Dia (software)
Diagramming software
title: "Dia (software)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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", "software-using-the-gnu-general-public-license"] description: "Diagramming software" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_(software)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Diagramming software ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Dia |
| logo | Dia.svg |
| screenshot | Dia 0.97 - Flowchart example.png |
| caption | Dia 0.97 in Norwegian on Windows Vista |
| author | Alexander Larsson |
| released | |
| developer | Dia developers |
| latest release version | |
| latest release date | |
| latest preview version | |
| latest preview date | |
| programming language | C |
| operating_system | Windows, OS X, Linux, Unix |
| genre | Diagramming software |
| license | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| website | |
| repo | (upstream), (mirror) |
| :: |
| name = Dia | logo = Dia.svg | screenshot = Dia 0.97 - Flowchart example.png | caption = Dia 0.97 in Norwegian on Windows Vista | author = Alexander Larsson | released = | developer = Dia developers | latest release version = | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | programming language = C | operating_system = Windows, OS X, Linux, Unix | genre = Diagramming software | license = GPL-2.0-or-later | website = | repo = (upstream), (mirror) Dia () is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. It uses a controlled single document interface (SDI) similar to GIMP and Inkscape.
Features
Dia has a modular design with several shape packages available for different needs: flowchart, network diagrams, circuit diagrams, 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 (UML) diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple electrical circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to draw the shape.
Dia loads and saves diagrams in a custom XML format which is, by default, gzipped to save space. It can print large diagrams spanning multiple pages and can also be scripted using the Python programming language.
Exports
Dia can export diagrams to various formats, including:
- EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
- SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- DXF (Autocad's Drawing Interchange format)
- CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile, defined by ISO standard 8632)
- WMF (Windows Meta File)
- PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
- JPEG (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 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
References
- (31 August 1998). "Initial revision".
- "Dia Frequently Asked Questions".
- (2021-12-18). "Network Diagram Open source SW".
- "Dia (software)".
- "Dia". Geeknet, Inc..
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::