Learn how to diagram using draw.io features
You can swap shapes on the drawing canvas in draw.io via the Arrange tab of the format panel, or by dropping a new shape from the shape libraries on top of an existing shape. You can also reverse the arrows on a connector easily via the Arrange tab.
The improved table shapes in draw.io are useful for many different types of diagrams. Now, using the grab handles on the sides of table rows in draw.io, you can select rows more easily, and move a row to a new position in a table, or move it to another table - even if that table is a different size.
While the shape libraries in draw.io have a vast array of shapes for technical diagrams, there are relatively few illustrations for use in infographic diagrams. You can create your own illustration shapes easily using draw.io on a tablet. For example, all of the illustrations in this tidal pool infographic were drawn as freehand shapes in draw.io.
draw.io is one of very few diagram editors that lets you work in dark mode. Colours of shapes, text and connectors change automatically when you switch between light and dark modes. Now, instead of changing the hue, all colours in a diagram will remain the same hue in both modes, but their intensity will be altered to significantly improve readability in dark mode.
When you save or export your diagram as a .drawio file, a SVG or PNG image, a PDF file, a HTML page, or encode it in a URL, the embedded diagram data that is included by default. When you share it with someone, they can open the file in draw.io and continue editing the diagram for free. No account is needed.
If you’ve worked on a project in a team, you’ve probably seen a Gantt chart. These diagrams are used in all industries to plan tasks, note dependencies and track progress. You can create Gantt charts easily in draw.io in a number of different ways.
Atlassian has just released a dark theme for Jira Cloud for users who don’t like working on light backgrounds. With Jira’s new dark theme, draw.io diagram thumbnails in a Jira issue now automatically reflect your selected theme.
Unlike many software companies, our team develops draw.io using their preferred operating system and browser - whether that is Windows, macOS or Linux, and Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Edge. We each prefer a different combination of OS and browser, an ideal way to ensure draw.io works everywhere.
It’s becoming more common for companies to change tools and applications regularly. That means users need to be migrated and get used to using new tools quickly. Unfamiliar workflows and tool positions inside the editor can cause frustration. In this post, we’ll explain some of the larger differences to help you make the switch from Gliffy to draw.io easier.
Quick mockups of the user interfaces are invaluable for software developers and designers both for websites and software or mobile applications. Designers and software engineers can draw it together collaboratively with the mockups shape library in our draw.io apps or our online editor.
The list shape in draw.io functions just like a table shape - use keyboard shortcuts, or the table tools in the Arrange tab of the format panel on the right, or the table tool in the toolbar above the drawing canvas to quickly add and delete list entries.
When you create a new diagram with the draw.io web editor, you can now choose to use our new smart diagram generator instead of one of our existing templates. Describe your diagram in a text phrase, and the tool will generate a diagram based on what it parses. For example, this entity relationship model was generated from the phrase “a customer purchases a product from a web store”.
draw.io will be available as an integration in the web-based GitLab Wiki editor on 22 March with the GitLab 15.10 release and product kickoff. When you add your diagram to a GitLab Wiki page while editing the source of that page, it will be saved as an SVG image containing the diagram code, and displayed in the page content.
Keyboard shortcuts for styles and shapes, default styles, and modifier keys when using the mouse help you to diagram faster. Here are a few more ways that draw.io helps you to draw faster and more easily.
draw.io makes it easy to collect your most used shapes, images, custom shapes and diagram fragments in your own convenient custom shape library. Many custom libraries are available online as open source for you to use in diagrams, infographics and user documentation.
With PlantUML in draw.io using our web application (app.diagrams.net) you can quickly draw UML diagrams from a text description. When you input your PlantUML text, the diagram editor will automatically layout and arrange the diagram for you, based on your description and the style of output you select. It supports many different types of UML diagrams, as well as mindmaps, tree diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, Gantt charts, ER diagrams and more.
With draw.io, tables aren’t limited to holding text data. Because you can drop shapes and images into container table cells and drag connectors between them, you can get creative with diagrams inside tables.
With our draw.io for Notion chrome extension, you can easily embed diagrams and the diagram editor directly in your Notion page and in Notion templates when you use Google’s Chrome web browser.
When you set a default style for shapes and connectors in draw.io, all subsequent shapes that you add from the shape library will use that default style. This includes shape outline or connector line colour, thickness and style, shape fill colour and effects, opacity and more.
With draw.io, diagram data can be stored in many different file types, including PNG and SVG images. When you share an image with embedded diagram data, the recipient can drag and drop it onto the drawing canvas to open the diagram and continue editing.
With the new Simple mode for draw.io, we have redesigned the diagram editor to combine the fixed panels and page tabs from the original diagram editor layout, the responsive toolbar from the Minimal editor theme, and the menu and shape picker from the Sketch whiteboard-like theme.
There are many different styles of connectors - the lines that join shapes in a diagram. Some are plain, some have arrows, and some have particular symbols to show a type of connection. Change the connector arrows and their styles in the Style tab of the format panel.
When you apply a sensitive label to a draw.io diagram in Confluence Server/Data Center, it will not be listed as a recent diagram or in the diagram search results when creating a new diagram or embedding a diagram.
The Azure shape library in draw.io has been updated. You can draw Azure architecture diagrams for your cloud infrastructure from scratch, or import .vsdx files or exported diagrams from automated infrastructure documentation apps like Cloudockit.
Using diagrams.net or draw.io together with scripts and data sources, you can create data-driven diagrams, with colours, shapes, text labels and even animations that change to reflect live data.
With draw.io, you can switch editor themes via the menu - Default, Minimal, Sketch (whiteboard) and Atlas. There are also editor modes to switch between the classic mode - the default editor layout or theme you’ve selected via the menu - and the new simple mode. This toggle switch lets you swap between dark and light modes quickly.
Documenting software costs developers time and becomes outdated quickly. A code-first diagramming approach - describing the diagram in code or text while programming - works well for entity models (SQL database code), and class descriptions (PlantUML and Mermaid syntax).
Emoji are being used in all communications at all levels of society - a single picture takes up less space and conveys more information than its matching text. You can use the Unicode emoji in shape and connector labels, and in tooltips in your diagrams.
When working with connectors in diagrams, sometimes you may find a floating connector is not straight between two shapes. You can straighten such connectors quickly and automatically by changing the path style. Depending on where the connected shape is, the connector will straighten automatically.
When you use draw.io, either online or any of our integrations, you choose where to store your diagram files. Create unlimited diagrams and store them on your favourite cloud platform. draw.io doesn’t store your diagram data, so you don’t need an account to open and edit your files.
Run your own diagramming server using our Docker image of draw.io. This image includes server-side support for export to PDF, image and .vsdx formats, diagram storage with Google Drive, OneDrive and PlantUML diagram generation, without any dependency on the draw.io servers.
The Dark mode for the default, Minimal and Sketch editor themes, and the new simple mode, lets you switch draw.io to match your operating system’s dark mode or night mode.
By using URL parameters with our online version of draw.io, you can add translation properties in the shapes themselves while you work in the diagram editor. You can switch languages in the editor via the Extras menu.
To increase the amount of drawing canvas space quickly in draw.io, click on Fullscreen in the top right or select View > Fullscreen. The drawing canvas will expand to fill your browser window.
Mindmaps are useful to quickly capture ideas, and are easy to draw in draw.io and our draw.io branded apps. But some people prefer to work from text lists when brainstorming. Drop a text list into the PlantUML import tool and draw.io will generate your mindmap for you - no need to fuss with connectors or layouts.
The draw.io app in Confluence allows administrators to configure a wide range of options, from default palettes and shape/connector styles for consistency across teams, to custom libraries and custom templates.
The shape libraries in draw.io provide you with a wide variety of shapes and clipart to use in your diagrams. The Style tab lets you quickly style your shapes, but for finer control and complex shapes, you can modify the shape properties.
TL;DR : Gliffy on Confluence Cloud saves with last write wins, you lose data concurrently editing. draw.io supports real-time collaborative editing with shared cursors.
It is easy to diagram on a tablet or any other device with a touch screen because draw.io is a web application. Point your browser to our online editor at app.diagrams.net, select where you want to save your diagram file, and start diagramming.
When collaborating in real time using draw.io, you now share your mouse cursor. Seeing your team members’ cursors makes it easier to ask about or explain something in a diagram or on a quick whiteboard sketch as you work on it together.
We aim to make diagramming as accessible as possible. As draw.io is an open-source application, an increasing range of applications have integrated our diagramming editor or provide an add-in with our diagramming technology.
You can now edit a shape’s connection points visually with the new connection point editor. Drag the connection points around the shape, add new connection points, and delete those you don’t need.
You can now number shapes and connectors in a diagram using the Enumerate shape property. A yellow number label is applied to each shape and connector where this shape property has been enabled.
We’ve recently implemented a number of features, most popularly requested via our drawio Github repository. To reach support at JGraph for diagrams.net and our draw.io apps, please read and follow the instructions on our support page.
This past year has seen a number of new features and big updates to draw.io, including the online editor, our Confluence and Jira apps, and other integrations for a variety of platforms.
Updates, bug fixes and new features are added to draw.io, both in our online editor and for various platforms regularly. It is likely that your browser will use a cached older version of the application by default. To use the newest build, you need to clear any features or diagram editor components in your browser that have been cached.
Previously, you could edit your diagram files and use your GitHub repositories as a storage location as an OAuth app, which required access permission to all of your repositories. The new GitHub Apps offer more fine-grained repository access settings. With the upcoming draw.io App for GitHub, you can choose exactly which repositories you want store your diagram files in.
You can now create and store your diagrams directly in Notion pages using the draw.io for Notion extension for the Chrome, Opera and Edge web browsers. The draw.io for Notion extension uses the whiteboard-like simple editor theme, and resizes the embedded image displayed in your Notion page automatically to display your entire diagram.
Many people prefer a minimal interface for diagramming, as there are fewer distractions. While online whiteboard applications often have a limited set of available tools, draw.io lets you use its advanced features in a less cluttered diagram editor theme.
Lucidchart recently limited their free education plans, Lucidchart EDU, for students and teachers to only 3 editable diagrams. That means that all of the diagrams after your most recent three diagram files are set to read only, unless you switch to a premium subscription.
The shapes, connectors and text elements in your diagram are described in XML - their sizes, locations, groupings, shape styles, z-order on the drawing canvas, and how they are connected to each other. You can attach much more information than this to create richer diagrams and interactivity, including tags, tooltips, links, custom shape properties and more.
Gliffy recently removed their free tier offering in their online version. This means if your trial version has expired, you will no longer be able to edit up to 5 diagrams that you have created, unless you start a paid subscription.
For developers, github.dev allows you to edit files stored in GitHub repositories in a web-based code editor. It has many of the benefits of Visual Studio Code - search, syntax highlighting, and a source control view. After installing the unofficial draw.io extension for Visual Studio Code into the web-based editor, you can quickly navigate, view and edit diagram files stored in your GitHub repositories without ever leaving your browser.
You can now use tags on shapes and connectors which allows you to select, hide or display multiple elements in your diagram. With tags, you don’t need to group shapes into a fixed combined shape, or place them on one layer before you select, hide or display the tagged shapes.
You can embed SVG versions of your diagrams in a WordPress blog post or page. SVG images are quick to load when compared to other formats, and can include your diagram data if you want to allow viewers to download and view a copy of the diagram in the draw.io editor online.
One of the most requested features for draw.io and draw.io was the concept of using one or more pages as backgrounds for other pages. This could be a background graphic to provide a consistent branding across your diagrams. Another popular use case is more technical diagrams where each page displays a border with an information block in a specific format and dimensions.
The draw.io editor online at can use the Sketch editor theme which has an endless whiteboard-style canvas and simple toolbar. This theme is ideal to use as a collaborative online whiteboard with your remote team. The lack of page and grid lines, along with the simple toolbar, minimised panels and the default hand-drawn rough style for shape outlines, shading, connectors, and text labels feels like an informal physical whiteboard, much less intimidating than traditional diagramming apps.
Teams in different departments use many different methods to plan projects, but most of these plans are initially sketched on a whiteboard. Collaborate in real time and online with distributed team members, customers and stakeholders easily in the draw.io whiteboard-like editor theme throughout your project development process.
In line with Microsoft’s end of life date of Internet Explorer 11, we will end support for IE 11 on 15th June 2022.
There are very few differences between the Cloud and Data Center/Server versions of draw.io for Atlassian’s Confluence. If you know how to create diagrams in draw.io on one, you know how to use it on the other!
With remote working on the rise worldwide, online replacements for analog tools like the whiteboard are increasingly needed. With the draw.io app for Confluence, your teams have an easy-to-use, collaborative online whiteboard, directly in Confluence, that can be used for agile brainstorming, story mapping, mockups, project planning and tracking, flowcharting, and more.
JGraph is pleased to announce that draw.io is the only secure diagramming application to meet Atlassian’s new Cloud Fortified standard.
When you look at a draw.io diagram in our lightbox viewer, and not in our online diagram editor, hover the mouse over the diagram to see the viewer toolbar. Click on a tool to select which layers to display, zoom in and out, and step through the pages in a multi-page diagram. You can also export your diagram as a PNG image and print the diagram directly from the draw.io lightbox viewer using these tools.
In addition to sending shapes to the back or bringing them to the front, you can now step shapes backwards and forwards when the overlap each other.
The drawing canvas in draw.io has a number of features that help you align and space shapes and connectors in your diagram. By default, it also indicates how your diagram will appear when printed across one or more pages, dependent on page size and orientation.
draw.io and the draw.io branded Atlassian integrations are the leading solution for web based sketching and diagramming functionality. The article describes the draw.io integration for Confluence that we, JGraph, build, deliver and maintain alongside the online version of our editor at app.diagrams.net, our draw.io desktop application.
You can now search for template diagrams and preview templates in the template library in draw.io. The new subcategories make it easier to find a specific template diagram in categories with many diagrams, such as the cloud infrastructure templates.
You can now embed draw.io diagrams stored in Confluence Cloud in your Jira Cloud issues. This is a new feature for our integration with Confluence Cloud, delivered as part of our draw.io brand.
When you draw a freehand shape in draw.io, it is saved as an image with a transparent background on the drawing canvas by default. You can change the freehand-drawn shape’s style like you would many other shapes: line colour, fill colour, opacity and more. You can also resize, flip and rotate your freehand drawing.
Embed whiteboard-style diagrams in Confluence Cloud pages with the new draw.io Board macro. The Board macro is a new feature for our integration with Confluence Cloud, delivered as part of our draw.io brand.
Embed images of your diagrams in Microsoft PowerPoint slides with the free draw.io branded add-in. The add-ins can be used in all Microsoft 365 Office applications on both Windows and macOS, and in older versions of PowerPoint, Word and Excel.
The waypoint shape allows you to join two or more connectors together. In electrical circuit diagrams or logic gate diagrams, it is essential to show contact points where wires are connected, as opposed to passing each other without connecting. Waypoint shapes help you organise and route connectors neatly in tree diagrams, org charts, gitflow diagrams, hold connector lines together in a fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram, and more.
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standardised diagramming system used to visualise business processes. BPMN diagrams are a form of flowchart, similar to UML activity diagrams. While it is typically used by business analysts and managers, its simple and understandable set of shapes and flows makes it a good choice to document processes for stakeholders in any department.
You can customise the draw.io editor and choose your preferred theme for the user interface. The editor theme controls which editor elements are displayed, minimised or hidden in the user interface, including the menu, toolbar, panels and dialog boxes.
Connectors are lines that connect your shapes together and may or may not have arrows at one or both ends. In a diagram, connectors provide context information, showing how the various shapes and entities in your diagram are related.
Entity relationship diagrams or ER models in software engineering show the structure of and relationships between database objects. They are used extensively in database modelling to plan new systems, and document existing systems for maintenance and updates.
Open this ER model in the draw.io editor
Flowcharts are one of the most common diagram types, showing all of the steps that must be followed to complete a process. Not many processes are limited to just one person or one team, which is why swimlane diagrams and cross-functional flowcharts are used - these show the flow of data or control across different groups.
With most teachers and students now working virtually, as schools have been required to close due to the pandemic, the tools that support online teaching have been drastically improved. Many schools are now using Google Classroom to communicate with students, organise curriculum, and assign and submit assessment digitally.
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a set of standard symbols and diagram types, commonly used in data modelling, workflow visualisation, and system modelling. UML notation is the defacto industry standard in the fields of software development, IT infrastructure, business systems and other fields. Many languages, such as SysML, SoaML, and a number of architecture frameworks use and extend UML.
Complex diagrams can be made a lot easier to read and understand when you split them up into logical smaller diagrams on multiple pages, or by using a number of layers.
Notion is a collaboration platform with web, desktop and mobile applications, providing individuals and teams with a range of features for collaboration, documentation and personal organisation: notes, databases, kanban boards, wikis, calendars, and reminders.
You can create a diagram automatically from a combination of formatting information and CSV data from a spreadsheet. This may be practical when working with spreadsheet models of various types of data (org charts, attack trees, process flows), or CSV files exported from other programs, for example, modeled network topologies or software dependencies.
There are two ways to display diagrams on Confluence Data Center and Server - either attach the diagram file to the page and use the draw.io diagram macro, or embed a diagram that is stored elsewhere using the Embed draw.io diagram macro. You can embed draw.io diagrams easily from the following locations:
You can change the alignment of text labels in shapes and on connectors in a number of different ways. The options below are available in the Text tab of the format panel on the right.
Shapes are placed on the drawing canvas in draw.io using a default orientation. You can rotate shapes into another position as you need.
You can use the built-in search features to look for draw.io diagrams in Confluence Cloud, as well as Confluence Server and Data Center. In the following examples, you can see a comparison of how Confluence finds draw.io and Gliffy diagrams.
If you are looking for information on licensing draw.io for Confluence DC, there is another article for that.
The automatic layout shapes in the Advanced shape library in draw.io organise your flow charts, tree diagrams, org charts, and mind maps for you as you add and connect more shapes. The automated layout ensures that all shapes in your diagram are spaced evenly, either in a horizontal or vertical format, and will automatically increase or decrease the container shape’s size to match the contents.
Confluence allows you to collaboratively edit the content of its pages: You and other Confluence users will see each others’ changes in real-time as you edit the page.
Draw your Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure with draw.io for free. You don’t need to register or sign-up, and you can store your diagrams in your favourite cloud storage platforms, like Google Drive, One Drive, and Dropbox.
You can use a versioned diagram in a GitHub README file in a number of different ways, and include links to edit the diagram or use it as a template for a new diagram.
You can add maths equations to your diagrams by enabling mathematical typesetting via the draw.io menu. When you enter an equation into a text shape or label, enabling mathematical typesetting will use MathJax to render your equation. MathJax renders equations neatly and works in all browsers.
A more relaxed and informal style for shapes, fills and lines is often used in infographics, teaching materials, maps and reports so that the diagrams are little less sterile and boring. The rough style adds a hand drawn shading options, rough outlines and connectors, and handwritten text labels.
Tables have been overhauled in draw.io to be much more flexible and robust than the old HTML tables you previously used. With the new tables, you can choose from various layouts, drag to resize rows and columns, move rows by dragging them, and build cross-functional flowcharts within a table and its cells.
Connectors show how the different shapes in the diagram are related. In complex diagrams, you are likely to have many overlapping connectors. While line jumps are useful when you have one or two connectors that cross but shouldn’t intersect, you can change the path that your connectors take to make your diagram clearer by adding extra waypoints.
You can now create a new diagram even faster by going to diagram.new or diagrams.new instead of having to remember the full app.diagrams.net address for the online version of draw.io.
You can embed draw.io as an application within another app, where you store the diagram data in the host app. It takes around 15 minutes to get a basic example running.
The PNG image file format supports embedded metadata in a number of ways. draw.io can export a PNG image of your diagram and include the diagram itself in the image, by including the XML code in the zTxt section of the image file.
There are many reasons why you may want to print a diagram, or save it as a PDF file: floor plans with emergency routes or conference booth layouts, infographics, business plans and BPMN diagrams, or infrastructure and rack diagrams when you don’t have a tablet on hand for easy reference.
Mermaid is a syntax similar to Markdown where you can use text to describe and automatically generate diagrams. With Mermaid’s Markdown-inspired syntax, you can generate flow charts, UML diagrams, pie charts, Gantt charts, and more.
Custom shape libraries let you add the shapes, images, clipart, groups of shapes, custom shapes, and even entire diagrams to your own shape library to make diagramming faster and easier.
There are a large number of keyboard shortcuts that let you create diagrams faster and more easily with draw.io. One of the more common and time-consuming tasks when you create a diagram is styling shapes and connectors.
Versioning is built into Confluence, and diagrams attached to pages using the draw.io app for Confluence takes advantage of this. When you edit a diagram, the draw.io app creates a new page version so you can easily restore an older version of your diagram.
The free draw.io add-on for Google Docs lets you embed your diagrams into your documents. When the diagram files have been updated via your Google Drive, all you need to do is update them inside your document to show those changes.
Several features in our diagram editor let you create diagrams automatically from simple text statements.
Each shape in a diagram can contain metadata or custom properties - extra information about those shapes.
If you don’t want to use the fonts that are available by default in draw.io, you can use your own custom fonts or external fonts, such as Google’s fonts or web fonts stored on your own server. This is useful when you need to match the style guide of a publication, your company’s corporate image, or to add interest and emphasis in an infographic.
Some diagrams can get very large and complex, for example, business processes, UML diagrams, floor plans, or even large brainstorm mind maps and hierarchical tree diagrams. These diagrams are often more readable when they are broken into smaller component diagrams.
draw.io desktop is a downloadable security-first diagramming application that runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux. Creating diagrams in the desktop app doesn’t need an internet connection. This is useful when you are disconnected or when you must create diagrams in a highly secure environment, where data protection is of the utmost importance.
You can store your diagrams in GitLab after authorising access to your account and repositories - draw.io and our online editor will never see your GitLab password.
draw.io and our online editor supports GitHub using OAuth - the editor will never see your GitHub password.
You can share and collaborate on diagrams with anyone, either inside or outside of your company, when they are stored as public files in your Google Drive account.
Entity relationship diagrams show how data is structured in relational databases. Each entity consists of rows of attributes. ER diagrams are used in software development and by IT workers to design and document database structure.
draw.io is a unique security-first diagramming tool in that we provide the application platform, but your diagram data only lives in your browser on your local device while you are working on it. Upon saving, your diagram data will be stored at the location you have chosen: in your cloud platform, on your local device, in GitHub, or to whichever integration you have selected. Your diagram data is never sent to our servers when you save your diagram.
You can connect shapes using the mouse, or the keyboard, or a combination of mouse and keyboard. By cloning shapes, you can add a shape and automatically connect them.
You can define custom properties for the shapes and connectors in your diagrams. This shape metadata can help explain your diagram to viewers. For example, the tooltips that can appear when you hover over a shape are one such property.
As draw.io aims to become the de facto diagramming tool, used by everyone around the world, it’s important to be able to import from a variety of file formats and from a number of storage locations.
Normally, when you resize a group of shapes, all of the shapes are resized proportionally, and maintain their positions in relation to each other.
SVG images load quickly, especially when compared to loading diagram images in other formats. You can embed an SVG image exported from draw.io in a website, document or even a WordPress site if you have installed a plugin that support the upload of SVG files.
Floating connectors are easy to create - drag a connector from one shape, hover over another shape until the outline is blue, then release.
You can embed a diagram in a web page or in any online platform that can render HTML. While some third-party integrations can embed diagrams more efficiently (in WordPress, for example), embedding a diagram as HTML may be a good option. You can also share these HTML diagram files with others.
Publishing a diagram that you have saved on Google Drive as a link makes it easy to share them with people on forums, via chat apps or by email.
Instead of dragging shapes from the shape library in to the drawing canvas, you can quickly add them by simply clicking on the shape. This makes it faster to add a lot of shapes to the canvas at once, and then place, style and connect them later.
draw.io makes it easy to share your diagrams. You can even encode it in an URL if your diagram is smaller than a certain size. When someone clicks on the (very long) URL, they will open the diagram in the diagram viewer. From there, it’s easy to print or edit their own copy of the diagram - your original diagram will not be changed unless you specify otherwise.
You can share diagrams easily, open and edit them, no matter whether those diagrams are in .drawio, .vsdx, .vdx, .gliffy or .lucid file formats, by using draw.io’s free, online diagram viewer.
You can store and collaborate on diagrams using your company’s shared drives in G Suite, previously known as Google Team Drives, in the same way as you can use your personal Google Drive with draw.io.