figexport 0.2.5

A command line tool for automatic export of figures of various formats to PDF/SVG/PNG/JPG files.

FigExport

FigExport is a package for automatic export of figures of heterogeneous formats to PDF, SVG, PNG or JPG files. It uses a JSON export configuration and includes a user-friendly command line interface (CLI).

List of Contents:

• Input File Formats
• Installation
  • Using Pip
  • Using Pre-built Executable
• Usage
  • Configuration File Example
• Developer Section
  • Install from Source
  • Generate PyInstaller Executable
• License

Input File Formats

FigExport supports the following input files formats:

• .svg: Vector graphic figures
• .drawio: Draw.io diagrams, created using the Draw.io tool
• .tex: LaTeX documents, e.g., containing a TikZ figure (recommended: \documentclass{standalone})
• .puml: PlantUML diagrams

Note: Other file formats in the input folder(s) will be ignored during the export process.

Installation

Using Pip

pip install figexport

Using Pre-built Executable

A self-contained package is available on a the Releases page. To install a specific executable version:

1. Download the zip file of the version you want to use.
2. Extract the downloaded file.

To start the application from a terminal at any time, add the folder containing the figexport executable to your system path.

Usage

Configuration File Example

figexport_config.json:

{
    "export_dir": "export",
    "export_format": "pdf",
    "directory_mappings": [
        {
            "source": "figures_A",
            "target": "."
        },
        {
            "source": "figures_B",
            "target": "figures_B"
        }

    ],
    "excluded_paths": [
        "figures_A/subfolder_A1"
    ],
    "tools": {
        "drawio": {
            "exe_path": "C:/Program Files/Draw.io/draw.io.exe",
        },
        "plantuml": {
            "download_url": "https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml/releases/download/v1.2025.2/plantuml-1.2025.2.jar",
            "jar_name": "plantuml.jar"
        }
    }
}

Command Line Arguments

• CLI usage:

figexport [-h] [-c CONFIG] [-f FORMAT] [path]

• Positional arguments: path Path to a file or folder to export. If not provided, the path(s) from the configuration file will be used.

• Options:

Option	Description
-h, --help	Show the help message and exit
-c/--config CONFIG	Path to the configuration JSON file. Default: "figexport_config.json"
-f/--format FORMAT	Format of the exported figures: pdf, svg, png, jpg. Default: value in config file, or "pdf" if not specified.

Developer Section

Install from Source

Note: To avoid potential dependency conflicts on your system, it is recommended to use a Python virtual environment.

• Clone this repository and create a Python virtual environment:

git clone https://github.com/HouGui/figexport.git && cd figexport
python -m venv env

• Activate the virtual environment, then install the package and its dependencies using pip:

pip install -e .[dev]

-e installs the package in editable mode, and [dev] includes the dev dependencies in the installation.

Generate PyInstaller Executable

Note: This step requires installing FigExport from source before (see section above).

We use PyInstaller to generate a self-contained Windows executable for simple distribution:

cd src/figexport
pyinstaller main.py --name figexport

License

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of the MIT License.