pikru

A Rust implementation of pikchr, a PIC-like diagram markup language for creating technical diagrams that generates SVG.

Usage

let svg = pikru::pikchr(r#"box "Hello" arrow box "World""#).unwrap();
assert!(svg.contains("<svg"));

Light/Dark Mode

Enable CSS variables for automatic light/dark theming:

use pikru::{pikchr_with_options, RenderOptions};

let options = RenderOptions { css_variables: true, ..Default::default() };
let svg = pikchr_with_options(r#"box "Hello""#, &options).unwrap();
assert!(svg.contains("light-dark("));

The generated SVG includes a <style> block with CSS variables using light-dark(), so colors automatically adapt to the user's color scheme.

Development

Testing

The test suite validates output against the original C implementation:

cargo test                     # Run all tests
cargo xtask compare-html       # Generate visual comparison HTML
cargo xtask generate-pngs      # Convert SVGs to PNGs for debugging

See comparison.html for a side-by-side visual comparison of C vs Rust output.

Pre-commit Hooks

./hooks/install.sh

Attribution

pikru is a direct Rust port of:

• pikchr by D. Richard Hipp - The original C implementation, released under the 0-clause BSD license. The C source is vendored in vendor/pikchr-c/ for reference.

Also referenced during development:

• gopikchr - A Go port of pikchr by @zellyn.

Continuous Integration

Our CI runs on Depot hosted runners — huge thanks to Depot for sponsoring the compute that keeps the pikru test suite flying.

Sponsors

Thanks to all individual sponsors:

...along with corporate sponsors:

License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.