diff --git a/Changelog b/Changelog
--- a/Changelog
+++ b/Changelog
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@
 The following is information about what major changes have gone into
 each release.
 
+Changes in 2999.14.1.0
+----------------------
+
+* Add `isGraphvizInstalled` and `quitWithoutGraphviz` for programs to
+  test whether Graphviz has been installed (as previous attempts at
+  doing so via actual calls to dot, neato, etc. weren't working and
+  would be too verbose anyway).
+
 Changes in 2999.14.0.0
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/Data/GraphViz/Commands.hs b/Data/GraphViz/Commands.hs
--- a/Data/GraphViz/Commands.hs
+++ b/Data/GraphViz/Commands.hs
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@
     , runGraphvizCanvas
     , runGraphvizCanvas'
     , graphvizWithHandle
+      -- * Testing if Graphviz is installed
+    , isGraphvizInstalled
+    , quitWithoutGraphviz
     ) where
 
 -- Want to use the extensible-exception version
@@ -52,9 +55,12 @@
 import Data.GraphViz.Exception
 
 import qualified Data.ByteString as SB
-import System.IO(Handle, hSetBinaryMode)
-import Control.Monad(liftM)
+import Data.Maybe(isJust)
+import System.IO(Handle, hSetBinaryMode, hPutStrLn, stderr)
+import Control.Monad(liftM, unless)
 import System.FilePath((<.>))
+import System.Directory(findExecutable)
+import System.Exit(ExitCode(..), exitWith)
 
 -- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
@@ -316,3 +322,17 @@
 --   using the given canvas type.
 runGraphvizCanvas'   :: (PrintDotRepr dg n) => dg n -> GraphvizCanvas -> IO ()
 runGraphvizCanvas' d = runGraphvizCanvas (commandFor d) d
+
+-- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+-- | Is the Graphviz suite of tools installed?  This is determined by
+--   whether @dot@ is available in the @PATH@.
+isGraphvizInstalled :: IO Bool
+isGraphvizInstalled = liftM isJust . findExecutable $ showCmd Dot
+
+-- | If Graphviz does not seem to be available, print the provided
+--   error message and then exit fatally.
+quitWithoutGraphviz     :: String -> IO ()
+quitWithoutGraphviz err = do hasGraphviz <- isGraphvizInstalled
+                             unless hasGraphviz
+                               $ hPutStrLn stderr err >> exitWith (ExitFailure 1)
diff --git a/graphviz.cabal b/graphviz.cabal
--- a/graphviz.cabal
+++ b/graphviz.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:               graphviz
-Version:            2999.14.0.0
+Version:            2999.14.1.0
 Stability:          Beta
 Synopsis:           Bindings to Graphviz for graph visualisation.
 Description: {
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
         Build-Depends:     base == 4.*,
                            containers,
                            process,
+                           directory,
                            fgl == 5.4.*,
                            filepath,
                            polyparse >= 1.7 && < 1.9,