title: The "draw" language
role: manual
tags: #graphic #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk
back: 00001007031300 00001008000000
backward: 00001007031300 00001008000000
box-number: 1
copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
created: 20220131142036
lang: en
license: EUPL-1.2-or-later
modified: 20230403123738
published: 20230403123738
visibility: public

Sometimes, &ldquo;a picture is worth a thousand words&rdquo;.
To create some graphical representations, Zettelmarkup provides a simple mechanism.
Characters like &ldquo;`|`&rdquo; or &ldquo;`-`&rdquo; already provide some visual feedback.
For example, to create a picture containing two boxes that are connected via an arrow, the following representation is possible:

    ~~~draw
    +-------+       .-------.
    | Box 1 | ----> | Box 2 |
    +-------+       '-------'
    ~~~

Zettelstore translates this to:



Technically spoken, the drawing is translated to a [SVG](00001008000000#svg) element.

The following characters are interpreted to create a graphical representation.
Some of them will start a path that results in a recognized object.



Interpretation of these characters starts at the top left corner and continues depending on the current character.

All other characters are treated as text.