

This release contains the following improvements: Texts set in a TrueType font are now kerned. Using the TeX no longer requires linking or dynamically opening the kpathsea library, making the backend more easily usable on various systems (feature sponsored by Christian Ebert of Black Trash Productions). (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6.5 is out - December 1, 2005

This release updates the bugreporting address and reorganizes the documentation tree. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.19 is out - November 26, 2005

This version contains a few bugfixes, and now allows the type of brackets in system start bracket hierarchies to be specified. Also, the horizontal alignment of rehearsal marks may be changed: marks can be put on key signatures, clefs, time signatures, etc. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.18 is out - November 21, 2005

This version features nestable system start delimiters, like bracket, brace. It also adds "square" line bracket (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca). It also has refactored routines for tie formatting. This will make it easier to get better tie formatting for chords (feature sponsored by Steve Doonan). It also has a few bug fixes. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.17 is out - November 17, 2005

This version has refactored routines for tie formatting. This will make it easier to get better tie formatting for chords (feature sponsored by Steve Doonan). It also has a few bug fixes. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.16 is out - November 11, 2005

This release fixes a large number of bugs. Please upgrade before reporting bugs in the 2.7 series. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.15 is out - November 3, 2005

This release has another massive cleanup of the backend. Each grob property may also be a "grob closure". This means that it is possible to combine functions. Calculation of extent and offset of grob is now controlled via the ‘X-extent’, ‘Y-extent’, ‘X-offset’ and ‘Y-offset’ properties. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.14 is out - October 23, 2005

This release has more cleanup in the layout-engine. Now, properties that have Procedure values are thought to be procedures that compute said property, i.e.

\override Beam #'direction = #(lambda (grob)
(if (> (random 10) 5) UP DOWN))

will set a random direction for beams. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.13 is out - October 18, 2005

This release features slashed numerals, plus signs and interruptible extender lines for figured bass. Merging of Figured bass lines has been made switchable with the figuredBassCenterContinuations property. For each grob, a subproperty in ‘callbacks’ property defines the procedure which computes it. This is major internal cleanup, which also provides advanced tweakability for power users. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6.4 is out - October 11, 2005

This release fixes a few minor problems with the stable series. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.12 is out - October 07, 2005

It features more annotations for the page layout engine and some more sponsored features. Beamlets may stick out of the side of beams (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca); new support for figured bass with support for continuation lines and tuning of figures, brackets, and alignments (feature sponsored by Trent Johnston); vertical alignments of staves can now be tuned easily for individual systems (feature sponsored by Nicolas Sceaux). (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.11 is out - October 02, 2005

Vertical spacing for page layout can now be tuned for each system individually (feature sponsored by Trevor Baca and Nicolas Sceaux). The slope of a stem-tremolo may be set manually (feature sponsored by Sven Axelsson). There are a number of cleanups in the handling and representation of systems, among other features and bug fixes. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.10 is out - September 13, 2005

This version adds proper support for "laissez vibrer ties", just enter \laissezVibrer after a chord. This feature was sponsored by Henrik Frisk. It also has a couple of minor bugfixes. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.9 is out - September 5, 2005

This is mainly a bugfix release. (Changes, Old downloads)

Traduction française du site - September 03, 2005

Grâce à l’équipe des traducteurs, de nombreuses pages du site sont maintenant disponibles en français, notamment l’essai sur la gravure musicale.

LilyPond 2.7.8 is out - August 29, 2005

This release has support for right-to-left text formatting in markup commands (sponsored by Aaron Mehl). In addition, it fixes a great number of bugs, among others, support for writing MIDI files. (Changes, Old downloads)

Article in ‘De Standaard’ - August 20, 2005

The Belgian newspaper De Standaard investigates what drives Free Software authors in an article titled Delen van KENNIS zonder WINSTBEJAG (Non-profit sharing of knowledge) using LilyPond as an example. This marks LilyPond’s first appearance in mainstream printed press.

LilyPond 2.7.7 is out - August 22, 2005

This release has a rewriting of tie formatting which was sponsored by Bertalan Fodor, Jay Hamilton, Kieren MacMillan, Steve Doonan, Trevor Baca, and Vicente Solsona Dellá. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.6 is out - August 19, 2005

This release adds support for numbered percent repeats, a feature sponsored by Yoshinobu Ishizaki. It also has bugfixes for clashes between slurs and symbols, like fingers dynamic signs. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.5 is out - August 16, 2005

Lily 2.7.5 has a large number of bugfixes, among others, in slur formatting, spacing, rest collisions and tuplet bracket formatting. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.4 is out - August 7, 2005

LilyPond 2.7.4 has support for proportional notation, where the space for a note is proportional to the time it takes. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6.3 is out - August 4, 2005

This release fixes a memory corruption bug that was triggered by \override’ing Beam settings. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6.2 is out - August 2, 2005

This release has a few bugfixes, among them: the autopackage will run in more platforms, LilyPond will be much quicker for large lilypond-book documents, and the up and down Fa note heads for shaped heads have been swapped. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.3 is out - July 25, 2005

LilyPond 2.7.3 has improvements in performance which should result in faster operations (15 to 20 percent). It also contains the new "\displayLilyMusic" function. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7.2 is out - July 21, 2005

LilyPond 2.7.2 has support for suggested accidentals for musica ficta notation, easy entry for lyric melismata and improvements for quicker entry of scores. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6 released - June 27, 2005

Version 2.6 is the latest stable release of LilyPond. It now installs in a snap on Windows, MacOS X, and any version of Linux (x86). Get up and running in minutes! Pango text formatting lets you print Unicode lyrics in your favorite script and font. Create SVG files, and edit them in Inkscape. (Announcement, Old downloads, Changes)

LilyPond 2.7.1 is out - July 20, 2005

LilyPond 2.7.1 has no user-visible changes. However, due to restructuring “under the hood”, this version will be 10 to 20 % faster. (Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.6.1 is out - July 11, 2005

This version fixes a few minor bugs found in 2.6.0, and also works on DOS-based Windows versions. (Changes, Old downloads)

LilyPond 2.7 is out - July 9, 2005

LilyPond 2.7.0 is out. It has support for paragraph text and pitched trill notation. (Changes, Old downloads)

2.5.31 released - June 22, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.32 is now available for download (binaries for Fedora + MacOS only). It has a few very minor bugfixes, and a rewrite of the TTF embedding code, which should be a lot more robust now. (Old downloads)

Traduction du site de LilyPond - 15 juin 2005

L’équipe des traducteurs vous présente le site de LilyPond en français. Nous travaillons sur la traduction des pages encore non traduites. Bon surf !

2.5.31 for Windows and MacOS - June 15, 2005

2.5.31 is now available for both Windows and MacOS X. The Windows version should now work with embedding TTF fonts, and the MacOS X has better help functionality. (Old downloads)

2.5.31 released - June 15, 2005

This release has a few bugfixes. In the MacOS X version, ClickEdit has been renamed to LilyPond, and you can now upgrade your files and compile them directly from LilyPond. (Old downloads)

2.5.30 released - June 10, 2005

This is (hopefully) the last Release Candidate before 2.6. Give it a good shake to find those last bugs! (Old downloads)

2.5.29 released - June 7, 2005

In this release the documentation also has pictures. In addition, the Mac version can also read native mac fonts (.dfonts and fonts in resource forks). (Old downloads)

2.5.27 released - May 31, 2005

It has a big bunch of minor bugfixes. This is another release candidate for version 2.6, which should be released within the next 2 weeks. Please send a bug report if you find a critical problem with this release. (Old downloads)

Windows and MacOS installers available - May 26, 2005

There are now a native, standalone installers for Windows and MacOS. They also support PDF point & click. (Old downloads)

2.5.26 released - May 26, 2005

This release has a couple of small bugfixes.

2.5.25 released - May 20, 2005

This release has many small bugfixes and updates to the documentation. (Old downloads)

2.5.24 released - May 12, 2005

2.5.24 fixes a bunch of bugs; in particular, chord symbols (such as slashed o) should now work on all platforms. This release has a new feature: it is now possible to make staves appear in a different order from the order that they were defined. (Old downloads)

2.5.23 released - May 6, 2005

This release has a couple of small bugfixes, and a new feature. It is now possible to start and stop the StaffSymbol, during a piece of music, by doing \stopStaff \startStaff. This can be used to produce Ossia staves. (Changes, Old downloads)

2.5.22 released - May 3, 2005

2.5.22 is a bugfix release. The most visible improvement is in the PDF : this release will produce smaller PDF files, with symbols that look better on screen. (Old downloads)

April 25, 2005 - 2.5.21 released!

2.5.21 has more bugfixes. It also has support for "grid lines", bar like vertical line, which are aligned with the notes. The auto-beam engraver was rewritten, so it also works with irregular time signatures like 5/8. (Changes, Old downloads)

April 18, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.20 has lots of bugfixes, in particular, MIDI files of multi-movement pieces don’t overwrite each other. Version 2.5.20 also supports putting arrows on lines, such as glissandi. More details are in the the Changes file, or go straight to Old downloads.

April 15, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.19 was released. The command ‘\epsfile’ allows inclusion of EPS graphics into markup texts and the music function ‘\musicDisplay’ will display a music expression as indented Scheme code. Take a look at the Changes file and Old downloads.

April 6, 2005

2.5.18 is a bugfix release. It has many small cleanups in the web-based documentation, and many small cleanups all over the place. Old downloads

March 31, 2005

2.5.17 is out. This release features many small bugfixes. In addition, it has support for string number notation for guitar. This feature was sponsored by Gunther Strube. Old downloads

March 20, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.16 is out. This release fixes a few minor but irritating errors. A Fedora Core 3 binary is also available. Old downloads

March 14, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.15 is out. This release has clean ups in the SVG output, and now uses the LilyPond number font for time signatures. It is now possible to add text before and after music. This can be used to add verses after a music. Take a look at the Changes file and Old downloads!

March 7, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.14 is out. It is now possible (and in fact, encouraged), to build LilyPond either without the Kpathsea TeX library or with the Kpathsea dynamically loaded, but only for the -btex backend. This means that packages do not have to depend on TeX anymore. With this, the Windows download size will go down significantly. Take a look at the Changes file and download Old downloads!

March 7, 2005

LilyPond 2.4.5 is out. This release backports the tieWaitForNote feature and has support for tetex-3.0. Old downloads

February 28, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.13 is available for Fedora Core 3. You need to install Ghostscript 8.15rc3. Unfortunately, this version of Ghostscript lacks the IJS dynamic library, which means that it will conflict with the gimp-print package. You may install it with –nodeps. Use at your own risk.

February 28, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.13 is out. This release has Point and click support for PDF output. You can read more about it here. Take a look at the Changes file and download Old downloads!

February 26, 2005

The LilyPond Snippet Repository (LSR) is a searchable database of LilyPond code snippets. You can add snippets too, so join the LSR project, and contribute creative ideas for using LilyPond.

February 21, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.12 is out. The big news is that this release supports TrueType fonts. This means that it is now possible to use all fonts available via FontConfig. Also, arpeggios may be written out using ties and individual objects may have colors! Take a look at the Changes file and Old downloads!

February 4, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.11 is out. In this release, foreign character sets are now supported in lilypond-book too, and it is possible to put system separators between systems. Old downloads!

January 31, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.10 is out. This release sports as new EPS backend, based on the PS backend. This backend is used in the new and improved lilypond-book script. Old downloads

January 26, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.9 is out. This release fixes a couple of annoying bugs in the direct PS output for piano braces. Old downloads

January 16, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.8 is out. This release has many internal code cleanups. In addition, accuracy of error reporting has been improved. See the change log and Old downloads!

January 11, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.7 is out. This release has a completely usable Pango integration for the PS backend. The default font is Century Schoolbook from the PS font suite. It also has small updates to the tablature settings by Erlend Aasland, assorted manual updates by Graham, and an overhaul of the font code by Werner. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

January 02, 2005

LilyPond 2.5.6 was released. This is a "technology preview" release, which means that it has all kinds of nifty features, but is not actually usable for producing nicely printed scores. For this reason, an RPM of this release was not produced. The PS backend is now completely switched over to Pango/FontConfig: for -f ps, LilyPond only accepts UTF8 input, all text fonts are loaded through Pango, the TeX backend now offloads all metric computations to LaTeX, the SVG and GNOME backends are broken, most probably. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

December 28, 2004

LilyPond 2.5.5 is out. It is the first one to link against FontConfig and Pango, although it is only available in the "-f ps" output. The default output format has been changed back TeX while we stabilize the Pango/FontConfig integration. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

December 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.5.4 is out. This release has some major brainsurgery in the font handling. As of now, LilyPond loads the music fonts in OpenType font format using FreeType. This has made a lot of things simpler, including font handling for the GNOME backend and SVG backend. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

December 3, 2004

LilyPond 2.5.3 was released. A new script, ‘\espressivo’ has been added, for a combination of crescendo and decrescendo on a single note. In markups, expressions stacked with ‘\column’, ‘\center-align’, etc, are not grouped with ‘< ... >’ anymore, but with ‘{ ... }’. LilyPond will now avoid line breaks that cause long texts to stick outside of the page staff. Grace notes following a main note, used to be entered by letting the grace notes follow a skip in a parallel expression. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

November 26, 2004

LilyPond 2.5.2 was released. It has several goodies, including solfa-notation (shaped noteheads), and an easier mechanism for customizing title, footer and header layout. Don’t forget to rebuild the fonts, as they have been changed to accomodate the solfa-notation. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

November 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.5.1 is out. This is an experimental release, containing some proof-of-concept code for our graphical layout editor. You can add and remove things from the file, and the tweaks will still work, as long as the tweaked notes remain in the place (i.e., start at the same time-wise and be part of the same context). Further attractions are: the gnome backend now also draws beams and slurs, updates to the SVG backend, support for the lmodern font set for TeX, various bugfixes. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

November 12, 2004

The LilyPond development is OPEN once again! The first release of the 2.5 series has the following new Features: Positioning of slurs can now be adjusted manually, Grace notes are correctly quoted and formatted when using cue notes, Cue notes can now be created with

\cueDuring #VOICE-NAME #DIRECTION { MUSIC }

Stemlets (short stems over beamed rests) have been added. In addition, Jan hacked together some highly experimental code where you can use the mouse to drag and drop objects in the -f gnome backend. These tweaks can be saved and are applied to the PS and TeX output as well. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

November 11, 2004

LilyPond 2.4.2 is out. This release fixes a number of security problems with –safe, and adds a lot of polishing fixes. Old downloads

November 4, 2004

LilyPond 2.4.1 is out. This release includes a number of small fixes that were made to 2.4.0 last week. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 31, 2004

LilyPond 2.4.0 was just released! This new stable version has support for page-layout, completely rewritten slur formatting and many other improvements. Read about them in the Changes file. Old downloads

October 29, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.26 is out. This is another 2.4 release candidate. This release fixes a number of minor bugs, and some problems with the conversion scripts. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 29, 2004

2.3.25 is the final release candidate for LilyPond 2.4. Werner has been overhauling the TeX macros and lilypond-book. In addition, this release contains an important fix for raggedbottom page-layout. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 27, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.24 is a further polished 2.4 release candidate. This release has more improvements by Werner for the TeX backend, and a bunch of other small fixes. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 24, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.23 has bugfixes in the documentation, lilypond-book and –preview output. This release can be considered as a release candidate for LilyPond 2.4. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 10, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.22 fixes a bunch more bugs, to make 2.4 a really stable release. In addition, it renames the \paper{} block to \layout{}. The \bookpaper{} block is now called \paper{}. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 09, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.21 is out. It is a serious release candidate for the next stable release LilyPond. This version has a cleanup and some small formatting improvements of the slur code. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

October 02, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.20 was released. It fixes the biggest problems with encoding and the TeX backend. As a result, latin1 characters (like the german SS) show up correctly in the output once again. Also it has the usual bugfixes and updates in the documentation. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

September 29, 2004

The LilyPond development team will be present at the Free Software Bazaar of the NLUUG SANE 2004 conference today. If you are in the neighborhood, drop by for live contact with the Team or just a friendly chat. Registration is not required to attend.

September 26, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.19 is out. It’s mainly a bugfix release. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

September 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.18 was released. It has further improvements in the slur formatting, and a small syntax change: the mode changing commands (‘\chords’, ‘\lyrics’, etc.) have been renamed to ‘\chordmode’, ‘\lyricmode’, etc. The command ‘\chords’ is an abbreviation for \new ChordNames \chordmode ... ‘\drums’, ‘\lyrics’, ‘\chords’, ‘\figures’ function similarly. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

September 11, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.16 was released. It fixes a couple of annoying bugs, and has an important addition in the slur-formatter. Slurs that pass note heads much closer than the average distance get an extra penalty. This fixes a lot of difficult slurring cases. See input/regression/new-slur for some examples. Please consider this release as a 3.0 pre-release so try to find as many bugs as possible. A report including a small .ly example can be filed at bug-lilypond@gnu.org In this case, a bug is defined as something that the current 2.3 does worse than the latest 2.2 release. We want to be sure that no output will get uglier by upgrading to 3.0, so that once 3.0 is out, nothing will hold users back in switching. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

September 10, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.15 was released. It fixes for some gaffes with the new vertical spacing engine, has lots of documentation updates, and has support for landscape output in the direct postscript output. Also, the types of events quoted with ‘\quote’ can now be tuned with ‘quotedEventTypes’. By default, only notes and rests end up in quotes. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

September 6, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.14 was released and has exciting features! LilyPond will try to keep staves at the same distances across a page, but it will stretch distances to prevent collisions; key signature cancellations are now printed before the bar line; different voices that all use "\quote" can now refer to each other. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

August 29, 2004

LilyPond now has a Documentation Editor, Graham Percival. From now on, he will oversee that useful information flows from the mailiing list into the manual. Also, if there are unclear sections in the manual, let him know via one of the mailing lists. As a start of his career, he worked to transform the "Templates" section of the website into a readable and comprehensive chapter of the user manual. A lot of cheers for Graham!

August 29, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.13 was released. The new slur code was improved, scripts can be made to avoid slurs, by setting inside-slur to #f. It is no longer necessary to instantiate "up" and "down" staves separately when using \autochange. Jurgen Reuter refreshed the logic around mensural flags, so they are adjusted for staff lines once again. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

August 24, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.6 fixes a few minor issues, among others, the disappearing metronome mark. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

August 23, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.12 is out. This release has a lot of fixes and a new feature: there is now support for putting two slurs on chords, both above and below. This is switched on with the ‘doubleSlurs’ property. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

August 3, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.11 is out. This release basically is 2.3.10 with a few annoying bugs fixed. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

August 1, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.10 is out. This release has a major clean-up of the input/test/ directory. Many examples have been moved to the regression test or manual, and the superfluous or outdated ones have been removed. The directory has gone from 146 examples to 72 examples. That means that we’re halfway cleaning it out. Incidentally, the manual has gone from 200 to 220 pages. New features:

Running trills now have their own spanner and event. They are started and stopped with \startTrillSpan and \stopTrillSpan
There is a new markup command ‘\postscript’ that takes a string that is dumped as verbatim PostScript

Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 30, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.9 is out. The important change is that lilypond now once-again directly runs the binary. The old wrapper script has been renamed to lilypond-latex.py, and should only be used for legacy projects. The recommended route is either using lilypond directly (with \book, you can have multiple movements within one document), or to run lilypond-book with a LaTeX wrapper file. This release also fixes a bunch of small errors. I now consider LilyPond feature complete for a 3.0 release. Next on the TODO list is updating the manual, and after that’s done we can release 3.0. The projected date for this to happen is in about a month. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 23, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.8 fixes a few minor bugs in the new slur code, and has rewritten support for ledger lines. Now, in tight situations, ledger lines will be shortened so they stay separate. This also required a cleanup of the Ambitus implementation. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 19, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.7 was released and has new exciting features! The slur formatting has been rewritten. The new slur code works similar to the Beam formatter: scores are assigned for all esthetic components of a slur. A large number of combinations for begin and end points is then tried out. Slurs will now also take into account collisions with staff lines, scripts (like staccato and accent) and accidentals. In the LilyPond emacs mode, the ‘|’ will now display the current beat within the measure. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 15, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.5 was released. It has a few bug fixes from 2.3.x. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 11, 2004

An introductory article on LilyPond appeared on Linux Journal.

July 5, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.6 was released. This release has more updates for the Fret diagram code (thanks, Carl!), fixes a bunch of bugs, including a serious one that trashed a lot of beam formatting, and was also present in the 2.2 series. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

July 5, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.4 was released. It is mainly a bug fix release. Old downloads and check out the changes in the ChangeLog.

June 25, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.5 has numerous small bugfixes and cleanups, and features more work in the experimental GNOME output module. Adventurous hackers can check the instructions at scm/output-gnome.scm and try to run buildscripts/guile-gnome.sh to see what the fuss is all about. Carl Sorensen also provided us with more patches to the fret-diagram output. Check out the ChangeLog and Old downloads.

June 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.3 has a turkish translation and fixes a few minor bugs that were reported over the past month. Check out the ChangeLog for a full description and Old downloads.

June 13, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.4 further improves the output backends. As a result, manual page-breaks, multiple output formats and putting \score into markups now works. Check out the ChangeLog and Old downloads.

May 31, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.3 has many internal changes relating to the output backend (PostScript) and page-layout. In addition, it contains a few bugfixes for recently reported problems. Check out the ChangeLog and Old downloads.

May 31, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.2 is out. It has a number of small bugfixes, so upgrade if any of these errors concern you. Check out the ChangeLog or head straight to the Old downloads.

May 26, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.2 is out. This release has a lot of internal changes relating to page layout, but also sports experimental fret-diagram code. Check out the Changes or head straight to the Old downloads.

May 9, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.1 is out. This release has many new and cool features. Check out the Changes or head straight to the Old downloads.

May 4, 2004

Help LilyPond get better, and join in on LilyPond development! This call for help was posted on the mailing list a month ago, and we are still looking for a Release Meister, Code Janitor, Newsletter editor and a Writer for implementation Documentation. Of course, any other help is also welcome!

May 3, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.1 has been released. It fixes a handful of bugs. Old downloads.

April 17, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.0 is now available on Windows, and should find its way to the Cygwin mirrors soon.

April 12, 2004

LilyPond 2.3.0 is the first release in the 2.3 cycle. The focus for 2.3 is page layout, so instrumentalists can force parts to have page breaks at sane turning points. This release is experimental; expect things to break! More info in the Changes. Old downloads.

April 8, 2004

A French article on the new LilyPond release appeared on linuxfr.org.

April 8, 2004

Binaries for LilyPond 2.2.0 are available for MacOS X, Slackware, Mandrake and Debian Woody. Old downloads

April 1, 2004

LilyPond 2.2.0 is out! This new stable version has completely revamped support for for orchestral score formatting, cue notes, font size management, lyric formatting, drum notation/playback and document integration. Read about it in the announcement or skip to the Old downloads.

March 31, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.37 has build fixes for Cygwin and SUSE, bugfixes for part-combining and chord tremolos and even more documentation polish. This should be the final release candidate; expect only regression bugs to be fixed before 2.2. Old downloads.

March 30, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.36 has many fixes in the user manual. Old downloads.

March 28, 2004

LilyPond 2.1..35 fixes a slew of bugs, and has the raggedlast option, which causes paragraph like line breaking for scores. More info in the Changes. Old downloads

March 22, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.34 fixes minor bugs, and has more rewriting. Old downloads.

March 21, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.33 fixes a serious bug, and a few other irritations. Old downloads

March 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.32 has more rewriting in the user manual. There is also an experimental implementation of optimal page breaking (Postscript backend only). Old downloads.

March 15, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.31 is out. It has fixes the alignment of bass figures and spurious dynamic warnings in MIDI. New attractions include rewritten font-selection routines. See the Changes and Old downloads.

March 14, 2004

The linuxmusician.com interview made the slashdot frontpage!.

March 11, 2004

linuxmusician.com is running an interview with Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen, the main authors of LilyPond.

March 11, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.30 has editorial fixes for the manual, and experimental support for page layout in the PostScript backend. See the Changes and Old downloads.

March 9, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.29 fixes a couple of MIDI bugs, and has experimental support for producing titles with markup.

February 29, 2004

In LilyPond 2.1.28 Scheme property functions may be used argument to set!. In addition, parts of the manual have been proofread and corrected in this release. See the Changes and Old downloads.

February 24, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.27 takes into account instrument transpositions when quoting other voices. This release also fixes a number of lyrics related bugs. See the Changes and Old downloads.

February 23, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.26 has a new, experimental feature for quoting other voices in instrumental parts. This can be used to produce cue notes. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 18, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.25 fixes many bugs, and changes the conventions for altering accidental rules. Old downloads

February 16, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.24 has a big internal rewrite. One of its practical consequences is that \with now also works with Score contexts. Further 2.1.23, which was not announced here, fixes a few bugs caused by the change of \property syntax and has updates in the Program Reference document. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 13, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.22 has a simplification of the \property syntax: it is shorter and more consistent now. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 12, 2004

In LilyPond 2.1.21, output tweaks can be done at multiple levels of the context hierarchy. In addition, it has a bunch of bugfixes, improvements in the documentation. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 9, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.20 has MIDI output for drums. It also sports a completely rewritten lilypond-book script, which is cleaner, shorter, and faster. It also has a large number of bugfixes. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 5, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.19 has rewritten support for drum notation. This release also makes some long-standing cleanups: the removal of Thread (all functionality is now moved into Voice) and Lyrics (functionality moved to LyricsVoice) context. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 4, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.18 is out. This release has the new part-combiner installed by default, and a similar implementation of autochange. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

February 2, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.17 is out. It adds texts (solo, a due) for the part combiner. It also reinstates the --safe option which prevents havoc by Scheme exploits. More information in the Changes.

January 28, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.16 is out; its main feature is that it fixes the autobeams gaffe of 2.1.15. The part-combiner has been tested successfully on larger pieces. In the near future, expect more part-combining eye-candy. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 26, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.15 further improves the part-combiner, and fixes many bugs, among others in pedal brackets and finger positioning. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 21, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.14 has the first release of the new part combiner. If you have scores that use part-combining, please consider giving it a test-run. In addition many bugs relating to mixed staff sizes have been fixed. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 20, 2004

The lilypond.org domain has been moved to a new server. This will result in better connectivity and more bandwidth. Due to security concerns, the new server does not offer FTP access, but only HTTP downloads.

January 20, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.13 fixes a small but nasty bug in side-positioning placement, and some bugs in tuplet, tie and accidental formatting. This release contains rudimentary work on a new part-combiner. Old downloads

January 19, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.12 fixes many bugs and improves formatting of ottava brackets. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 18, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.11 is now also available for Windows! For downloading, go here.

January 17, 2004

In 2.1.11, the mechanism for setting staff size and page is much simplified. In addition there are improvements in the notehead shape, and there is balloon help! More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 16, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.10 has a load of bugfixes and a shorter syntax for octave checks. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 13, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.9 has a new mechanism for adding lyrics to melodies. It is now possible to have different melismatic variations for each stanza. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 9, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.8 has an important new feature: it is now possible to use \property to tune the appearance of spanning objects like StaffSymbol and SystemStartBrace. In addition, contexts may be modified with \remove and \consists for individual music expressions. More information in the Changes. Old downloads

January 7, 2004

An update to the stable branch, version 2.0.2, was released today. It contains a couple of minor bugfixes. Old downloads

January 6, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.7 continues to improve the layout of the Schubert test piece; this release focuses on dot placement and multi measure rests centering. More information in the Changes and download here.

January 4, 2004

LilyPond 2.1.6 continues to improve the layout of lyrics. More information in the release notes and download here.

January 2, 2004

In LilyPond 2.1.5, the lyric alignment is completely revamped, and now matches my Edition Peters version of the Schubert song Sängers Morgen. More information in the Changes and download here.

December 30, 2003

LilyPond 2.1.4 is released. Font shapes and line thickness are now truly different for different staff sizes, thus lending an engraved look to scores printed in smaller type too. See the Changes and download here.

December 23, 2003

LilyPond 2.1.3 released. Interpreting and formatting is now done while parsing the file. This allows for Scheme manipulation of music, and could be used to implement experimental MusicXML output (volunteers to implement this are welcome!) See the Changes and download here.

December 17, 2003

LilyPond 2.1.2 released. This release has a new mechanism for setting font sizes, which combines different font design sizes and continuous font scaling. See the Changes and download here.

December 16, 2003

LilyPond 2.1.1 released. This release wraps together all the small fixes made during Han-Wen’s absence. See the Changes and download here.

October 11, 2003

LilyPond 2.1.0 released. See the Changes and download here.

October 11, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.1 binaries for Mandrake 9.1 available from here thanks to Heikki Junes.

October 9, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.1 binaries for Slackware 9 available from here, thanks to Ricardo Hoffman.

October 5, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.1 binaries are available for Macos X, many thanks to Matthias Neeracher. Old downloads

October 4, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.1 binaries are available for Windows (Cygwin version 1.5). Old downloads. Thanks to Bertalan Fodor, our new Cygwin maintainer!

September 29, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.1 is released. It contains minor bugfixes. See the Changes or download here directly.

September 27, 2003

PlanetCCRMA has been updated to include LilyPond 2.0. Go here to download. Thanks to Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano!

September 24, 2003

LilyPond 2.0.0 is released. The focus of this release is cleanups of the syntax: entering music is now much easier and more efficient. Read the announcement here, or go to the download page directly.

September 24, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.10 is released. This is the final LilyPond 2.0 release candidate. Check the Changes and download here.

September 23, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.9 is released. This is the second LilyPond 2.0 prerelease. Check the Changes and download here.

September 19, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.8 is released. This is the first LilyPond 2.0 prerelease. Check the Changes and download here.

September 17, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.7 is released. LilyPond now has support for quarter tone accidentals! Old downloads

September 16, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.6 is released. It has a lot of minor fixes and updates. Old downloads

September 10, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.5 is released. With this release, the 1.9 branch is feature complete. After some stabilization and documentation work, 2.0 will be available in a few weeks. Old downloads

September 9, 2003

LilyPond 1.8.2 is released. This release fixes a couple of minor bugs. Old downloads

September 7, 2003

LilyPond 1.8 binaries are available for Windows (Cygwin version 1.5). Old downloads

August 31, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.4 is released. This is an experimental release: read the announcement before trying.

August 31, 2003

LilyPond 1.8 binaries for slackware available. Get them here.

August 31, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.3 is released. This release supports tagging for music version control, and has better fingering placement flexibility. Read the Changes and get it here.

August 28, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.2 is released. Read the Changes and get it here.

August 26, 2003

LilyPond 1.9.1 is released. Read the Changes and get it here.

August 25, 2003

The LilyPond 1.9 development release is available. Read the Changes and get it here.

August 25, 2003

Mandrake 9.1 RPMS available, get them here.

August 21, 2003

LilyPond 1.8.1 was released. Get it here, or read the Changes.

August 18, 2003

PlanetCCRMA (eg. RedHat 8 and 9) has been updated to 1.8. Download here.

August 7, 2003

LilyPond 1.8 is released. Read Changes and get it here.

August 7, 2003

New website went live!

August 6, 2003

Announced new website.

August 1, 2003

LilyPond 1.7.30 released.

July 30, 2003

Website: present treatise about music engraving, music printing software, and LilyPond’s unique faculties.

July 29, 2003

1.7.29 - release candidate 4 has been released. Packages for Red Hat, Debian, Cygwin are available.

Introduction		Start here to creating sheet music.
Download		Get LilyPond.
Manuals		Read The Fine Manuals (RTFM).
Community		Contact other users.

Features		What can LilyPond do?
Examples		I want to see some music!
Freedom		Freedom and the GPL.
Background		Computational aesthetics.
Productions		Real-life use of LilyPond.
Reviews		What do people say about it?
Text input		You write music as text?!
Easier editing		Other ways of working with LilyPond.

Learning		Learning.
Glossary		Glossary.
Essay		Essay.
Notation		Reference.
Usage		Usage.
Snippets		Snippets.
FAQ		FAQ.
Web		Web.
Changes		NEWS.
Extending		Programming.
Internals		Internals.
All		All manuals.
FDL		Licence.