# How to Share a draw.io Diagram With Someone Who Won't Install It

Canonical: https://commareports.com/share-drawio-diagram
Published: 2026-09-14

> A .drawio file is XML your reader can't open and a Google Drive link needs the add-on. Export to HTML or SVG, publish it, and send a URL that just opens.

# Share a draw.io diagram

You drew the network topology in draw.io, hit **File → Save**, and sent
`topology.drawio` to the person who needs to approve it.

They got a file their machine has no idea what to do with. Best case it opens
in a text editor and shows compressed XML.

## The formats, ranked

**HTML export** — `File → Export as → HTML`. One self-contained file with an
embedded viewer: pan, zoom, and the diagram data travelling together. This is
the one to use.

**SVG** — `File → Export as → SVG`, with **Include a copy of my diagram**
ticked. Text stays selectable and sharp, and the embedded copy means the file
can be reopened in draw.io later for editing.

**PNG** — the default habit and the worst outcome. A network diagram at
browser zoom is a grey smear, and the labels are the part people need to read.

**`.drawio`** — the source. Keep it in the repo. Do not send it to people.

## Publish the export

An exported HTML or SVG file is still a file — it has the same last-mile
problem as any other. Attach it to email and managed laptops will block it;
put it in Drive and
[Drive refuses to render HTML](/share-html-file-google-drive).

Publishing it gives the diagram an address:

```bash
curl -X POST https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{ "title": "Network topology — Q3", "html": "…exported HTML…" }
JSON
```

The reader clicks a link and sees the diagram, with pan and zoom intact, on
whatever device they happen to have. No app, no plugin, no seat.

## Review happens on the page

The reason to publish rather than export-and-attach is the feedback. A diagram
sent as a file generates responses like "the firewall should be in front of
the load balancer" in a thread three days later, detached from the picture.

On a published page the comment sits next to the box in question — see
[commenting on HTML](/comment-on-html) — and the next revision updates the
same URL, so the approval history stays with the diagram instead of
scattering across `topology-v2-final-FINAL.drawio`.

## Worth knowing

- **Tick "Include a copy of my diagram" on SVG export.** Without it the file
  is a picture and the next edit means redrawing.
- **Confluence and Notion embeds need the marketplace app.** A published page
  needs nothing — which is the point when the reviewer is a client or a vendor.
- **Big diagrams want a scroll container** if you inline SVG yourself; the
  HTML export handles this already.
- **5 MB per report body.**

## Try it

Free — unlimited reports, commenters and revisions.

**[Publish a diagram →](/docs/quickstart)**

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- [Stop screenshotting reports](/stop-screenshotting-reports) ·
  [Commenting on HTML](/comment-on-html)