Import and export

Which file formats are supported?

Realistically, the only reason to create a diagram or illustration is so that you can display it online or insert it into a document, so it’s essential that you can save or export it in a suitable format. Similarly, if you want to work on a drawing someone has created or, perhaps, include a third-party image in your drawing, the range of supported import formats becomes important.

Nearly all the reviewed software uses a proprietary format for saving drawings, which isn’t too helpful – except in the case of

Libreoffice Draw, because its native format is recognised by other Libreoffice applications. The one package that can save in a variety of formats is Inkscape, which supports SVG, compressed SVG, Postscript/eps, Adobe Illustrator and several other vector formats. Separate from the save formats, most of the software can export in several file types, including bitmapped as well as vector formats. Bear in mind, though, that if you export in a bitmapped format without also saving it in a vector format separately, you won’t be able to edit it properly afterwards. Inkscape supports the widest range of import formats, including just about anything you’d ever want. However, all offer import of at least a few bitmapped formats, and most also allow you to import the vector SVG format. Google Drawings is particular poor in this respect, though; this may be due to the fact that it’s an online-only tool, working through Google Docs. We didn’t find a list of supported import formats, and our tests didn’t reveal any vector formats that worked. We did find reference to a few workarounds suggested online, but didn’t manage to get any to work either.