# Excalidraw shape libraries

Excalidraw has its own library format, separate from draw.io's. The two are not interchangeable.

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## How it works

Excalidraw libraries are collections of pre-drawn elements you can drop onto a canvas. Build your own, or import one, and it appears in the editor's library panel.

![An Excalidraw library panel showing hand drawn AWS service icons including Lambda, AppSync, API Gateway, DynamoDB, Aurora, EventBridge, SQS, SNS, S3, CloudFront, SES, CloudWatch, Step Functions and Ro](https://help.gocapable.com/images/f4cb2eb5-37f5-419d-8911-0c328d7c7511.webp)

A loaded library becomes a panel of ready made elements to drag onto the canvas, here a set of AWS service icons.

![The Excalidraw canvas with an Add Library button above it and the Library panel open, showing an empty personal library above a grid of AWS service icons.](https://help.gocapable.com/images/e13813d5-f879-4f0b-a915-2a3da555dac3.webp)

Your own saved shapes sit above the sets you have added, and Add Library at the top of the canvas brings in more.

## What it is good for

* Recurring workshop furniture: swimlanes, sticky notes, personas.
* Rough versions of your own components, for sketching architecture quickly.
* Anything you find yourself redrawing freehand more than twice.

📝

**Keep sketch libraries small.** The value of Excalidraw is speed. A library with two hundred elements defeats the point.

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## A few things that catch people out

* Excalidraw and draw.io libraries are different formats and cannot be shared between editors.
* Library elements keep the sketch style; they will not make a diagram look formal.
* Libraries are per site, like draw.io's.

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## Related

[Create a draw.io shape libraryThe equivalent for draw.io.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/shapes-and-icons.html)

[Excalidraw editorUsing the library.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/editors.html)

[AdministrationSite-wide availability.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/administration.html)

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_Stop redrawing the same sticky note._