Re: What are new users to do about LilyPond PDF Documentation?

[David Wright]

On Wed 22 Aug 2018 at 15:56:12 (-0700), Reggie wrote:
> I am using LilyPond 2.19.x and currently there is no way to get a
> downloadable PDF manual for either notation or learning because of the
> screwy fonts in the examples and whatnot. Is there any fix for this or will
> all users have to decide between waiting until 2.20 PDFs to be fixed or be
> forced to rely on HTML documentation with an active internet connection?
> What is the issue with the PDFs and when is a realistic time where LilyPond
> new users can download a user manual to learn the software? It's actually
> quite important for this to be solved asap if you think about it. Thank you
> for helping me figure out how to get PDF manuals for the software I'm using
> without using online HTML documents only.

It's a large file, but if you download the documentation bundle
lilypond-2.19.82-1.documentation.tar.bz2 and unpack it on your
computer, then you can browse the HTML pages (which appear to
work correctly) by opening in your browser (for Notation, say):
file:///wherever-you-unpacked-it/share/doc/lilypond/html/Documentation/notation-big-page.html
All the links should remain as file:/// rather than http://.

File→Open can usually be reached with Ctrl-O.

Of course, it you prefer navigating the PDF, you can always have
both open and just use the browser version when you need to look
at a figure.

The bad news: ~155MB download currently. For dial-up, something
like wget (which can restart mid-way) is almost essential.

Cheers,
David.