Dia () is

free and open source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. It uses a controlled

single document interface A multiple-document interface (MDI) is a graphical user interface in which multiple windows reside under a single parent window. Such systems often allow child windows to embed other windows inside them as well, creating complex nested hierarchies ...

(SDI) similar to

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized ...

and

Inkscape Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported. Inkscape can render primitive vector shapes (e.g. rec ...

Features

Dia has a modular design with several shape packages available for different needs:

flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of ...

, network diagrams,

circuit diagram A circuit diagram (wiring diagram, electrical diagram, elementary diagram, electronic schematic) is a graphical representation of an electrical circuit. A pictorial circuit diagram uses simple images of components, while a schematic diagram s ...

s, and more. It does not restrict symbols and connectors from various categories from being placed together. Dia has special objects to help draw entity-relationship models,

Unified Modeling Language The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. The creation of UML was originally m ...

(UML) diagrams,

s, network diagrams, and simple electrical circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

files, using a subset of

Scalable Vector Graphics Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium sinc ...

(SVG) to draw the shape. Dia loads and saves diagrams in a custom XML format which is, by default,

gzip gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and i ...

ped to save space. It can print large diagrams spanning multiple pages and can also be scripted using the

Python programming language Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming p ...

Exports

Dia can export diagrams to various formats, including: * EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) *

SVG Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium s ...

(Scalable Vector Graphics) * DXF (Autocad's Drawing Interchange format) * CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile, defined by

ISO standard The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in A ...

8632) * WMF (Windows Meta File) * PNG (Portable Network Graphics) *

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

(Joint Photographic Experts Group) * VDX (Microsoft's XML for Visio Drawing)

Development

Dia was originally created by Alexander Larsson, but he moved on to work on

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

and other projects. James Henstridge took over as lead developer, but he also moved on to other projects. He was followed by Cyrille Chepelov, then Lars Ræder Clausen. Dia is currently maintained by Hans Breuer, Steffen Macke and Sameer Sahasrabuddhe. It is written in C, and has an extension system which also supports writing extensions in Python.

References

External links

Dia Project Homepage

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dia (Software) Concept- and mind-mapping software for Linux Cross-platform free software Cross-platform software Diagramming software Free diagramming software Free software programmed in C Free UML tools Free vector graphics editors GNOME Applications Office software that uses GTK Portable software Unix software Vector graphics editors for Linux Windows graphics-related software

Features

Exports

Development

See also

References

External links