I'm a latex user so I tried tikz and I like the results but it's often too much work. I end up most of the time using PowerPoint and using those drawing tools on a blank slide and then printing that slide to pdf so I get vector graphics then loading that into a pdf tool to crop it. Not a great system but still faster than tikz. I would love a better tool.
Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
61–70 of 83 posts
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#62I'm a Sales/Solutions/Systems Engineer/Consultant/Architect, but I also code still. I create loads of diagrams for work. For Enterprise-Grade Slideware™, I'll use either Lucidchart or draw.io. For my personal projects, I'll use Mermaid.
Hah, I appreciate the distinction on enterprise-grade... Anything in particular you like or dislike in particular from your experience with Lucidchart or draw.io?
I prefer draw.io, honestly. It's lighter weight and does 99% of what I use Lucidchart for. However, Lucid has a bigger icon library, which matters sometimes.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#63Mermaid - support in many markdown rendering pages. Embedding a ``` block in Markdown and having it versioned as text is the big win. Graphviz - same basic reason as Mermaid, though no markdown support. Versioning text is a lot easier than versioning binaries. Draw.io - if you've got to have a binary, this is it. In particular, it allows you to embed the drawing information in the image so that you can import a .png…
My big complaint about mermaid is that you cannot easily generate and store the SVGs without a browser engine—-even the CLI goes and runs Chrome, which feels insane. Regarding graphviz/dot, I have been using it from what feels like the dawn of time and am somewhat sad that we haven’t improved upon it. The syntax, styling imitations, etc. put me off enough that I tend to avoid it.
Digging, there's https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid-cli
For graphviz, the "problem" with it is that it truly is general purpose and trying to make a general purpose syntax for diagrams is difficult. Mermaid tackles this by not having it be applicable to all possible graphs (flow chart has a different syntax than gitGraph) allowing for a better domain specific language for each subset of functionality.
https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/packet.html is really neat... and it would be a pain to do that in GraphViz ... but I believe that's more of a demonstration that it might be better to do specific syntaxes for specific types of diagrams.
The most general Mermaid form is https://mermaid.js.org/syntax/block.html - and that syntax doesn't really feel like it is an improvement over GraphViz.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
My big complaint about mermaid is that you cannot easily generate and store the SVGs without a browser engine—-even the CLI goes and runs Chrome, which feels insane. Regarding graphviz/dot, I have been using it from what feels like the dawn of time and am somewhat sad that we haven’t improved upon it. The syntax, styling imitations, etc. put me off enough that I tend to avoid it.
Digging, there's https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid-cli For graphviz, the "problem" with it is that it truly is general purpose and trying to make a general purpose syntax for diagrams is difficult. Mermaid tackles this by not having it be applicable to all possible graphs (flow chart has a different syntax than gitGraph) allowing for a better domain specific language for each subset of functionality. https://merm…
mermaid-cli uses puppeteer to run a browser. The container packs Chromium. It makes no real effort to render anything without all that overhead.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#65I'm clearly biased since I work at Datadog[1], but I use and recommend Cloudcraft[2] for diagramming. As I don't use the cloud I focus more on the manual design tools, but the automatic stuff are pretty neat. Recently, though, I've been using D2[3] a lot and really liking it. The diagrams don't look as aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, but being able to design everything with a simple language is pretty cool, and he…
Due to pricing model, due to cost CloudCraft is effectively unusable for small shops using accounts as an information boundary (per best practices for certain sectors).
Doesn't mean small firms wouldn't want to. Just, it's not sold that way. Super disappointing!
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#66I use http://multiplayer.app/ It connects to your system using OpenTelemetry and it lets you automatically document all the components, dependencies, APIs, etc. I prefer it to static, drag and drop whiteboards because I get immediate visibility without having to waste time moving boxes and arrows. (Of course you can still create sketches if you want, but the real value is in getting the information you need immediate…
Such a shame products like this hide features behind Call Us or Let's Chat buttons. Just let people buy it.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#67Semi, aside, but I'm desperate for a better way to make math diagrams (WYSIWYG style, not TeX). I asked about this a while ago and nothing is really doing it for me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38351370 . Although since then I have heard about https://penrose.cs.cmu.edu/ as well. Right now I use Excalidraw because there's a fork (never landed... ugh) which supports TeX in labels. But its actual drawing tools…
Obsidian has an excalidraw plugin that supports LaTeX both math and text. Then you can export your final diagram in many formats (pdf, svg, png, jpg).
I'm aware, but excalidraw is fairly underpowered for diagramming. It can do TeX but very little in the way of actual figures without a lot of finicky manual effort.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#68Visio. No drama, just works. Not cheap though.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#69I like Mermaid[1], but can’t be bothered to learn the syntax. So, most of the time, I ask LLMs to generate the scaffolding and work from that.
For freehand drawing, to me, nothing beats Excalidraw[2]. I use it for pretty much everything—from system design work to planning a project and explaining a concept. Such a wonderful tool from the Czech Republic.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to create diagrams?
#70Visio.
I have tried Graphviz but the diagrams looked shoddy.