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Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
51–60 of 218 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#52Graphviz for simple diagrams that can represented with basic shapes. PlantUML for sequence diagrams, state machines and the likes. Powerpoint/Keynote for things that are presentations - and usually I will export one of the above formats as SVG, clean it up a bit, turn into PDF and drop into the slides. As a general rule all my diagrams must be vector based, and no bitmap objects should be embedded. Confluence with Gr…
For a subset of "ASCII art" diagrams, check http://asciiflow.com I find it handy sometimes :)
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#53I use Monodraw[1] on my Mac, I really like it because it's ascii rather than image or vector based which makes including the diagrams in markdown really easy.
It also has a really simple UI that allows me to quickly map out my thoughts so I use it for a lot of things.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#54Clickable link to OP’s example: https://git-lfs.github.com
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#55Shameless plug: I use https://edotor.net to create simple Graphviz diagrams.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#56Sketch, Adobe illustrator, InDesign for custom designs.
Monodraw, for simple diagrams that are text based.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#57Shameless plug: I use https://edotor.net to create simple Graphviz diagrams.
It’s not a “shameless plug” if it’s something you’ve made and are encouraging people to try and use for free. That’s more akin to “warning: gifts ahead”.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#58I've been looking off and on for the past year or two. The scene is depressing. Or there is just no market for cross-platform applications. However I doubt that is the case as over time there have been more fully-featured, once-desktop-only applications competing successfully cross-platform. (Figma vs. Sketch for example.)
Draw.io is free but requires you to do so much work yourself to create objects, size them, group them, connect them, arrange them.
Most other tools I've found when googling around require the same level of effort to use as Draw.io: AsciiFlow, Gliffy.
Omnigraffle is out of the picture since I need to be able to share and use graphs across Mac, Windows, and Linux users -- without needing to describe multiple tools and conversion between formats or anything.
The simplest tool I've seen that just works is Visio. It is primarily click-and-drag and has great suggested connecting, sizing, grouping, and arranging features. It has an online client that works in Chrome in Mac, Linux, Windows, and FreeBSD. On Windows there is also the fully-featured desktop client. It's also familiar/intuitive enough to old-school Office users and feels like a regular graphics application to those of us less Office-oriented.
I don't enjoy spending as much time as I have hunting for the ideal solution. But I'm happy to have found Visio.
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#59Depend of what I have to draw...
- TikZ good for nearly anything, the best results in any case, but a bit time-consuming. I use it only when I really need to draw impressive things (that happen really rarely);
- Dia (Gnome) works well for various / casual / simple stuff especially because of it's variety of icons/block libraries immediately available. I use it to made quick stuff that does not really need to be "visually impressive" and I do not have too much interest in them;
- Ditaa (with org-mode) is nice for simple/quick drawings for witch pure TiKz is overkill and Dia as an external tool is overkill due to the simplicity/regularity of the drawing itself;
- Matplotlib with Python or Hy can be a nice tool depending on what kind of diagram I have to produce;
- Last mentioned, more as a curiosity since I discover it recently and essentially tested only for play: https://github.com/cuichaox/dml
Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?
#60If you want to spend hours or days handcrafting and tuning, there are plenty of options, but for quickly making diagrams that still look good (and can be fine-tuned to look even better) I find Visio hard to beat. It's Windows only and costs money, but it is well worth the money.