Minifying the SVG can cut its size to a quarter of the original exported version and compression can bring it close to the uncompressed text output. So a box, for instance, might require dozens of individual paths to make up each line segment, instead of using the more compact tag. SVG, as it’s exported by Monodraw, is surprisingly large because it’s rendering each glyph as a separate path to get around fonts not being installed. The text output ends up being the smallest, since it’s only storing a byte or two per grid cell. This reproduces the diagram exactly, but comes at the cost of hyperlinks and straightforward dark mode support. When a diagram is embedded in a webpage, the text mode output acts like other text, not a bitmap image or even an SVG.ĭepending on the styles applied, it can respond to light and dark mode changes, embed hyperlinks, and scale with the user’s selected text size.įor the diagrams to make sense, visitors need a suitable monospace typeface installed, with the line drawing and arrow glyphs from Unicode.Īnother option is to export the diagrams as SVG, which converts each glyph that makes up the diagram to a path. It’s likely that this file will live only on the author’s machine, hindering collaboration. Because its all just text, it can be easily embedded almost anywhere. This means that the file where boxes and lines can be moved around as objects is tricky to keep in typical version control software. Monodraw allows you to easily create text-based art (like diagrams, layouts, flow charts) and visually represent algorithms, data structures, binary formats and more. Unfortunately, the editor’s flexibility means that, like other graphics editors, Monodraw’s internal, editable file format is binary. The Unicode lines and arrows work well and, depending on the typeface, look similar to what a constrained version of OmniGraffle might produce.įorcing a fixed grid, limiting fill patterns, and only supporting rectilinear layouts increase the clarity and accessibility of the diagrams.Ī major benefit to this approach is that diagrams can be kept in comments alongside the source code they describe, making them much more valuable.ĭescriptions that might have taken paragraphs to explain can be rendered as flowcharts, sequence diagrams, or data graphs.Īnd when the diagram needs to change, those differences are visible in a version control system’s review workflow. The Text editor family tree was made using a macOS-only application called Monodraw, which lays out diagrams using only plain text UTF-8 characters. The Monodraw diagram editor Matt Widmann Notes Now The Monodraw diagram editor Updated Length 409 words (~2 minutes) Status Confident Effort Low Contents
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