Unity Offline Reference Manual?

Hey everyone,

do any of you happen to know if Unity has or plans to release all of their documentation in physical/digital form? More specifically in a book/PDF style with table of content, dictionary, hierarchies, etc.

I try to simply PDF print the online documentation pages via Chrome but some of the information on the page gets truncated if it is too long.

1 Like

All the docs are installed onto your hard drive when you install the editor. There’s no need to hit every single page of the online docs. Prior to 4.5 we had a single page called printable.html which was intended for printing. I can’t see that with 4.5, so either it got forgotten, or it’s been removed for some technical reason.

3 Likes

I reckon the documentation can be printed. I remember seeing a printable version somewhere


The new doc systems have been designed so that they can produce multiple output formats, one of which is XSL-FO. Due to the “technical reasons” Graham mentioned above, the XSL-FO styling hasn’t been fully implemented yet but it will allow us to produce PDF in a form nicely formatted for printing. As a bonus, we think we can also flip a switch on the formatter to generate RTF files. These might be useful, say, for teachers who want to incorporate sections of doc text into teaching materials produced with a word processor. No promises yet, and we’ll have to see if there is any serious demand for formats like this but we have at least done the basic preparation for them. Also, we will need to investigate what users’ priorities are for new doc formats. iPad, Kindle, handheld, print friendly, dyslexia friendly
 all feasible but which would benefit users the most?

1 Like

I’d like anything printable that I can just take to a print shop or something. Right now I have about seven Unity reference tabs open and it’s already a pain to just read through these things on my computer instead of just having a manual I can dogear/highlight without having to switch from the editor.

2 Likes

Thanks for the feedback, Graham. I checked in the Unity Inspector and the Unity folders on my drive, but I could not find anything that was a formatted .docx, .pdf, .txt, etc. but I was able to find a very well made collection of HTML files. Check out my post below for more information.

Hi everyone,

If you look in this folder of your drive: C:\Program Files (x86)\Unity\Editor\Data\Documentation\Documentation,
and click on the “printable.html”, it will open your default browser and provide you with a massive, printer formatted offline reference manual with hyperlinks.
Also, if you click on the welcome.html file you will be brought a directory and clicking on the User Manual and Scripting Reference links on the bottom right will take you to the offline pages, too. The Scripting Reference page provides you with a search box to quickly look for the information you need.

I hope this was able to help any/all of you. Kudos to Graham for pointing us in the right direction to start looking.


If you have Unity installed, it’s on your hard drive. Check my post below for the exact information.

Or you could browse it on a tablet
 Probably cheaper after about three versions and you can even keep search functionality.

1 Like

I have just downloaded Unity and don’t have the “printable.html” file - how do I create the pdf?

printable.html isn’t shipped any more. All of the documentation are installed on your computer, still.

Don’t print it. NÂș1 benefit of docs is the search function!

Unless you want it for other reasons, such as it’s cool to have a physical version of the docs
 besides that, it’s faster to have it right on your computer.

3 Likes

“WORKSFORME - WONTFIX”

IÂŽd like a printable version so I could transfer it to my kindle using:

So please consider those who want to read the manual extensively without straining their eyes. We spend too much time looking to a monitor. :wink:

TIA,
R.

+1 for printable manual.

1 Like

If I can download the manual from iBooks store that would be great. So that I will be able to hold my iPad/iPhone on the train to work and still learning Unity. Which I would feel more comfortable this way rather than watch offline video tutorial.

1 Like

The Documentation directory does not exist in my installation. I am using Unity 5.5 f03 64-bit. As mentioned earlier, printable.html does not exist anymore. Also welcome.html does not exist anymore. It was replaced with a video clip welcome.ogv. The inspector has a very tiny book icon (thanks for helping me notice it! :slight_smile: ) that sends me to the online documentation.

Did you make sure you had ‘Documentation’ enabled when you installed Unity?

1 Like

How might I download/transfer it to my iPad? You have any idea?

Just got one so I have no idea how they work as far as file transferring and such.

Use a cloud-based storage system to transfer the files like Dropbox or iCloud. Just install the documentation normally to your computer and then transfer the folder containing the HTML files to your tablet.

They’re under Unity’s Install Folder\Editor\Data\Documentation*Language Code*\ for Windows. No idea for macOS.

1 Like