A system and method for drawing directed acyclic graphs is disclosed. In particular, an algorithm, as implemented in a method and system, to aesthetically layout directed acyclic graphs is presented. The algorithm includes methods to reduce the number of edge crossings and increase the number of straight edges in such drawings. The algorithm keeps short and straight edges wherever possible and gives preference to vertical edges. It also provides an edge-crossing reduction heuristic to refine the layout obtained after standard median heuristic layout, and further provides a method to focus on important paths in the graph through layout.