Convert SVG files into DrawIO/diagrams.net shape libraries with support for colorable icons.
- ✨ Batch Conversion: Process individual files, entire directories, or recursive folder structures
- 🎯 Pixel-Perfect Rendering: Browser-accurate bounding box calculation (via
svgelements) eliminates padding and ensures icons render exactly as designed - 🎨 Color Customization: Inject CSS classes to enable color editing directly in DrawIO's interface
- 📏 Flexible Sizing: Proportional scaling with aspect ratio preservation, or fixed dimensions
- 📚 Library Management: Create new libraries, add/remove icons, and list contents
- 🌐 Browser-based Web UI: All commands available in a local web interface — no command line required
- 🚀 Modern CLI: Beautiful, colorful output with rich-click
- 🔧 Modern Python Stack: Built with ruff, mypy, bandit, pytest, and pre-commit hooks
pip install SVG2DrawIOLibor
uv pip install SVG2DrawIOLib# Convert individual SVG files to DrawIO library
SVG2DrawIOLib create icon1.svg icon2.svg -o my-library.xml
# Convert all SVGs in a directory
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o my-library.xml
# Convert all SVGs in directory and subdirectories
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o my-library.xml --recursive
# Enable color editing in DrawIO
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css -o colorable-icons.xml
# Custom dimensions with proportional scaling
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --max-size 64 -o large-icons.xml -RAll CLI commands are available as a browser-based interface. Install with the web optional dependencies and launch with a single command:
pip install 'SVG2DrawIOLib[web]'
svg2drawio webThis starts a local FastAPI server and opens the UI automatically in your default browser at http://127.0.0.1:8000.
Available tabs:
| Tab | Equivalent CLI command |
|---|---|
| Create | svg2drawio create |
| Manage (Add / Remove / Rename) | svg2drawio add / remove / rename |
| Extract | svg2drawio extract |
| Inspect | svg2drawio inspect |
| Validate | svg2drawio validate |
| Split Paths | svg2drawio split-paths |
Options:
svg2drawio web --host 0.0.0.0 # Listen on all interfaces
svg2drawio web --port 9000 # Custom port
svg2drawio web --no-browser # Don't open browser automaticallyIf you are working from a source checkout, build the Next.js frontend first, then launch:
make build-release # builds web-ui/ and copies output into the Python package
svg2drawio webOr run the frontend and API separately during development:
make dev-api # FastAPI on :8000 (terminal 1)
make dev-web # Next.js on :3000 (terminal 2)- Quick Start Guide - Get started quickly for users and developers
- Architecture - Technical details and implementation
- Contributing Guide - Development workflow
- Changelog - Version history
Create a new DrawIO library from SVG files:
# Basic usage
SVG2DrawIOLib create icon1.svg icon2.svg -o my-library.xml
# From directory
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o my-library.xml
# Recursive directory scan
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o my-library.xml --recursive
# Split by folder (creates separate libraries per subdirectory)
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o FontAwesome.xml -R --split-by-folder
# Creates: FontAwesome-Regular.xml, FontAwesome-Solid.xml, etc.Add new icons to an existing library:
# Add single icon
SVG2DrawIOLib add my-library.xml new-icon.svg
# Add multiple icons
SVG2DrawIOLib add my-library.xml icon1.svg icon2.svg
# Replace duplicates
SVG2DrawIOLib add my-library.xml icon.svg --replaceRemove icons from a library by name:
SVG2DrawIOLib remove my-library.xml icon-name1 icon-name2Extract icons from a library back to individual SVG files:
# Extract all icons
SVG2DrawIOLib extract my-library.xml -o output-dir/
# Extract specific icons
SVG2DrawIOLib extract my-library.xml -o output-dir/ icon1 icon2
# Overwrite existing files
SVG2DrawIOLib extract my-library.xml -o output-dir/ --overwriteRename an icon within a library:
# Rename icon
SVG2DrawIOLib rename my-library.xml -o old-name -n new-name
# Overwrite if new name exists
SVG2DrawIOLib rename my-library.xml -o old-name -n new-name --overwriteList all icons in a library:
SVG2DrawIOLib list my-library.xmlDisplay detailed information about icons:
# Inspect all icons
SVG2DrawIOLib inspect my-library.xml
# Inspect specific icons
SVG2DrawIOLib inspect my-library.xml icon1 icon2
# Show SVG content
SVG2DrawIOLib inspect my-library.xml --show-svg
# JSON output
SVG2DrawIOLib inspect my-library.xml --jsonValidate library file integrity:
SVG2DrawIOLib validate my-library.xmlSplit SVG paths with multiple shapes into separate paths for per-path color control:
# Split compound paths in an SVG
SVG2DrawIOLib split-paths icon.svg -o icon-split.svg
# Then create library with CSS enabled
SVG2DrawIOLib create icon-split.svg --css -o colorable-icon.xmlThis command:
- Detects paths with multiple M/m (moveto) commands
- Splits them into separate path elements
- Automatically preserves "donut holes" (nested paths)
- Adds CSS classes for individual color control
Useful for icons that have a single compound path but multiple distinct shapes.
Enable color customization in DrawIO by injecting CSS classes:
# Basic color editing (fill colors only)
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css -o colorable-icons.xml
# Stroke colors only
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --css-mode stroke -o colorable-icons.xml
# Both fill and stroke colors
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --css-mode both -o colorable-icons.xml
# Custom default colors
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --css-color "#FF0000" --css-stroke-color "#0000FF" -o colorable-icons.xml
# Disable currentColor preservation
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --no-preserve-current-color -o colorable-icons.xmlCSS Modes:
fill(default): Generate CSS rules for fill colors onlystroke: Generate CSS rules for stroke colors onlyboth: Generate CSS rules for both fill and stroke colors
Features:
- Parses both
style="fill:#fff"attributes and directfill="#fff"attributes - Properly handles
fill="none"andstroke="none"(doesn't force colors) - Preserves
currentColorvalues by default for theme-aware icons - Supports custom default colors for fill and stroke
This allows users to change icon colors directly in DrawIO's interface. For icons with compound paths (single path containing multiple shapes), use split-paths first to enable per-shape color control.
Scale icons proportionally while maintaining aspect ratio:
# Scale so longest side is 64px
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --max-size 64 -o large-icons.xmlSet exact dimensions for all icons:
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --width 50 --height 50 -o square-icons.xml# Custom XML namespace
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --namespace "http://custom.ns" -o library.xml
# Custom CSS colors
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --css-color "#FF0000" --css-stroke-color "#0000FF" -o library.xmlThe --tag option (short: -t) controls which SVG element type receives CSS classes when using --css. This is useful when your icons use different element types for their shapes.
Default behavior: Targets <path> elements (works for most icon libraries)
# Default: Add CSS classes to <path> elements
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css -o library.xml
# Target <circle> elements instead
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --tag circle -o library.xml
# Target <rect> elements
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --tag rect -o library.xml
# Target <ellipse> elements
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ --css --tag ellipse -o library.xmlWhen to use:
- Most icon libraries (Font Awesome, Material Icons, etc.) convert all shapes to
<path>elements, so the default works fine - If your SVGs primarily use
<circle>,<rect>, or other element types, specify that tag - Only elements of the specified type will get CSS classes for color editing
- You can only target one element type per command
Example: If your icon uses circles for dots and paths for lines, and you want to make the circles colorable:
SVG2DrawIOLib create icon.svg --css --tag circle -o library.xmlNote: The --tag option only affects CSS class injection. It has no effect without the --css flag.
Organize icons by subdirectory structure:
# Create separate libraries for each subdirectory
SVG2DrawIOLib create icons/ -o FontAwesome.xml -R --split-by-folder
# Example directory structure:
# icons/
# Regular/
# icon1.svg
# icon2.svg
# Solid/
# icon3.svg
# Brands/
# icon4.svg
#
# Creates:
# FontAwesome-Regular.xml (2 icons)
# FontAwesome-Solid.xml (1 icon)
# FontAwesome-Brands.xml (1 icon)This is useful for icon sets that are already organized by category in the filesystem.
SVG2DrawIOLib converts SVG files into DrawIO's custom library format:
- Parses SVG files and extracts dimensions
- Optionally injects CSS classes for color editing support
- Encodes SVG as data URI with base64 encoding
- Wraps in mxGraphModel XML structure
- Compresses using zlib deflate algorithm
- Generates library XML compatible with DrawIO
For technical details about the conversion process, see ARCHITECTURE.md.
Use SVG2DrawIOLib programmatically:
from pathlib import Path
from SVG2DrawIOLib import SVGProcessor, LibraryManager, SVGProcessingOptions
# Configure processing options
options = SVGProcessingOptions(add_css=True, css_color="#000000")
# Process SVG file
processor = SVGProcessor(options)
icon = processor.process_svg_file(Path("icon.svg"), max_dimension=64)
# Create library
manager = LibraryManager()
metadata = manager.create_library([icon], Path("library.xml"))
print(f"Created library with {metadata.icon_count} icons")For complete API documentation, see ARCHITECTURE.md.
SVG2DrawIOLib is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.