Reactome Illustrations

SVG icons and EHLD diagrams for Reactome pathway diagrams, sourced from Figma.

Contents

• icons/ - SVG icons and XML metadata files (R-ICO-XXXXXX.svg and .xml)
• ehld/ - EHLD diagram SVGs (R-HSA-XXXXXX.svg)
• download_illustrations.py - Script to download icons and EHLDs from Figma and validate them
• VERSION - Current release version number

Prerequisites

• Python 3 with requests (pip install requests)
• Docker (for the illustration-validator)
• A Figma personal access token

Usage

export FIGMA_TOKEN="your_figma_token"

# Download everything (icons + EHLDs) and validate
python3 download_illustrations.py

# Icons only
python3 download_illustrations.py --icons

# EHLDs only
python3 download_illustrations.py --ehlds

# Download without validating
python3 download_illustrations.py --skip-validation

What the script does

1. Connects to the Figma API and finds all components/frames on the "Export" page
2. Exports icons (R-ICO-*) and EHLD diagrams (R-HSA-*) as SVGs
3. Clears existing SVGs and saves the new ones (icon XML metadata files are preserved)
4. Runs the illustration-validator Docker container to validate:
   • Icons: XML metadata (categories, references, curator info)
   • EHLDs: SVG structure (BG, LOGO, REGION/OVERLAY groups)

Icon XML Metadata

Each icon has a corresponding XML metadata file (R-ICO-XXXXXX.xml) containing categories, curator/designer info, descriptions, and database references. These are stored alongside the SVGs in the icons/ directory.

To create new XML metadata files, use the Icon XML Metadata Generator (see below).

Icon XML Metadata Generator

icon-xml-generator.html is a self-contained HTML tool for generating icon XML metadata files. Open it in a browser — no build tools or dependencies required.

Features

• Category selection — loaded from the illustration-validator categories.txt
• Curator search — searches the Reactome Content Service for people by name, auto-fills ORCID
• Designer info — pre-filled with defaults (Cristoffer Sevilla)
• Reference databases — dropdown loaded from references.txt, with UniProt ID validation
• Synonyms — add/remove as needed
• Live XML preview — updates as you fill in the form
• Download — saves the XML file with the correct filename

How to use

1. Open icon-xml-generator.html in a browser
2. Enter the icon identifier (e.g. R-ICO-012345)
3. Select a category, search for a curator, and fill in the remaining fields
4. Add references and synonyms as needed
5. Click Download XML to save the file
6. Move the downloaded .xml file into the icons/ directory