inkscape

Inkscape - an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) editing program.

CWinkscape [options] [filename ...]

options:

-?, --help --usage -V, --version

-f, --file=FILENAME -s, --slideshow

-e, --export-png=FILENAME -a, --export-area=x0:y0:x1:y1 -C, --export-area-canvas -D, --export-area-drawing --export-area-snap -i, --export-id=ID -j, --export-id-only -t, --export-use-hints -b, --export-background=COLOR -y, --export-background-opacity=VALUE -d, --export-dpi=DPI -w, --export-width=WIDTH -h, --export-height=HEIGHT

-P, --export-ps=FILENAME -E, --export-eps=FILENAME -A, --export-pdf=FILENAME

-T, --export-text-to-path -B, --export-bbox-page -F, --export-embed-fonts

-l, --export-plain-svg=FILENAME

-I, --query-id=ID -X, --query-x -Y, --query-y -W, --query-width -H, --query-height

-x, --extension-directory

-p, --print=PRINTER

-g, --with-gui -z, --without-gui

--vacuum-defs

--g-fatal-warnings

Inkscape is a \s-1GUI\s0 editor for Scalable Vector Graphics (\s-1SVG\s0) format drawing files, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc. Inkscape features include versatile shapes, bezier paths, freehand drawing, multi-line text, text on path, alpha blending, arbitrary affine transforms, gradient and pattern fills, node editing, SVG-to-PNG export, grouping, layers, live clones, and more. The interface is designed to be comfortable and efficient for skilled users, while remaining conformant to \s-1GNOME\s0 standards so that users familiar with other \s-1GNOME\s0 applications can learn its interface rapidly.

\s-1SVG\s0 is a W3C standard \s-1XML\s0 format for 2D vector drawing. It allows defining objects in the drawing using points, paths, and primitive shapes. Colors, fonts, stroke width, and so forth are specified as `style' attributes to these objects. The intent is that since \s-1SVG\s0 is a standard, and since its files are text/xml, it will be possible to use \s-1SVG\s0 files in a sizeable number of programs and for a wide range of uses.

Inkscape uses \s-1SVG\s0 as its native document format, and has the goal of becoming the most fully compliant drawing program for \s-1SVG\s0 files available in the Open Source community.

"-?, Show help message

"-V, Show Inkscape version and build date.

"-a In \s-1PNG\s0 export, set the exported area in \s-1SVG\s0 user units (anonymous length units normally used in Inkscape \s-1SVG\s0). The default is to export the entire document canvas. The point (0,0) is the lower-left corner.

"-C, In \s-1PNG\s0 export, exported area is the entire canvas (page). Usually this is the default, so you don't need to specify this unless you are using --export-id to export a specific object.

"-D, In \s-1PNG\s0 export, exported area is the entire drawing (not canvas), i.e. the bounding box of all objects of the document. With this option, the exported image will display just the visible objects of the document without margins or cropping. Can be used in combination wtih --export-use-hints.

"--export-area-snap" Snap the export area outwards to the nearest integer \s-1SVG\s0 user unit (px) values. If you are using the default export resolution of 90dpi and your graphics are pixel-snapped to minimize antialiasing, this switch allows you to preserve this alignment even if you are exporting some object's bounding box (with --export-id or --export-area-drawing) which is itself not pixel-aligned.

"-b Background color of exported \s-1PNG\s0. This may be any \s-1SVG\s0 supported color string, for example “#ff007f” or “rgb(255, 0, 128)”. If not set, then the page color set in Inkscape in the Document Options dialog will be used (stored in the pagecolor= attribute of sodipodi:namedview).

"-d The resolution used for bitmap export. The default is 90, which corresponds to 1 \s-1SVG\s0 user unit (px, also called “user unit”) exporting to 1 bitmap pixel. This value overrides the \s-1DPI\s0 hint if used with --export-use-hints.

"-e Specify the filename for \s-1PNG\s0 export. If it already exists, the file will be overwritten without asking.

"-f Open specified document(s). Option string may be omitted, i.e. you can list the filenames without -f.

"-g, Try to use the \s-1GUI\s0 (on Unix, use the X server even if CW$DISPLAY is not set).

"-h The height of generated bitmap in pixels. This value overrides the --export-dpi setting (or the \s-1DPI\s0 hint if used with --export-use-hints).

"-i The id attribute value of the object that you want to export from the document. By default the exported area is the bounding box of the object; you can override this using --export-area, --export-area-canvas, or --export-area-drawing.

"-j, Only export the object whose id is given in --export-id. All other objects are hidden and won't show in export even if they overlay the exported object. Without --export-id, this option is ignored.

"-l, Export document(s) to plain \s-1SVG\s0 format, without sodipodi: or inkscape: namespaces and without \s-1RDF\s0 metadata.

"-l, Lists the current extension directory that Inkscape is configured to use and then exits. This is used for external extension to use the same configuration as the original Inkscape installation.

"-p Print document(s) to the specified printer using `lpr -P \s-1PRINTER\s0'. Alternatively, use `| \s-1COMMAND\s0' to specify a different command to pipe to, or use `> \s-1FILENAME\s0' to write the PostScript output to a file instead of printing. Remember to do appropriate quoting for your shell, e.g. inkscape --print='| ps2pdf - mydoc.pdf' mydoc.svg

"-s, Show given files one by one, switching to the next one by any key or mouse event.

"-t, Use export filename and \s-1DPI\s0 hints stored in the exported object (only with --export-id). These hints are set automatically when you export selection from within Inkscape. So, for example, if you export a shape with id=“path231” as /home/me/shape.png at 300 dpi from document.svg using Inkscape \s-1GUI\s0, and save the document, then later you will be able to reexport that shape to the same file with the same resolution simply with inkscape -i path231 -t document.svg If you use --export-dpi, --export-width, or --export-height with this option, then the \s-1DPI\s0 hint will be ignored and the value from the command line will be used. If you use --export-png with this option, then the filename hint will be ignored and the filename from the command line will be used.

"-w The width of generated bitmap in pixels. This value overrides the --export-dpi setting (or the \s-1DPI\s0 hint if used with --export-use-hints).

"-y Opacity of the background of exported \s-1PNG\s0. This may be a value either between 0.0 and 1.0 (0.0 meaning full transparency, 1.0 full opacity) or greater than 1 up to 255 (255 meaning full opacity). If not set and the -b option is not used, then the page opacity set in Inkscape in the Document Options dialog will be used (stored in the inkscape:pageopacity= attribute of sodipodi:namedview). If not set but the -b option is used, then the value of 255 (full opacity) will be used.

"-P Export document(s) to PostScript format. Note that PostScript does not support transparency, so any transparency in the original \s-1SVG\s0 will be lost. This option can be used together with --export-bbox-page and --export-text-to-path.

"-E Export document(s) to Encapsulated PostScript format. Note that PostScript does not support transparency, so any transparency in the original \s-1SVG\s0 will be lost. This option can be used together with --export-bbox-page and --export-text-to-path.

"-A Export document(s) to \s-1PDF\s0 1.4 format. This format preserves the transparency in the original \s-1SVG\s0 (though not all \s-1PDF\s0 viewers can display it yet). This option can be used together with --export-text-to-path (currently this is required, because exporting text as text is not yet supported).

"-T, Convert text objects to paths on export, where applicable (currently works for \s-1PS\s0, \s-1EPS\s0, and \s-1PDF\s0 export).

"-B, Export files with the bounding box set to the page size, where applicable (currently works for \s-1PS\s0 and \s-1EPS\s0 export).

"-F, Embed fonts used in the document into exported \s-1PS/EPS\s0 file. Note: only Type 1 fonts can be embedded, not TrueType.

"-I, Set the \s-1ID\s0 of the object whose dimensions are queried. If not set, query options will return the dimensions of the drawing (i.e. all document objects), not the page or viewbox

"-X, Query the X coordinate of of the drawing or, if specified, of the object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (\s-1SVG\s0 user units).

"-Y, Query the Y coordinate of of the drawing or, if specified, of the object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (\s-1SVG\s0 user units).

"-W, Query the width of of the drawing or, if specified, of the object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (\s-1SVG\s0 user units).

"-H, Query the height of of the drawing or, if specified, of the object with --query-id. The returned value is in px (\s-1SVG\s0 user units).

"--vacuum-defs" Remove all unused items from the <lt>defs<gt> section of the \s-1SVG\s0 file. If this option is invoked in conjunction with --export-plain-svg, only the exported file will be affected. If it is used alone, the specified file will be modified in place.

"-z, Do not open the \s-1GUI\s0 (on Unix, do not use X server); only process the files from console. This is assumed for -p, -e, -l, and --vacuum-defs options.

"--g-fatal-warnings" Part of the standard \s-1GTK\s0 option that are recognized. This forces any \s-1GTK\s0 warnings to cause Inkscape to abort. This option is listed because it gets used for debugging.

"--usage" Display a brief usage message.

The preferences.xml configuration file located in ~/.inkscape/ is used to customize the application settings for the user.

"interface" The interface element(s) of the config file is used to set parameters related to the \s-1GUI\s0 interface, such as the open/closed status of various \s-1GUI\s0 elements, etc. The documents group is used for containing the recent files list. Each document is listed with its uri (path) and name indicated. The template group is used for storing parameters related to blank documents. The tools group is used for storing the user style preferences for different event contexts (i.e., shapes, freehand or calligraphic stroke properties, etc.). The palette group allows setting of dash styles. This allows you to define the stroke lengths for different kinds of dashes. The dialogs group allows persisting the position and width of each of the dialogs in the application, so that they'll start up in the last place the user had them at the next time the app is run. The printing group is for storing different printer settings. Each setting is identified with an id. Properties include bitmap (true/false), resolution, and destination. The options group allows persisting various user selected options including nudgeddistance, rotationstep, cursortolerance, and dragtolerance.

The program returns zero on success or non-zero on failure.

A variety of error messages and warnings are printed to \s-1STDERR\s0 or \s-1STDOUT\s0. If the program behaves erratically with a particular \s-1SVG\s0 file or crashes, it is sometimes useful to look at this output for clues.

While obviously Inkscape is primarily intended as a \s-1GUI\s0 application, it can be used for doing \s-1SVG\s0 processing on the commandline as well.

Print an \s-1SVG\s0 file:

inkscape filename.svg -p \[aq]| lpr\[aq]

Export an \s-1SVG\s0 file into \s-1PNG\s0 with the default resolution of 90dpi (one \s-1SVG\s0 user unit translates to one bitmap pixel):

inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png

Same, but force the \s-1PNG\s0 file to be 600x400 pixels:

inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png -w600 -h400

Same, but export the drawing (bounding box of all objects), not the page:

inkscape filename.svg --export-png=filename.png --export-area-drawing

Export to \s-1PNG\s0 the object with id=“text1555”, using the output filename and the resolution that were used for that object last time when it was exported from the \s-1GUI:\s0

inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-use-hints

Same, but use the default 90dpi resolution, specify the filename, and snap the exported area outwards to the nearest whole \s-1SVG\s0 user unit values (to preserve pixel-alignment of objects and thus minimize antialiasing):

inkscape filename.svg --export-id=text1555 --export-png=text.png --export-snap-area

Convert an Inkscape \s-1SVG\s0 document to plain \s-1SVG:\s0

inkscape filename1.svg --export-plain-svg=filename2.svg

Convert an \s-1SVG\s0 document to \s-1EPS\s0, converting all texts to paths:

inkscape filename.svg --export-eps=filename.eps --export-text-to-path

Query the width of the object with id=“text1555”:

inkscape filename.svg --query-width --query-id text1555

\s-1TMPDIR\s0 to set the default path of the directory to use for temporary files. The directory must exist.

To load different icons sets instead of the default $PREFIX/share/inkscape/icons/icons.svg file, the directory $HOME/.inkscape/icons/ is used. Icons are loaded by name (e.g. fill_none.svg), or if not found, then from icons.svg. If the icon is not loaded from either of those locations, it falls back to the default system location.

The needed icons are loaded from \s-1SVG\s0 files by searching for the \s-1SVG\s0 id with the matching icon name. (For example, to load the “fill_none” icon from a file, the bounding box seen for \s-1SVG\s0 id “fill_none” is rendered as the icon, whether it comes from fill_none.svg or icons.svg.)

$HOME/.inkscape/extensions.xml - The filter programs to be used in the application.

The canonical place to find Inkscape info is at http://www.inkscape.org/. The website includes links to other relevant documentation, tutorials, user manual, examples, mailing list archives, the latest released version of the program, and more.

gimp(1), autotrace, potrace, frontline, ill2svg, rsvg(1), xfig(1), sodipodi, karbon14, dia(1X), batik.

\s-1SVG\s0 compliance test suite: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Test/

\s-1SVG\s0 validator: http://jiggles.w3.org/svgvalidator/

Scalable Vector Graphics (\s-1SVG\s0) 1.1 Specification W3C Recommendation 14 January 2003 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/>

Scalable Vector Graphics (\s-1SVG\s0) 1.2 Specification W3C Working Draft 13 November 2003 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/>

\s-1SVG\s0 1.1/1.2/2.0 Requirements W3C Working Draft 22 April 2002 <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG2Reqs/>

Document Object Model (\s-1DOM\s0): Level 2 Core Arnaud Le Hors et al editors, W3C <http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/>

To learn Inkscape's \s-1GUI\s0 operation, read the tutorials in Help > Tutorials.

Inkscape can import (File > Import) most bitmap formats (\s-1PNG\s0, \s-1BMP\s0, \s-1JPG\s0, \s-1XPM\s0, \s-1GIF\s0 etc.), plain text (requires Perl), and \s-1AI\s0 format (Adobe Illustrator documents, versions up to 7 only; requires Perl).

Inkscape exports 32-bit \s-1PNG\s0 images (File > Export) as well as \s-1AI\s0, \s-1PS\s0, \s-1EPS\s0, \s-1PDF\s0 (requires Ghostscript), \s-1DXF\s0 and several other formats via File > Save as.

Inkscape can use the pressure and tilt of a graphic tablet pen for width and angle of the Calligraphic tool.

Inkscape includes a \s-1GUI\s0 front-end to the Potrace bitmap tracing engine (http://potrace.sf.net) which is embedded into Inkscape.

Inkscape can use external scripts (stdin-to-stdout filters) that are represented by commands in the Effects menu. A script can have a \s-1GUI\s0 dialog for setting various parameters and can get the IDs of the selected objects on which to act via the command line. Inkscape comes with an assortment of effects written in Python, mostly for path manipulation.

To get a complete list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts, view doc/keys.html, or use the Keys and Mouse command in Help menu from the \s-1GUI\s0 to see an \s-1SVG\s0 chart.

Many bugs are known; please refer to the website (inkscape.org) for reviewing the reported ones and to report newly found issues. See also the Known Issues section in the Release Notes for your version (file `\s-1NEWS\s0').

This codebase owes its existance to a large number of contributors throughout its various incarnations. The following list is certainly incomplete, but serves to recognize the many shoulders on which this application sits:

Josh Andler, John Bintz, Arpad Biro, Daniel Borgmann, Gustav Broberg, Hans Breuer, Nicu Buculei, Bulia Byak, Chema Celorio, Johan Ceuppens, Zbigniew Chyla, Alexander Clausen, John Cliff, Kees Cook, Ben Cromwell, Robert Crosbie, Jon Cruz, Milosz Derezynski, Daniel D\['i]az, Larry Doolittle, Tim Dwyer, Maxim V. Dziumanenko, Danilo Egan, Johan Engelen, Frank Felfe, Andrew Fitzsimon, Edward Flick, Fred, Ben Fowler, Cedric Gemy, Ted Gould, Bryce Harrington, Dale Harvey, Carl Hetherington, Jos Hirth, Alan Horkan, Karl Ove Hufthammer, Richard Hughes, Nathan Hurst, Thomas Ingham, Bob Jamison, Lauris Kaplinski, Lynn Kerby, Niko Kiirala, Petr Kovar, Raph Levien, Nicklas Lindgren, Vitaly Lipatov, Colin Marquardt, Dmitry G. Mastrukov, Matiphas, Michael Meeks, Federico Mena, MenTaLguY, Aubanel Monnier, Derek P. Moore, Peter Moulder, J\[:o]rg M\[:u]ller, Yukihiro Nakai, Christian Neumair, Andreas Nilsson, Mitsuru Oka, Jon Phillips, Zdenko Podobny, Alexandre Prokoudine, Alexey Remizov, Frederic Rodrigo, Hugo Rodrigues, Juarez Rudsatz, Xavier Conde Rueda, Christian Schaller, Marco Scholten, Tom von Schwerdtner, Shivaken, Michael Sloan, Bo\[vs]tjan \[vS]peti\[ah]c, Aaron Spike, Kaushik Sridharan, Ralf Stephan, Dariusz Stojek, Pat Suwalski, Adib Taraben, David Turner, Aleksandar Uro\[vs]evi\[ah]c, Lucas Vieites, Michael Wybrow, Daniel Yacob, David Yip, Masatake Yamato, Andre Twupack, Tim Mooney, Boldewyn, Marcus Brubaker, James Kilfiger

This man page was put together by Bryce Harrington <brycehar@bryceharrington.com>.

The codebase that would become Inkscape began life in 1999 as the program Gill, the \s-1GNOME\s0 Illustrator application, created by Raph Levien. The stated objective for Gill was to eventually support all of \s-1SVG\s0. Raph implemented the PostScript bezier imaging model, including stroking and filling, line cap style, line join style, text, etc. Raph's Gill page is at http://www.levien.com/svg/. Work on Gill appears to have slowed or ceased in 2000.

The next incarnation of the codebase was to become the highly popular program Sodipodi, led by Lauris Kaplinski. The codebase was turned into a powerful illustration program over the course of several year's work, adding several new features, multi-lingual support, porting to Windows and other operating systems, and eliminating dependencies.

Inkscape was formed in 2003 by four active Sodipodi developers, Bryce Harrington, MenTaLguY, Nathan Hurst, and Ted Gould, wanting to take a different direction with the codebase in terms of focus on \s-1SVG\s0 compliance, interface look-and-feel, and a desire to open development opportunities to more participants.

Inkscape is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the \s-1GPL\s0.