A browser-based plasmid map editor for molecular biology. Build, annotate, and export publication-ready circular and linear plasmid maps - no signup, no server, no dependencies.
- Circular & linear views - toggle between layouts, both fully interactive
- Multi-track rings - organize features across inner and outer tracks
- Import formats - GenBank (.gb/.gbk), FASTA (.fa/.fasta), SnapGene (.dna), JSON
- NCBI & AddGene fetch - import by accession number or AddGene ID
- Export - SVG, PNG (configurable resolution), PDF, GenBank, JSON
- GC content track - sliding-window GC% plot inside the backbone
- Restriction enzyme analysis - 100 built-in enzymes (Type II + Type IIS) with overhang visualization
- Inline editing - click any feature to edit name, color, position, label style, borders
- Multi-tab workspace - up to 10 plasmids open simultaneously
- Undo/redo - 50-level undo history
- Share via URL - compressed shareable links encoding the full map state
- Dark mode - automatic or manual theme switching
- Keyboard shortcuts - navigation, selection, undo/redo, export
- Works offline - installable as a PWA, all data stays in localStorage
- Markers - add labeled position markers with customizable styles
PlasmidStudio is a static site - three core files (app.html, plasmid.js, plasmid.css) plus fonts. No build step, no package manager.
Run locally:
# Any static file server works
python3 -m http.server 8080
# Open http://localhost:8080/app.htmlOr just open app.html directly in a browser - everything works from file:// except NCBI/AddGene fetch (which requires CORS).
app.html Main application page
plasmid.js All application logic (~9100 lines, single IIFE)
plasmid.css All styles (~1900 lines)
index.html Landing page
landing.css Landing page styles
sw.js Service worker for offline/PWA support
manifest.json PWA manifest
offline.html Offline / network-error fallback
impressum.html Legal notice
datenschutz.html Privacy policy
robots.txt Crawler rules
sitemap.xml Sitemap
fonts/ Self-hosted Inter (latin + latin-ext)
icons/ PWA & favicon icons (SVG + PNG)
examples/ Example plasmid maps
| Format | Extensions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GenBank | .gb, .gbk |
Features, sequence, metadata. Multi-record files use first record. |
| FASTA | .fa, .fasta |
Sequence only, no features. |
| SnapGene | .dna |
Binary format. Features, sequence, topology. |
| JSON | .json |
PlasmidStudio's native format. Full state including styling. |
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| SVG | Vector, transparent background |
| PNG | Raster, configurable resolution and background |
| Vector via jsPDF | |
| GenBank | Standard .gb with features and sequence |
| JSON | Full project state, re-importable |
PlasmidStudio uses 1-based inclusive coordinates, matching the convention used by Geneious, SnapGene, and GenBank. A feature at positions 100–200 spans 101 base pairs.
Works in all modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). No IE support. Requires ES2020+ features (optional chaining, nullish coalescing).
MIT - free for any use. All generated figures may be used freely in publications, presentations, theses, and commercial work.
Christopher Acatay