Turn a typed list of names into a drawn family tree
This page builds a neat family tree from a plain indented list of names. Below you will learn how to type the list, what each setting changes, how to save the picture, and the small slips that catch people out. A full worked example runs through it from start to finish.
What the tool is for
Most family tree programs ask you to drag boxes around a screen and join them with lines by hand. This tool flips that around. You type names as an indented list, and the drawing appears on its own as you type. The list is quick to write, easy to paste from your notes, and simple to keep in a text file for later.
People reach for it when they want a tidy chart in a hurry. A teacher building a history handout, a parent making a keepsake for a grandparent, or someone sketching cousins before a reunion. It fits any moment where a clean picture matters more than a full records database.
How the outline works
Each line holds one person. The blank space at the start of the line decides which generation they sit in. Put the oldest person hard against the left edge with no space at all. Indent two spaces for each of their children, four spaces for grandchildren, and keep stepping in by two as you go further down the family.
Whatever you write inside round brackets becomes a smaller line under the name. This is where dates usually go, such as (b. 1958) for a birth year. A tab at the start counts as one step in, so a list pasted from a notes app or an outliner tends to nest correctly with no cleanup.
The size controls
Four number boxes control spacing, and each one is measured in pixels. Change any value and the tree redraws at once, so you can nudge a number and watch the shape shift.
- Box width sets how wide each name card is. It runs from 90 to 280 and starts at 150. Longer names need a wider card.
- Box height sets how tall each card is, from 38 to 120, starting at 56.
- Space between people is the side-to-side gap between cards in the same row. It runs from 8 to 80 and starts at 22.
- Space between generations is the up-and-down gap from one row to the next, from 20 to 160, starting at 56.
Colour and background
Box outline colour sets the line drawn around every card. It opens a small colour picker and begins on a teal shade. Choose a darker colour if you plan to print, because pale lines can wash out on paper.
Dark background is a tick box. Switch it on and the whole tree moves to a dark sheet with light text, which reads well on a screen or a dark slide. Leave it off for anything headed to a printer, since a dark fill drinks ink.
Getting the picture out
Three buttons sit above the drawing. Try an example loads a ready-made family so you can see the layout straight away. The other two buttons save what is on screen.
Download SVG saves a sharp vector file that stays crisp at any size, so it is the one to keep for large prints. Download PNG saves an ordinary image file, drawn at double size so it looks clean in a document. A small line above the tree counts how many people are shown. To put a tree on paper, save the SVG and print that file, which scales to any sheet without going fuzzy.
Reading the drawn tree
It helps to know how the cards are arranged, because that is what keeps a busy tree easy to follow. The youngest generation is placed first, spread left to right in the order you typed them. Each parent is then centred above its own group of children. That one rule is what stops the joining lines from crossing, even when one branch is far larger than another.
When you list several oldest people at the left margin, the tool treats them as one family and balances the whole picture around them. A chart that opens with two grandparents on separate lines still comes out centred, rather than leaning to one side. The lines drop straight down from each parent and bend across to reach each child, so the path from any person to their children is easy to trace by eye.
A worked example
Press Try an example and the box fills with the Hart family. William Hart, born 1931 and died 2009, sits at the left margin as the oldest person. His two children, Margaret and Robert, are indented two spaces beneath him.
Margaret's own children, Priya and Daniel, sit indented four spaces. Priya's children, Arun and Meera, go in six spaces. The drawing places William at the top, his children in the row below, and every parent centred neatly above their own children, so the joining lines never cross. The count reads eight people. If a longer name looks cramped, raise the box width to 180, then press Download PNG to save it.
To feel how the spacing controls behave, raise Space between generations from 56 to 90. The rows spread further apart and the vertical lines grow longer, which gives a roomier chart for a slide. Now drop Space between people to 12 and the cards in each row pull closer together, which helps when a wide family is running off the side. Every change shows up the instant you make it, so there is no guessing at the result.
Handy ways to work
Because the whole tree is only text, small edits are fast. To move a whole branch, cut those lines and paste them under a different parent, keeping the indents in step. To fix a typo, change the one line and the drawing updates the moment you lift your finger off the key.
- Paste from an outline. A list copied out of a notes app usually keeps its tabs, so it nests without extra work.
- Use brackets for more than dates. A place, a role, or a short note all sit neatly on the smaller line under a name.
- Keep a plain text copy. The list is easy to store, share, or reuse for a second chart another day.
- Start small and grow. Type the closest few people first, check the shape, then add older folk above and younger ones below.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
The most common surprise is a name cut short with a small mark on the end. That means the name is wider than its card. Raise the box width until the full name shows, or shorten the name in the list. The tool trims long names on purpose rather than letting them spill over the edge of a card.
The other slip is an uneven number of spaces. If a person lands in the wrong generation, count the spaces again. Two spaces mean one step down, so an odd three spaces still read as one step and not one and a half. Keep every indent in clean steps of two and the family lines up as you meant it to.
Putting it on paper
There is no print button here, and that is on purpose. The cleanest route to paper is to press Download SVG and then open or print that saved file. A vector stays sharp at any size, so a wide tree can be blown up across a large sheet without turning blocky or soft.
A few settings make the print kinder. Turn the dark background off so you are not laying down a full sheet of ink. Pick a darker outline colour so the cards read clearly in black and white. For a wide family, print in landscape, which gives the rows more room to spread before they run off the edge of the page.
When a different tool fits better
An indented list draws a single line of descent very cleanly, but it cannot show two parents joined as a couple, a second marriage, or an adoption. The usual work-around is to name a partner inside the brackets, such as (m. Robert). If those links have to be drawn properly, full genealogy software is the better choice.
The tool is also not built for company charts or mind maps, even though they can look similar. It is shaped around generations of a family. For a staff structure or a branching plan of ideas, a diagram tool will give you far more say over how the connectors run.
Your family stays on your device
A family tree is personal information about living people, so it should never be handed to a stranger's server, and here it is not. The names you type are drawn on your own machine, and none of them are sent away. The list is stored only inside this browser, waiting for you when you come back on the same device.
Because that store lives in one browser, it will not follow you to another computer or a phone. If the tree took real effort, copy the text somewhere safe as a backup. Wiping your browser data would otherwise clear it, and there is no copy held anywhere else to restore from.