diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/builder.sh b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/builder.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..8f8febad125a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/builder.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Prepare a makefile specifying the appropriate output directories.
+
+source "$stdenv/setup" || exit 1
+
+nixMakefile="nix-makefile"
+
+unpackPhase &&									\
+cd lout-*.* &&									\
+cat makefile |									\
+  sed -e "s|^PREFIX[[:blank:]]*=.*\$|PREFIX = $out|g ;				\
+          s|^LOUTLIBDIR[[:blank:]]*=.*$|LOUTLIBDIR = \$(PREFIX)/include|g ;	\
+	  s|^LOUTDOCDIR[[:blank:]]*=.*$|LOUTDOCDIR = \$(PREFIX)/doc|g ;		\
+	  s|^MANDIR[[:blank:]]*=.*$|MANDIR = \$(PREFIX)/man|g"			\
+  > "$nixMakefile" &&								\
+mkdir -p "$out/bin" &&								\
+make -f "$nixMakefile" install
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0758b7dfb7c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/lout/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+{stdenv, fetchurl}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "lout-3.36";
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = ftp://ftp.cs.usyd.edu.au/jeff/lout/lout-3.36.tar.gz;
+    sha256 = "b689cbe12074be8817c90070b162593fc9cc51f2f8868701833ff599b24fd4ad";
+  };
+
+  builder = ./builder.sh;
+
+  meta = {
+    description = ''Lout is a document layout system, similar in functionality
+    		    to TeX/LaTeX, but based on a purely functional programming
+		    language.  It can produce PostScript output.'';
+    homepage = http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~jeff/;
+    license = "GPL";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 4061fb8ef145..69709990d7ac 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -619,6 +619,10 @@ rec {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv ghc tetex polytable;
   };
 
+  lout = import ../tools/typesetting/lout {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv;
+  };
+
   lzma = import ../tools/compression/lzma {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv;
   };