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Importing artwork

Sometimes the shape you need is already a file. Here's how to get it in.

Import SVG

File ▸ Import SVG…, or drag an .svg file onto the canvas.

The app asks how you want it handled:

Keep as SVG Artwork

: The best visual match. The artwork stays exactly as drawn, and you can move, resize, rotate, copy and connect it like any other object. Use this for logos, icons, and anything with gradients or fine detail.

Convert to Editable Shape

: Turns it into a native SimpleDiagrams shape using your current fill and stroke, with crisp outlines that don't thin out as you scale. Use this when you want the artwork to pick up your colours and textures and behave like a built-in shape.

Conversion isn't always possible. Gradients, filters, text and other advanced SVG features can't be converted safely, and when the app detects them the Convert button is disabled with a note explaining why. Keep as SVG Artwork still works.

The imported artwork lands in the centre of your view, scaled down if it's enormous.

What's accepted

An ordinary SVG file up to 16 MB. Aliases, folders and symbolic links are deliberately refused — the app wants a real file.

Import Image

File ▸ Import Image…, or drag an image onto the canvas, or just paste one.

Most ordinary image formats work. What doesn't:

  • animated or multi-frame images
  • anything over 16 MB
  • anything more than 16,384 pixels on a side, or over 40 megapixels

Your metadata is removed

Imported images are re-encoded as PNG or JPEG and all metadata is stripped — EXIF, GPS location, camera details, everything. It's not an option you have to remember to tick; it just happens.

That means a screenshot or a photo you drop into a diagram won't quietly carry your location into a file you send someone.

Image options

Select an imported image and the Shape Properties panel gives you:

  • Image Layout — Fit, Fill or Stretch
  • Background and Border toggles

Pasting

Cmd+V handles images from the clipboard as well as SimpleDiagrams content. Copy a screenshot, paste it straight onto the canvas.

Replacing artwork

If a shape is wrong — or a legacy import left a placeholder — select it and choose Edit ▸ Inspect Selected Artwork…, then Replace Artwork…. It accepts SVG, PNG, JPEG and native vectors.

Custom colour palettes

Not artwork exactly, but it belongs with the rest of the "bring your own" features.

In any colour popover, use the Palette picker and the Manage Palettes button to build a palette of your own. You can import and export as JSON, and legacy .sdcp palette files from version 4 import here too.

See Colour and style for the details.

Everything is embedded

Whatever you import — SVG, image, background, library shape — is stored inside the document. Send the file to someone and it arrives complete. Delete the original from your Mac and the diagram is fine.

The flip side is that a diagram full of large images is a large document. The limits are 16 MB per asset and 100 MB total, which is a lot of napkin sketch.