Diagrams and whiteboards that live in your browser
The whiteboard that keeps working without the internet.
Chalkline draws, saves and exports entirely on your device. Sketch a rough idea, flip it into a clean diagram with one click, drop in icons, and keep every version. No account, no uploads of your work, no waiting on a server.
- Sketch and clean in one fileFlip the whole board between hand drawn and precise.
- Arrows that stay attachedDrag a + dot to connect, or click it to grow the next shape.
- Icons and your own libraryServers, people, money, signs, plus logos you upload.
- A timeline of every changeScrub back in time and see what was added or removed.
try flipping the style
drag a box, arrows follow
What is new
Share without a server, write diagrams as text, and draw on any screen
Equations in labels, sequence and class diagrams from text, draw.io and Excalidraw files, journal sized vector PDFs, links and QR codes that carry the whole board, folders and a trash, and full stylus, keyboard and screen reader support. Still no account and still offline.
Improvements
Twelve things we fixed in classic whiteboards
Each one came from a real annoyance: a lost tab, a tangled arrow, a hunt for the right icon. Every fix works offline.
Choose a sketchy tool or a precise toolOne canvas, two styles
Brainstorm in a hand drawn look, then switch the same board to clean lines and solid fills for the meeting. Text, colours and arrows carry over exactly.
ShiftS flips the styleArrows fall off when you move a boxQuick connect and smart arrowsNew
Select a shape and four + dots appear. Drag one to draw a glued arrow, or click it to add a matching shape already connected. Arrows route straight, as elbows or as curves.
Hunting the web for a database iconIcons, shapes and your own libraryNew
77 built in icons, 23 shapes and 9 symbols, including database cylinders, clouds and speech bubbles. Save any selection or upload logos and SVGs to a personal library that works on every board.
Press I in the editorStarting every diagram from an empty pageNineteen templates with live previewsNew
Transformer blocks, CNNs, cloud systems, kanban, mind maps, SWOT, user journeys, roadmaps and wireframes. Each one is a normal board you can change.
Flat single colour boxes onlyGradient fills and research symbolsNew
Six gradients for boxes, tiles and frame backgrounds, plus tensor blocks, feature maps, neuron layers, matrices, curly braces and operator nodes like
⊕⊗ⓒfor papers.Two diagrams on one board, one messy screenshotExport each diagram on its ownNew
Chalkline finds every separate diagram on the board. Save them one by one, combined into a single image, or as a PDF with one page each. Copy any of them as an image in one click.
Close the tab and lose the last hourAutosave plus a visual timeline
Every change is saved to this device within a second. Slide back through versions, see removed items in red and new ones in green, then restore with one click.
Losing a small shape under a big oneLayers, minimap and an action barNew
See every item in order, hide or lock it, jump around big boards with the minimap, and change colour from a small bar that follows your selection.
Diagram code that only converts one wayText and canvas stay in sync
Write
Login --> Check{Valid?}and the shapes appear with an automatic layout. Rename or connect shapes on the canvas and the text rewrites itself.Wobbly freehand shapes you have to redrawSketch to shape
Draw a rough circle, box, diamond or triangle with the pen and it snaps into a real, editable shape. Stylus pressure shapes the line width.
Upload to a cloud just to share safelyPassword protected files, made locally
Export a board encrypted with AES 256 using your browser's built in cryptography. Only someone with the password can open it.
Hunting through menus for one actionA command palette for everything
Press Ctrl K and type what you want: flip style, insert a cloud icon, auto layout, present. Presentation mode adds a laser pointer and walks through frames.
Templates
Start from something that already works
Every preview below is drawn live by the same engine as the editor. Pick one and it opens as your own board.
Templates in five groups: research, diagrams, planning, brainstorming and product.
For research students
Figures for your paper, drawn the way you think
Sketch a model on the board while you reason it through, flip to clean, then export each figure on its own as a PDF for LaTeX or Word.
- Gradient boxesMint, ocean, sunset, grape, forest and slate, in three directions.
- Model building blocksTensor blocks, feature maps, encoders, decoders, neuron layers, vectors and attention matrices.
- ⊕Operator symbolsAdd, subtract, multiply, element wise product, concatenate, stack, sum, sigmoid and ReLU.
- Freehand that behavesPen with pressure, an even marker and a see through highlighter for annotating.
- One figure, one fileVector PDF with selectable text, SVG, PNG at 300 or 600 DPI, or TikZ code for LaTeX.
- ∑Equations in any labelWrite
$\alpha_i = \frac{QK^T}{\sqrt{d_k}}$and it is typeset right on the canvas and in every export. - Journal sizes and colour checksIEEE, ACM, Springer, Elsevier and Nature column widths, a colour blind preview, and (a) (b) subfigure labels.
How offline works
Open it once. It keeps working after that.
Chalkline is built from files your browser can store and run by itself, so a dropped connection changes nothing.
- 1
Open the page once
The first visit loads the whole app: a few small files with no outside code.
- 2
The browser keeps a copy
A small service worker stores the app, so it opens without a network. You can also install it from the browser menu like any other app.
- 3
Draw anywhere
On a plane, in a basement, on a train. Drawing, layout, export and encryption all run on your device.
- 4
Saved on this device
Boards and your asset library live in the browser's private storage. Export a file whenever you want a backup.
Your storage, measured live
Checking how much space this browser offers…
Tool sheet
Every tool is one key away
Hold Space and drag to pan. Hold Ctrl and scroll, or pinch, to zoom.
Questions
Answers before you start
Short version: it runs on your device, it saves on your device, and you decide when anything leaves it.
Yes. Your drawings never go to a server. After your first visit the browser keeps a copy of the app, so it opens, saves and exports with no connection at all. Install it from the browser menu to open it like any other app. You can also download the project and open index.html straight from a folder.
In IndexedDB, a private storage area your browser gives to this site on this device. Boards, version history, previews and your asset library all live there. None of it is uploaded.
Only anonymous page visit counts through Cloudflare Web Analytics: how many people visit, where they come from and how fast the page loads, with no cookies. Nothing from your boards is ever sent. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, nothing is counted at all. See exactly what is counted.
Yes. Open the Assets tab and choose Upload to add PNG, JPG or SVG files to your library, or select anything on a board and choose Save selection. You can also paste or drop images straight onto the canvas.
Yes. Open Export and Chalkline lists every separate diagram it finds, using frames or groups of shapes that touch or connect. Tick the ones you want, then save one file each, one combined image, or a PDF with one page per diagram. Each row also has a copy button for pasting straight into slides.
Clearing your browser's site data deletes local boards, the same as with any offline web app. Chalkline asks the browser to keep its storage persistent, and you can export a .chalk backup any time from Export.
Open Share and copy the link: the whole board is packed inside the link itself, so nothing is uploaded. On a phone, scan the QR code from your screen. For big boards, export a .chalk file, optionally with a password, and open it on the other device.
Six kinds of diagram. Mermaid style flowcharts such as Start((Open)) --> Ask{Signed in?}, sequence diagrams like Student ->> Server: login, UML class diagrams, ER diagrams with crow's foot ends, Gantt charts and neural network layer stacks. D2 and PlantUML activity text also open as flowcharts.
Not live, because live editing needs a server between people. Instead, Share gives a link that carries the whole board, a view only link, a QR code and an embed code. Whoever opens a link gets their own copy to edit.
PNG at screen size or 300 and 600 DPI, SVG, a vector PDF with selectable text, TikZ code for LaTeX, a time lapse video or GIF of how the board was built, .drawio, .excalidraw, and the editable .chalk format with an optional password. Every image carries alt text for screen readers.
Yes. Drop a .drawio file, including compressed ones with several pages, or an .excalidraw file onto the board. Shapes, text, colours and connected arrows come across, and you can save back to both formats.
Yes. On a tablet the pen draws with pressure while your palm is ignored, and you can set fingers to pan only. Phones get a compact toolbar. On a laptop connected to a projector, Present can open the slides on the second screen. Install it from the browser menu on any of them to use it offline like an app.
Yes. Open Settings and pick a language for the menus. Boards can hold text in any script, and Indian scripts get matching handwritten and plain fonts in both styles and in exports.
Yes. Tab moves between shapes in reading order and each one is announced, Alt and an arrow key adds a connected shape, and press ? for the full guide. Exports include alt text written from the diagram itself, and there is a high contrast mode.
Your next diagram is one click away.
The first time, it opens with an example board that shows what each tool does. Delete it whenever you like.