diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2c3479c..c6a4ec1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -25,5 +25,16 @@ install: all
 	install -m 0644 ssocr.1 $(DESTDIR)$(MANDIR)/ssocr.1
 	gzip -9 $(DESTDIR)$(MANDIR)/ssocr.1
 
+deb: debian/changelog debian/control debian/rules clean
+	mkdir ssocr-$(VERSION)
+	cp -r Makefile *.[ch] *.in debian ssocr-$(VERSION)
+	(cd ssocr-$(VERSION); fakeroot debian/rules binary)
+
+tar: clean
+	mkdir ssocr-$(VERSION)
+	cp -r Makefile *.[ch] *.in ssocr-$(VERSION)
+	tar cvfj ssocr-$(VERSION).tar.bz2 ssocr-$(VERSION)
+
 clean:
-	$(RM) ssocr ssocr.1 *.o *~ testbild.png ssocr-manpage.html
+	$(RM) ssocr ssocr.1 *.o *~ testbild.png ssocr-manpage.html *.deb *.bz2
+	$(RM) -r ssocr-$(VERSION)
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b6eee2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+ssocr (2.8.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Initial release
+
+ -- Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>  Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:16:53 +0200
diff --git a/debian/compat b/debian/compat
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f8f011
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/compat
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+7
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..997e18e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+Source: ssocr
+Section: graphics
+Priority: optional
+Maintainer: Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7), libimlib2-dev, libfreetype6-dev, zlib1g-dev, libx11-dev, libxext-dev
+Standards-Version: 3.8.1
+Homepage: http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~auerswal/ssocr/
+
+Package: ssocr
+Architecture: any
+Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
+Description: OCR for seven segment displays
+ Seven Segment Optical Character Recognition or ssocr for short is a program
+ to recognize digits of a seven segment display. An image of one row of digits
+ is used for input and the recognized number is written to the standard output.
diff --git a/debian/copyright b/debian/copyright
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a0aa8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/copyright
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+This package was debianized by:
+
+    Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de> on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:16:53 +0200
+
+It was downloaded from:
+
+    http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~auerswal/ssocr/
+
+Upstream Author(s):
+
+    Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
+
+Copyright:
+
+    Copyright (C) 2004-2009 Erik Auerswald
+
+License:
+
+    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General
+Public License version 3 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.
+
+The Debian packaging is:
+
+    Copyright (C) 2009 Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>
+
+and is licensed under the GPL version 3, see above.
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..0842db3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/make -f
+# -*- makefile -*-
+# Sample debian/rules that uses debhelper.
+# This file was originally written by Joey Hess and Craig Small.
+# As a special exception, when this file is copied by dh-make into a
+# dh-make output file, you may use that output file without restriction.
+# This special exception was added by Craig Small in version 0.37 of dh-make.
+
+# Uncomment this to turn on verbose mode.
+#export DH_VERBOSE=1
+
+configure: configure-stamp
+configure-stamp:
+	dh_testdir
+
+	touch configure-stamp
+
+build: build-stamp
+
+build-stamp: configure-stamp  
+	dh_testdir
+
+	$(MAKE)
+
+	touch $@
+
+clean: 
+	dh_testdir
+	dh_testroot
+	rm -f build-stamp configure-stamp
+
+	$(MAKE) clean
+
+	dh_clean 
+
+install: build
+	dh_testdir
+	dh_testroot
+	dh_prep  
+	dh_installdirs
+
+	$(MAKE) PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR=$(CURDIR)/debian/ssocr install
+
+# Build architecture-independent files here.
+binary-indep: install
+# We have nothing to do by default.
+
+# Build architecture-dependent files here.
+binary-arch: install
+	dh_testdir
+	dh_testroot
+	dh_link
+	dh_fixperms
+	dh_installdeb
+	dh_shlibdeps
+	dh_gencontrol
+	dh_md5sums
+	dh_builddeb
+
+binary: binary-indep binary-arch
+.PHONY: build clean binary-indep binary-arch binary install configure
diff --git a/defines.h b/defines.h
index ee695ea..60da1b2 100644
--- a/defines.h
+++ b/defines.h
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 #define SSOCR2_DEFINES_H
 
 /* version number */
-#define VERSION "2.8.3"
+#define VERSION "2.8.4"
 
 /* states */
 #define FIND_DARK 0