How to turn a whiteboard photo or hand sketch into a diagram

1. Photograph the whiteboard or page. In the Axsuro app on your iPhone, choose “Whiteboard” on the camera; for paper, keep it on page. In the browser, choose “Whiteboard” or “Page” when you add pages.
2. Keep the sketch. Axsuro finds the drawing and shows it with a dashed frame. Tap “Keep sketch” and it is cut out 1:1, with every line editable on its own.
3. Export it as a diagram. In the sketch editor, go to Export → “Turn into a diagram” (Pro). A clean diagram appears beside it: “Copy Mermaid”, Vector (SVG), Picture (PNG) or “Open in Mermaid Live”.

A whiteboard is not a notebook page, so Axsuro reads it differently when you choose “Whiteboard” while taking the photo:

• The photo is not cropped to a sheet.
• It reads marker-pen writing, in several colours too, in boxes, columns and next to arrows.
• Reflections, glare and half-wiped old writing are ignored.
• There is no page number, so Axsuro does not ask for one.

Markers work as on paper. If the whiteboard says todo: draft to client @Lena Fri, that becomes a task waiting for your “Confirm”. For your next meeting, see the guide Handwritten meeting notes to tasks.

The kept sketch stays as it was drawn. The diagram is a clean copy beside it, made only when you ask for it. For that, Axsuro recognises boxes, rounded boxes, diamonds and circles, the arrows between them and their labels, as written.

It works well for:

• processes and flowcharts: enquiry → offer → order,
• org charts and structures,
• simple mind maps and network plans.

A floor plan, a drawing or a chart made of numbers is better kept as a sketch. If Axsuro finds no boxes or arrows, it says so instead of making something up. If a box was read wrong, have the diagram made again. Editing single boxes inside the diagram is not possible in Axsuro yet; “Open in Mermaid Live” is the way to do that.

• Mermaid: Mermaid is a text language for diagrams. “Copy Mermaid” gives you the text to paste into GitHub, GitLab, Notion, Obsidian or many wikis, where it shows as a diagram.
• Mermaid Live: “Open in Mermaid Live” opens the diagram in the editor at mermaid.live, where you can change labels, arrows and layout. The text travels only in the link; nothing is sent to Axsuro.
• SVG and PNG: as a vector or as a picture at twice the size, for slides, documents and graphics programs.
• PowerPoint and Keynote: insert the SVG or PNG as a picture. Axsuro does not create a PowerPoint file with editable shapes. Depending on your PowerPoint version, you can convert an SVG into shapes there yourself.

In the iPhone app, you share SVG and PNG through the share sheet.

A wall or whiteboard full of sticky notes after a workshop is photographed as a “Whiteboard” too. Axsuro reads each sticky note as its own line. That makes every note searchable, Ask finds it, and a sticky note with todo: or idea: becomes a task or an idea. With your own markers you can also decide that whatever is written on a sticky note becomes, for example, a task (Settings → Markers).

To be honest: a digital board where every sticky note lies as a movable card with its colour and place, as in Miro, is not something Axsuro builds. You get the text, not the wall.

If you just need a tidier sketch, that works on every plan: select a stroke in the editor and have it straightened. It becomes a clean line, a box, a circle or straight pieces between its corners. This never happens by itself, the rest of the sketch stays 1:1, and undo brings the stroke back. Then export as PNG, PDF or SVG.

Free keeps up to 10 sketches, Plus and Pro as many as you like. The diagram comes with Pro, and every new account starts with 14 days of Pro, no card needed. More about the editor is in the guide Digitise and edit hand-drawn sketches online; all plans are on pricing.

• How to digitise hand-drawn sketches and edit them online
  Digitise hand-drawn sketches: take a photo, keep the sketch 1:1, edit it online, draw together, export PNG, PDF or SVG, or turn it into a diagram.
• Turn handwritten meeting notes into tasks
  Digitise meeting notes from paper: meeting:, todo: and dec: turn a handwritten page into a meeting with tasks, decisions and a summary for everyone.
• How to convert handwriting to text (2026)
  How to convert handwriting to text: typing it up, Google Lens, a tablet or an app that reads whole pages. Pros, cons and tips for clean recognition.