Frescobaldi is a very powerful program which allows you to use LilyPond with a fully featured, open source, user-friendly graphical interface. However, right out of the box, it can appear to be a little tough on the eyes. By default, Frescobaldi presents itself with a bright white background, small fonts, and plain basic colors. After a while, this may begin to strain your eyes. Since I spend several hours a day using Frescobaldi, I decided to create a “solarized” color theme to help my workflow. It’s made a significant difference…

Looking for a free alternative to Finale? Sibelius? Dorico? Check out these beginner tutorials for engraving music using LilyPond. You’ll be up and running in no time! I’m currently creating a series of tutorial videos which will take an in-depth look at engraving music using LilyPond. The videos are aimed at beginners and they’ll be following a step-by-step approach in order to help everyone become a power user.