To create the UML diagrams, PlantUML has a meta-language defined that allows the diagram creator to describe the UML as a series of text statements which the graphics engine translates into standard UML notation. The graphics engine is written in Java and is distributed in both JAR and source code form. The 3rd-party package Graphviz is used for the graphics layout. Resulting diagrams can be output in PNG, SVG, EPS and ASCII Art.