Pretty git branch graphs

Question

I\'ve seen some books and articles have some really pretty looking graphs of git branches and commits. How can I make high-quality printable images of git history?

Answer 1

Try ditaa. It can transform any ASCII diagram into an image. Although is was not designed with Git branches in mind, I was impressed by the results.

Source (txt file):

        +--------+
        | hotfix |
        +---+----+
            |
--*<---*<---*
       ^ 
       |
       \--*<---*
               |
           +---+----+
           | master |
           +--------+

Command:

java -jar ditaa0_9.jar ascii-graph.txt

Result:

It also supports background colors, dashed lines, different shapes and more. See the examples.