I use excalidraw to manage my diagrams for my blog
3 hours ago
- #Blogging Tools
- #Excalidraw Automation
- #Image Management
- Author previously used Excalidraw for technical problem-solving and explanation, now uses it for blog graphics.
- Manual export of Excalidraw frames for light and dark mode was frustrating and time-consuming (45 seconds, 9 clicks per change).
- Initial solution: Created a GitHub Action that automatically exports frames from changed Excalidraw files as SVG files for both modes and commits them.
- Problems with the GitHub Action: encountered rendering bugs in the used library (excalirender) and couldn't run it locally on ARM Mac.
- Final solution: Created a forked Excalidraw VSCode extension that automatically exports frames locally when they are named with 'export_' prefix.
- The extension saves two SVG files (light/dark mode) next to the Excalidraw file, enabling local preview and auto-complete in the editor.
- Author is happy with the result, plans to use it for future articles, and considers sharing the solution as inspiration rather than a pull request.
- Artifacts for the custom extension are available in the author's GitHub fork for others to use.