Universe

An independent project, not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by draw.io or JGraph Ltd.

Render draw.io / diagrams.net files in Typst, with draw.io’s own renderer.

#import "@preview/dio:0.1.0": drawio, drawio-pages

#drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), width: 100%)
An AWS architecture diagram rendered by the dio package

Examples

In a figure. drawio is used like image: wrap it in a figure for a caption and a number you can reference.

A flowchart in a numbered figure with a caption 
As shown in @fig:flow, invalid requests go straight to the database.

#figure(
  drawio(path("flowchart.drawio"), width: 80%),
  caption: [Request handling],
) <fig:flow>

Pages. Choose a page of a multi-page file by index (from 0) or by name, and list the pages:

#drawio(path("system.drawio"), page: "Backend")
#drawio-pages(path("system.drawio"))  // ("Overview", "Backend", ...)

Size. Set a width or a height like for image, both to fit inside a box, or a scale of the natural size:

#drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), height: 40%)
#drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), width: 8cm, height: 5cm)
#drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), scale: 0.8)

Fonts. Labels are Typst text, in your document’s font by default. Any font works: font: "Libertinus Serif" uses one font for all labels. To get the fonts draw.io uses, see Fonts like in draw.io.

A frame. Use Typst’s own box or block:

#box(stroke: 0.5pt + gray, inset: 6pt, drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), width: 10cm))

Fonts like in draw.io

draw.io’s default font is Helvetica, and Typst doesn’t come with it. The free Liberation fonts have the same letter widths as Helvetica/Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New, so labels wrap exactly as in draw.io.

  1. Get the fonts.

    • Typst web app: download liberation-fonts-ttf-*.tar.gz from the releases page, unpack it, and drag the .ttf files into your project’s file panel.
    • Linux: they are often installed already (fc-list | grep Liberation). Otherwise install the package fonts-liberation (Debian/Ubuntu), liberation-fonts (Fedora) or ttf-liberation (Arch).
    • Windows and macOS: install the .ttf files from the releases page (double-click, then “Install”), or put them in a folder and compile with typst compile --font-path <folder>.

  2. Map draw.io’s fonts to them once, at the top of your document, and pass the map to each diagram:

    #import "@preview/dio:0.1.0": drawio

#let drawio-fonts = (
  "Helvetica": "Liberation Sans",        // draw.io's default
  "Arial": "Liberation Sans",
  "Times New Roman": "Liberation Serif",
  "Courier New": "Liberation Mono",
)

#drawio(path("architecture.drawio"), font: drawio-fonts)

Fonts the map doesn’t list are used by their own names. Typst warns if it can’t find one and falls back to your document’s font, so add the missing ones to the map. font: "drawio" uses the diagram’s fonts with no map.

Usage

Pass the file as a path(...) (Typst 0.15 or newer) with Bytes from read(..., encoding: none).

.drawio and .xml files work, compressed or not, and so do .drawio.svg exports (the diagram embedded in them is used).

Parameter Default Meaning
source — The file contents as bytes, or path("x.drawio")
page 0 Page index (from 0) or page name
width auto Width (length or ratio, e.g. 100%); the height follows
height auto Height (length or ratio); the width follows. With width too, the diagram fits inside both
scale 1.0 With no width/height: multiplier on the natural size (1 draw.io px = 0.75pt)
padding 0 Margin around the diagram, in draw.io px
font auto Font of the labels: auto for the document’s font, "drawio" for the diagram’s own fonts, a substitution map for them (see above), or a font name
theme "light" "light" or "dark": draw.io’s light or dark appearance
background none Fill behind the diagram: transparent by default; auto uses the diagram’s own background colour (draw.io’s dark page colour with theme: "dark"), or give any colour
engine "plugin" "plugin" (draw.io’s renderer) or "native" (a small pure-Typst renderer)

drawio-pages(source) returns the names of the pages in a file.

Limitations

  • Text: labels are laid out by Typst, not a browser, and usually in a different font from draw.io’s, so a wrapped label can break a line differently and text can be a little wider or narrower than in draw.io.
  • Images: images must be embedded in the file or come from draw.io’s built-in icon library. Images that draw.io loads from the web (e.g. https://icons.diagrams.net/...) are skipped, since Typst packages have no network access.
  • HTML labels: formatting, lists, headings, block backgrounds and tables (as in ER diagrams) are supported. Complex CSS beyond that isn’t.
  • Dark theme: theme: "dark" switches the colours draw.io defines in light/dark pairs, including its defaults. Fixed colours are kept as they are; draw.io’s automatic darkening of them isn’t reproduced.
  • Shadows: blurred shadows are approximated by a few offset copies.
  • Not yet rendered: math labels, fill patterns (hatch, dots…), gradients on rotated shapes.
  • Speed and size: the first diagram in a compile takes about half a second more while draw.io loads, and large diagrams take a few seconds. Typst caches results, so unchanged diagrams aren’t redrawn. The plugin is about 7.2 MB.

How it works

The package contains a WebAssembly plugin with a small JavaScript engine (QuickJS) and draw.io’s viewer, shapes, stencils and icon library. draw.io paints the diagram onto a recording canvas, and the package redraws the recorded paths, text and images with Typst’s own elements. A test suite compares the output with draw.io’s own exports of its 156 templates: shapes and edges match on almost all of them. Details, the build and the tests are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Licence

MIT for this package. The plugin contains:

  • draw.io’s source code: Apache-2.0.
  • draw.io’s icon sets and stencil libraries: draw.io’s terms. They may not be used in or distributed for Atlassian products or the Atlassian Marketplace without JGraph’s permission; diagrams you create are not restricted.
  • QuickJS and rquickjs, and libraries bundled by draw.io: MIT, Apache-2.0 and Zlib.

See NOTICE and licenses/.