Back to using draw.io
I’ve been using Excalidraw for most drawings in recent history, but I’m back to draw.io for several reasons:
- I need to do another presentation.
- While the infinite canvas in Excalidraw is neat, practically I don’t end up reusing much.
- I like the drawing better in draw.io – this is a person thing, just fits my style better. Arrows in block diagrams are so much better.
- I like how draw.io draws look – a little more professional.
- I like the included icon set in draw.io.
- If I always start with a 900x500 (9”x5”) drawing, the resulting PNG export is always about the right size for emails, blog posts, etc without any scaling.
- Unless I’m doing a presentation, I’ve reverted my idea to put a bunch of diagrams in one file on separate pages. Now I’m doing one file per drawing, and always exporting a PNG in the same directory. This allows me to quickly browse and find drawings. If I need to copy something, it is easy enough to open the file.
- With my workflow of exporting a PNG with every drawing, I have images ready to go to include in my newsletter, etc.
- Draw.io has a neat feature where you can embed the drawing in a PNG file. Then anyone can drag the PNG file into draw.io and edit it. So going forward, feel free to reuse/modify any of the images I’m posting in my newsletter, blog, etc.
- Claude code works pretty well with Draw.io.
Tips for use
- start with 900x500 (9”x5”) page size – this is about perfect for most media uses.
- use 45pt text for titles
- use 25pt text for text in slides
- use 16pt text for icon/arrow labels
- for arrow connectors, set width to 2 pt, rounded corners, and some color other than black