Images, SVG and Charts

A reaction scheme often needs something drawn elsewhere: a spectrum screenshot, a logo, an SVG from another program, or a plot of rate data. Each comes onto the canvas as an annotation. SVG files keep their vector data and export at full quality at any size. Raster images (PNG, JPEG) can be cropped. Plotly charts come in through a paste-JSON dialog that converts the chart to an SVG annotation.

SVG annotations

To insert an SVG, choose Insert > Image… and pick the file. The picker accepts several files at once; each is inserted at the center of the view, offset 20 px down and right from the one before, so a batch of images arrives as a visible stack. SVG files are recognized by MIME type or the .svg extension and kept as vector graphics; every other format is inserted as a raster image.

You can also drop an SVG file anywhere on the canvas, or copy raw SVG markup to the clipboard and press Ctrl+V.

The file is parsed and sanitized before insertion. Scripts, event handlers, javascript: links, and embedded foreign content are stripped, and malformed SVG is rejected. The cleaned markup is stored in the document, so saved files carry the full vector data.

Sizing and aspect ratio

Natural dimensions come from the SVG’s viewBox (or its width and height attributes). On insert, the graphic is scaled down if needed so its longest side is 300 px; you can resize it afterward without quality loss.

The aspect ratio is locked by default. While locked, corner and edge handles both resize proportionally, and typing a new width in the properties panel recomputes the height (and vice versa). Click the lock button in the panel to allow free, non-proportional resizing.

Properties panel

Selecting an SVG annotation opens a panel titled “SVG” with width and height fields, an opacity slider (0 to 100 percent), and a border toggle with width and color controls. The border draws as a rectangle immediately outside the graphic.

Cropping is available for raster images only, not SVG annotations.

Raster images

Non-SVG images (PNG, JPEG, and other bitmap formats) insert as raster annotations through the same routes: Insert > Image… (several files at a time), paste, or drag-and-drop. See Copy & Paste for paste and drop details. Their properties panel offers the same opacity and border controls, plus Replace… to swap in a different file and Original Size to restore the image’s natural dimensions.

Cropping raster images

Double-click a selected raster image, or click Crop in its properties panel, to enter crop mode. Eight handles appear around the visible area; drag any of them to crop, and the image updates live as you drag. Holding Shift on a corner handle locks the aspect ratio. Handles also snap to the detected edges of the image content, so a single drag can trim away surrounding whitespace; holding Shift disables that snap. Press Enter or Escape, or click outside the image, to leave crop mode. Pressing Escape in the middle of a handle drag also cancels that drag, so the image returns to its crop from before the drag; Enter keeps the crop as dragged. Use Reset Crop in the panel to restore the full image.

Plotly chart import

Choose Insert > Plotly Chart… to open the import dialog. Paste a Plotly figure as JSON into the text area; it must contain a data array and may include a layout object. A live preview renders about half a second after you stop typing, with JSON and render errors shown in place of the chart.

Press the Insert button or Ctrl+Enter to place the chart; Escape closes the dialog, and Tab indents inside the text area.

What you get

The chart renders once at the dimensions given by layout.width and layout.height (defaults: 700 by 450), then its layered SVG output is merged into a single SVG annotation. The result behaves exactly like an imported SVG: vector scaling, opacity, border, and aspect-ratio lock all apply. The graphic is a static snapshot: hover, zoom, and pan do not work on the canvas.

The original JSON is stored with the annotation. Double-click the chart, right-click it and choose Edit Chart…, or use the Edit Chart… button in its properties panel to reopen the dialog pre-filled with your spec, change it, and press Update to regenerate the graphic in place.

Limitations

Plotly.js loads on demand from a CDN, so the first import in a session needs an internet connection.
Only Plotly’s SVG output is captured. Trace types that Plotly draws with WebGL render to a canvas element and will not appear in the imported graphic.
Charts are recreated from JSON on each edit; interactions configured in the spec (buttons, sliders) have no effect in the static snapshot.