There seems to be some disparity between the online POV-Ray documentation and
the documentation that is available for download. Also, the online site
indicated documentation was included with the install package but I was unable


The online documentation at:
http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/3.6.1/1/
is by far the most thorough and it is the documentation I wish to download.

The documentation available for download at:
http://www.povray.org/download/
and the link is located at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, this item is
only the POV-Ray Reference doc which is a subset of the online documentation,


So again, how may I download the full ONLINE version of POV-Ray documentation?

Post a reply to this message

Am 25.04.2012 03:50, schrieb bluestar:
> There seems to be some disparity between the online POV-Ray documentation and
> the documentation that is available for download. Also, the online site
> indicated documentation was included with the install package but I was unable


POV-Ray 3.6.2 is essentially 3.6.1c with changes to make it play nicer 
with Windows Vista and 7. (That's also the reason why there's no POV-Ray 
3.6.2 for Linux.)

> The online documentation at:
> http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/3.6.1/1/
> is by far the most thorough and it is the documentation I wish to download.
>
> The documentation available for download at:
> http://www.povray.org/download/
> and the link is located at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, this item is
> only the POV-Ray Reference doc which is a subset of the online documentation,


Note that section 1 "Introduction to POV-Ray" is included in the 
download as well, in the file named "tutorial-*.*", so the only parts 
missing are the platform-specific ones.

Post a reply to this message

comment)

I have combed through both the online documentation and the downloadable
documentation and have found the following:

The download documentation produces two pdf files
tutorial-us.pdf
reference-us.pdf






I checked a dozen or so paragraphs and they were verbatim.
However, the numbering system is different.


I checked a dozen or so paragraphs and they were verbatim.
However, the numbering system is different.


extra number when compared to the downloadable version, ie,





I found no downloadable documentation for a  platform specific install.

to be included in the main install POV-Ray download file for each specific

bit version for windows. If not there then it would be nice to be available for
download.

Hopefully, the tone of this note is not negative because that was not the
intent. The more I work with POV-Ray I am just amazed by the images it produces
and by the depth of capability available within this wonderful program. A
special thanks for all of those who have made it happen and those who continue
to improve on this fantastic program!

Post a reply to this message

bluestar wrote:

> The online documentation at:
> http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/3.6.1/1/
> is by far the most thorough and it is the documentation I wish to download.

are you concerned with offline usage or with printing?

The help file (chm) that comes with the povray installation
contains the same documentation and I find it more convenient
to search and navigate then the online version anyway.

There are also chm2pdf converters although they probably dont
produce a nice page layout.

Post a reply to this message

Yeah, the original concern was with access and completeness. Online
documentation is split up well enough to quickly search for specific topics and

need something local to refer to during down times. I also proved to myself that
both the online and downloadable documentation are the same other than the
missing platform specific information which is not as critical. Thanks for the
info.

Post a reply to this message

bluestar wrote:

> need something local to refer to during down times. I also proved to myself that
> both the online and downloadable documentation are the same other than the
> missing platform specific information which is not as critical.

note that the chm file also contains the windows specific documentation.

Post a reply to this message

Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> note that the chm file also contains the windows specific documentation.


not gotten there yet. Thanks for the info.

Say, I did notice that there is a problem with the underscore character in the
downloaded Reference pdf.  I have observed two different repeatable things.
Normally, I would just work around it but unfortunately the underscore is used
everywhere for separating words.


does not appear in the pasted destination. I have a Window 7 (64) os and
destination document is MS Word 2010. For example in the Reference pdf, I may



2nd. When I attempt a search in the Reference pdf  the Search function is unable



including the one I was interested in.

3rd. Just out of curiosity I performed the same copy as above and pasted into a
test.pov file in the POV-Ray app and I got the same results as with MS Word.

4th. I performed a Google search for underscore words at the povray.org site and
found the desired keyword with no problem.

Post a reply to this message