Export downloads the active tab in the format you need, whether that is an image for a doc, a PDF to print, or a file to move the tab into another document.
Opening Export
There are a few ways in, and they all open the same Export tab dialog:
- The tab's menu (the ⋯ button on the active tab, or right-click the tab): choose Export.
- Export… in the command palette (
Cmd/Ctrl+K). This works on a view-only share link too, so viewers can download a copy. - Export in the ⋯ menu at the top of the Explorer panel.
To export only part of a tab, select several elements and press the Export button on the toolbar that appears above the selection. The dialog is then headed Export selection and covers just those elements.
Export formats
The dialog shows a card per format:
- JSON: a portable
.livediagram-tab.jsonsnapshot that imports back with full fidelity. A tab with Plan boards or Plan cards carries their cards and any custom card types too, without votes or comments. - Mermaid: the tab as Mermaid flowchart text (
.mmd), which keeps every connection and its style (unlike Markdown); frames export assubgraphblocks. - Markdown: the tab's elements and connections as a Markdown outline (
.md), a readable summary rather than a full copy. Each Plan board lists its columns and every card in them. - Excalidraw: a
.excalidrawscene you can open at excalidraw.com. Boxes, text, arrows (with their connections), and drawings carry over; element kinds Excalidraw doesn't have (charts, tables, device frames and so on) simplify to labelled boxes. A Plan board comes across as its columns and card faces. - PNG: a high-resolution image, good for slides, docs and chat.
- SVG: a crisp vector image that scales to any size and opens in design tools.
- PDF: a single-page PDF of the tab, ready to print or share.
The four text formats (JSON, Mermaid, Markdown, Excalidraw) each open an editor pre-filled with the tab in that format: tweak the text and press Copy, or download the file (Download .json, Download .mmd and so on). Your edits in that box never change the tab. The three image formats (PNG, SVG, PDF) open an options screen with a preview and a download button (see below). All formats at the top of either screen takes you back to the cards.
Files are named after the document and the tab, for example Roadmap - Overview.png.
Board, Sheet and Dashboard Tabs
A Plan tab offers only the formats that suit it, and its images show it as it is laid out, not the canvas hidden underneath:
| Tab | Formats |
|---|---|
| Board tab | PNG, SVG, PDF, Markdown, CSV |
| Sheet tab | PNG, SVG, PDF, CSV |
| Dashboard tab | PNG, SVG, PDF, JSON |
CSV shows the board's cards or the Sheet's cells as comma-separated text you can copy, or save as a .csv with Download .csv.
- A Board tab's image is its board: the header, each column with its count, and the cards in it. Its Markdown lists every column and its cards.
- A Sheet tab's image is the sheet's cells as they show now, with its charts where they sit in the grid.
- A Dashboard tab's image is the whole page, 1440 px wide: each slot drawn as a card holding a picture of what it shows (a board, a sheet, a diagram tab, a chart, a metric, a note, a checklist and so on). A Visualisation tab gives its one chart. Its JSON is the file a Dashboard's Import reads back.
- A plan view (a Gantt chart, a calendar, Cards by Field, Priority by Status, Card Search or a metric) on any tab's image is drawn as its chart, as it looks in the editor.
These images have no Isometric view, Background pattern or Hidden layers options: they are pages, not canvases.
Image options
The PNG, SVG, and PDF exports show the tab as it looks. After you pick one, the options screen offers:
- Isometric view (off by default) tilts the export into the isometric projection.
- Background pattern (on by default) paints the tab's grid, dots or texture behind the diagram. Switch it off for a plain background.
- Hidden layers appears only when the tab has layers hidden and the Layers panel is switched on in Settings, and chooses whether those layers are included. It is off by default, so what you hid stays out.
Set them and press the download button (Download PNG, Download SVG or Download PDF), and what you get matches what you see. The JSON, Mermaid, Markdown, and Excalidraw exports capture the underlying content rather than the picture.
Exporting Illustrate Pages
In Illustrate mode the dialog offers PDF, PNG, SVG, GIF and JSON, and the image formats export pages rather than the whole tab. Choose All pages or One page: a PDF of all pages has one PDF page each at its own size, and PNG or SVG of all pages comes as a .zip with one image per page. Each page comes out as exactly its sheet, background included, and page exports skip the Isometric view and Background pattern options. GIF makes one animated image of the pages, moving as they move on the canvas. When the tab has a logo page, a Logo Kit card also offers an SVG, PNGs from 16 to 1024 px and a favicon in one .zip. See Exporting and Presenting Pages.
Reach for SVG when the image might be resized or printed large: it stays sharp at any scale, unlike a fixed-resolution PNG. For sharing a live, always-current view instead of a static file, see Sharing and Embeds.
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