OmniGraffle works well for me. (MacOS)
Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
21–30 of 218 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#22LaTeX/TikZ. + Describe your drawing in code + Mostly intuitive syntax + Not very steep learning curve - No visual editing: edit-compile-view cycle - Time consuming
I use TikZ in LaTeX, it's awesome, has a comprehensive manual, great examples website http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/ to learn from. The secret, I've found, is to avoid programming in TikZ as much as possible--it's terribly clunky as a language for anything beyond the basics--by writing macros in LaTeX (with \newcommand) to use in TikZ for any shapes you'll need repeatedly. They can have as many parameters as you like.
If I need control over every pixel I write graphics programs in Python or Cython or C, or use GIMP.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. I used CorelDRAW, some years ago. In your example, they obviously created (or borrowed) several icons, and then arranged them.
I have to say I'm not really experienced, but where do you find such icons, such that they can be simply imported into whichever (preferrably open source) vector graphics software?
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#24I use Whimsical. https://whimsical.co/
It makes it super simple to create good-looking diagrams, and it can do a lot more than just diagrams too.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#25 I use Simple Diagrams https://www.simplediagrams.com/, specifically because it has a hand drawn feel, which I think makes people feel less intimidated and also conveys the impression that what is shown is not cast in stone.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#26I use Simple Diagrams https://www.simplediagrams.com/ , specifically because it has a hand drawn feel, which I think makes people feel less intimidated and also conveys the impression that what is shown is not cast in stone.
Wow this is great. I can’t believe I haven’t run into this in my searches for diagramming tools. Thank you
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#27http://plantuml.com
I've been doing a lot of flow diagrams and PlantUML has been invaluable. I specifically like it because sharing the flow means sharing some text, which itself is vaguely human-readable. There's an online renderer (bottom of the page in the above link), which means simple diagrams are also quick to create and view. It's got a few different modes that it understands but I'd definitely add it to the list when you need simple vector graphics.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#28A large collection of tools. The trick seems to be to find apps that're good at particular jobs, then compose the components drawn from those apps together into a scene. 1. PowerPoint for composition. Unless whatever graphic you're making is simple enough to be produced by just 1 program, it's good to have a canvas-like program that you can assemble the components in. For me, that's usually PowerPoint, since it can b…
I'm curious as to the scenario in which the security edits you mention could be required. Could you give any examples?
It's probably not something most folks have to worry about.
But for the sake of example, say that you download an image to be later used in a document/presentation that'll be made publicly available. The image server might choose to encode information like retrieval time, IP address, account you're logged in with, and any other tracking info it might have through cookies in an invisible watermark. Then after you post the image as part of a document/presentation, the original source can make that connection.
Ideally anyone tracking you would make the tracking mark cryptographically secure such that only they can interpret it, though there's also the possibility that they'd use some other mechanism that could reveal your personal information to anyone aware of the watermarking mechanism.
Alternatively, say that the image is retrieved over an insecure line, e.g. through HTTP, and, say, some country (with loose notions of civil rights) wishes to track its propagation. Then they can intercept the original image, watermark it, and serve the malicious version to you. Which such a state might wish to do if you're, say, working on a technology that they're interested in.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#29I use Simple Diagrams https://www.simplediagrams.com/ , specifically because it has a hand drawn feel, which I think makes people feel less intimidated and also conveys the impression that what is shown is not cast in stone.
Wow, that's really nice, thank you :-)
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#30Are there any handy tools for animating these diagrams? Like the one at git lfs?