diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fb9d4b28..aafca4f8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
 
 # make_dist expects the version line to be on a line by itself after
 # the project line. When updating the version, check make_dist for all
-# the places it has to be updated.
+# the places it has to be updated. The doc configuration and CI build
+# also find the version number here.
 project(qpdf
   VERSION 11.7.0
   LANGUAGES C CXX)
diff --git a/build-scripts/build-doc b/build-scripts/build-doc
index e6c72757..7d45d4fa 100755
--- a/build-scripts/build-doc
+++ b/build-scripts/build-doc
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pip3 install sphinx sphinx_rtd_theme
 cmake -S . -B build -DBUILD_DOC=1
 cmake --build build --verbose --target doc_dist
 zip -r doc.zip build/manual/doc-dist
-version=$(grep -E '^release' manual/conf.py | cut -d"'" -f 2)
+version=$(grep -E '^ +VERSION [1-9]' CMakeLists.txt | awk '{print $2}')
 mv build/manual/doc-dist qpdf-${version}-doc
 mkdir distribution
 zip -r distribution/qpdf-${version}-doc-ci.zip qpdf-${version}-doc
diff --git a/make_dist b/make_dist
index acbf71e3..020852eb 100755
--- a/make_dist
+++ b/make_dist
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ cd($tmpdir);
 # Check versions
 my $cmakeversion = get_version_from_cmake();
 my $code_version = get_version_from_source();
-my $doc_version = get_version_from_manual();
 
 my $version_error = 0;
 if ($version ne $cmakeversion)
@@ -72,11 +71,6 @@ if ($version ne $code_version)
     print "$whoami: QPDF.cc version = $code_version\n";
     $version_error = 1;
 }
-if ($version ne $doc_version)
-{
-    print "$whoami: doc version = $doc_version\n";
-    $version_error = 1;
-}
 if ($version_error)
 {
     die "$whoami: version numbers are not consistent\n";
@@ -157,22 +151,6 @@ sub get_version_from_source
     $code_version;
 }
 
-sub get_version_from_manual
-{
-    my $fh = safe_open("manual/conf.py");
-    my $doc_version = 'unknown';
-    while (<$fh>)
-    {
-        if (m/release = '([^\']+)\'/)
-        {
-            $doc_version = $1;
-            last;
-        }
-    }
-    $fh->close();
-    $doc_version;
-}
-
 sub safe_open
 {
     my $file = shift;
diff --git a/manual/conf.py b/manual/conf.py
index b95eb3c6..9d4eb5ec 100644
--- a/manual/conf.py
+++ b/manual/conf.py
@@ -15,8 +15,12 @@ sys.path.append(os.path.abspath("./_ext"))
 project = 'QPDF'
 copyright = '2005-2023, Jay Berkenbilt'
 author = 'Jay Berkenbilt'
-# make_dist and the CI build lexically find the release version from this file.
-release = '11.7.0'
+here = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
+with open(f'{here}/../CMakeLists.txt') as f:
+    for line in f.readlines():
+        if line.strip().startswith('VERSION '):
+            release = line.replace('VERSION', '').strip()
+            break
 version = release
 extensions = [
     'sphinx_rtd_theme',