diff --git a/complex_anosov.c b/complex_anosov.c
index 1c61928..e452724 100644
--- a/complex_anosov.c
+++ b/complex_anosov.c
@@ -161,10 +161,17 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	if(mode == MODE_HELP) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <help|evs|summary|trace_ids> [arguments]\n", argv[0]);
-		fprintf(stderr, "%s help                           display this page\n", argv[0]);
-		fprintf(stderr, "%s evs <n> <q1> <q2> <q3> <treal> <timag>        enumerate group and output unique (log) eigenvalue triples\n", argv[0]);
-		fprintf(stderr, "%s summary <n> <q1> <q2> <q3> <treal> <timag>    only output max slope etc.\n", argv[0]);
+		fprintf(stderr, "%s help                                          display this page\n", argv[0]);
+		fprintf(stderr, "%s evs       <n> <q1> <q2> <q3> <treal> <timag>  enumerate group and output unique (log) eigenvalue triples\n", argv[0]);
+		fprintf(stderr, "%s summary   <n> <q1> <q2> <q3> <treal> <timag>  only output max slope etc.\n", argv[0]);
 		fprintf(stderr, "%s trace_ids <n> <q1> <q2> <q3> <treal> <timag>  list of ids of unique traces\n", argv[0]);
+		fprintf(stderr, "\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "This program computes the traces and inverse traces of the first n elements of a SL(3,C) representation of the\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "triangle reflection group with corner orders (5,5,5). The representation is given by the parameters q1,q2,q3,\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "treal, and timag. q1,q2,q3 can each be 1 or 2 and determine the connected component. (1,1,1) is Hitchin and\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "(2,2,2) is Barbot. treal and timag are the components of the complex parameter and have to be given as rational\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "numbers. If the environment variable IDLIST is set to a filename, a list of elements can be read from this file.\n");
+		fprintf(stderr, "Such a list can be precomputed with the \"trace_ids\" subcommand and speeds up the computation considerably.\n");
 		return 0;
 	}