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
• references.txt - Valid reference database names for the icon validator
• categories.txt - Valid category names for the icon validator

Prerequisites

• Python 3 with requests (pip install requests)
• Docker (for the icon-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 icon-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.

New XML metadata files must be created manually (or with a helper script) when new icons are added.