RONáN CONROY A serious alternative to the commercial sector. I've been experimenting with LilyPond for a month or so, and I'm impressed. The output is clear and clean, and easy on the eye. And the division of roles is rational: the user writes the notes, specifies exactly how they should look, and the program makes them look like that. Attempts to choke it by putting ties, phrasing, accents and dynamics over the same note are more and more elegantly handled. There's a steep learning curve. Work your way through the tutorial for a start. And there's a difficult leap between producing simple scores and complex ones, such as piano scores with parts crossing between staves, but the impressive thing is how well LilyPond does these things, making visually correct layout decisions in complex situations. Given its present sophistication, it can't be long before it's the top of the range.
(Version 2.7.9) | 
