Tools

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SVG Validator

A validator service (and downloadable tool) is provided by the W3C. It will complain about sodipodi or inkscape namespaced items in the document, unless you've exported to plain SVG.

SVG::Metadata

Perl module and set of scripts to help in adding and processing metadata in SVG files.


Vectorize/trace

Potrace

Potrace is now embedded into Inkscape. You don't need to run it separately.

Alternatives to Potrace (Autotrace and Frontline)

Autotrace
An open source vectorization program by Martin Weber. That means you can convert bitmap images (like scans) to vector graphics. While not optimal for photos, it does good job on line art and poster-like images. Doesn't do too well with color.
Autotrace has some features not available in the embedded Potrace dialog in Inkscape. For example, there is a centerline switch that is especially usefull for tracing roads (in maps) or font characters.
Frontline
A GUI frontend to Autotrace by Masatake Yamato. Frontline can be run as standalone aplication, but it can also be directly accessed from Inkscape and GIMP.

If you want to have tracing option, you have to install both Autotrace and Frontline before compiling Inkscape. Inkscape automatically detects these programs, and adds inline raster to vector conversion option to image menu.

Both Autotrace and Frontline can be downloaded from Sourceforge. Binaries are available for windows and linux.

Delineate

Front end written in java that does interesting things with color images.

Online SVG editors

  • SVGReal is an online open-source SVG editor. With it you can open most SVG resources available on the Internet or your local PC, view them, edit them, combine them with other SVG resources, export the result back to SVG.

Convert to/from SVG

svg2pdf

This simple but useful application is kindly provided by Carl Worth (cairo).

How to obtain it:

git clone git://people.freedesktop.org/~cworth/svg2pdf

And to update it dive into newly created directory called svg2pdf and type this in console: 

git pull

(You must of course have git package installed)

Building

If build-time dependencies are satisfied 

librsvg and cairo

you only need to type 

make

Usage

./svg2pdf input_file.svg output_file.pdf

Note: from version 0.46 Inkscape can both read and write PDFs directly from the open/save dialogs. These tools however allow this conversion where 0.46 is not available, and also provide a means of validating if bugs encountered are Inkscape related.

ImageMagick (convert tool)

ImageMagick software suite of tools contains the convert utility that allow you to convert between different images format. And more specifically, convert allows you to convert from SVG to any image format you want.

uniconvertor

UniConvertor is an universal vector graphics translator. The project uses sK1 engine to convert one format to another. Project has following import filters: CDR, CMX, AI, CGM, WMF, XFIG, SVG, SK, SK1, AFF and export filters: AI, SVG, SK, SK1, CGM, WMF.

ill2svg

ill2svg (Illustrator to SVG) is a small script that helps turn Adobe Illustrator .ai files into SVG. While it doesn't always do a perfect job, it can sometimes be of great help.


To use the program, just type: 

ill2svg.pl [-l "string" -h] infile > outfile.svg

options: 
    -l specify the file's line-ending convention: dos, mac,
    or unix; the default is unix

    -h print this message and exit

ai2svg.py

ai2svg (Illustrator to SVG, recoded in python) is as well a small script that helps turn Adobe Illustrator .ai files into SVG. The Python recode aims to help developers more familiar to python than perl, as well fixing some lacks from ill2svg.pl - supports dashes, layers, textboxes (ascii-latin), and joined pathes.

To use the program, just type: 

python ai2svg.py drawing.ai

the result will appear as neighbour, named drawing.ai.svg

options: 
    --help print this message and exit

available at http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen/public/software/ai2svg.py

fig2vect

fig2vector (fig vector format to other vector formats, including SVG) is a converter from 'Fig format' long time used (at least since 1998) unix vector format (Xfig, figurine, jfig, winfig...), large kind of application output on this format in unix, mostly scientific applications.

gimp2sodipodi

Shandy Brown has assembled a somewhat obscure but useful set of tools to get from GIMP to Sodipodi (and thus to Inkscape). That is, convert raster to vector.

GIMP

GIMP is a bitmap graphics tool in the first place, but:

  • it imports SVG (with help of librsvg) into bitmap or vector path, exports SVG.
  • GIMP's selection can be converted to a vector path, and paths can be exported/imported as SVG.

GIMP can be used to create nice textures to use in Inkscape or shapes that can be vectorized in Inkscape. Importing SVG drawings from Inkscape to GIMP allows you to do several effects by filling and stroking shapes.

There is a limited support for drag'n'drop between GIMP and Inkscape:

  • path, can be drag'n'dropped from Gimp path dialog to Inkscape
  • pictures can be drag'n'dropped from Gimp document history to Inkscape if it's in a file format that Inkscape understands.

(Drag and Drop does not appear to work in windows.)

ConversionSVG

ConversionSVG is a GUI that send command line to Inkscape to export in batch SVG to PNG, PS, PDF or EPS. It features a Wizard to help novice to use it. You can choose a size in pixels for your export and give some others parameters.


InkscapeBatch

ConversionSVG is a GUI that send command line to Inkscape to export in batch SVG to PNG, PS, PDF or EPS. It features a Wizard to help novice to use it. You can choose a size in pixels for your export and give some others parameters.

Kig

Kig is a geometry educational tool, it can import from most of the free geom softwares format : kig (own format), kigz (own format compresed), kgeo, seg (Kseg), fgeo (Dr Geo) anf fig, and can export them to SVG, xfig, latex, and image. This can be useful to integrate a geometry activity in a more complet document realized in Inkscape for web reading or printing for schools.

svg_stack

svg_stack combines multiple SVG elements into a single SVG element. It can be called from the command line (less flexible) or called from the Python interface (more flexible).

This tool exists primarily exists to automatically composite SVG files into a single SVG file that remains compatible with Inkscape. If compatibility with Inkscape is not required, one can create an svg file with multiple, nested <svg> elements. Inkscape, however, doesn't seem to handle nested <svg> elements particularly well. Thus, this tool was born.

inkmake

Makefile inspired export from SVG files using Inkscape as backend with some added smartness.

Color scheme & palettes

Agave

Agave is a color scheme tool allowing to create palettes based on standard color composition rules, it can export its palettes in the format managed by Gimp and Inkscape (.gpl files).

KcolorEdit

KColorEdit is a palette editor from the KDE project. It has several color choosing tools:

  • GTK: hue wheel + saturation/value triangle,
  • KDE: 2D+1D picker (e.g., x = hue, y = saturation, z = value)
  • A "gradient" selector
  • A "color builder" dialog
  • Picking colors from the screen

Both import and export of .gpl files is supported, and comments from the .gpl files (e.g., descriptive color names), can be viewed and edited.

Several of the color composition features from Agave (complement, triadic, tetradic, and analogous) are supported.

Video editing, for building animation

Linux Video Editing System

LIVES is the Linux Video Editing System that permits editing and making video without worries about formats, frame sizes, or frame rates. It doesn't support SVG directly yet, but you can create animated works by moving your shapes in Inkscape and exporting as numbered png's.

Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a non-linear video editor for Linux, that allow editing, mixing several video and audio using several timelines with previews, add audio/video effects using effects stacks, add text for title or subtitle. It support SVG (but not svgz, at least in svn 20070410).

Open Movie Editor

Open Movie Editor is a non linear video editor, allowing editing, mixing several audio and vido, don't know if it supports svg, but as LIVES it can be used for work with png frames to build animation

Multipage presentation or book

ExportOverlays

ExportOverlays is a Perl script that exports in pdf format each layer of an Inkscape .svg file. One can then use pdftk to merge the .pdf's together, in a single file. This effectively converts a multi-layered Inkscape .svg into a multi-page .pdf file.

Download the script here.

Inkscape-pages

Inkscape-pages brings native multiple page support into Inkscape.

Inkscape Slide

Inkscape Slide is a simple tool to generate multi-pages PDF from a single multi-layered Inkscape SVG file.

It allows incremental display, as you specify the layers you want on each page, in a simple text box in your document.

Any feedback is welcome.

InkSlide

InkSlide is a presentation creation tool (a small python program) that uses an Inkscape SVG file as a template for rapidly producing slides with text, bulleted lists, images and slide specific SVG content.

svgslides

Svgslides is a command-line unix utility that can do various things.

  • Create a PDF slide show. For example, make a PDF slideshow from a number of SVG files you have made with inkscape. Just put the files in a text file, each SVG filename on one line, and then run "svgslides", and a PDF file will be created
  • Create a picture perfect PDF from one svg file. Just use the utility svgslides-svg2pdf
  • Create "incremental" slides. Just give SVG objects special lables (e.g., "part1", "part2"), and svgslides will make a show in which these parts of an svg file will be displayed in a sequence.
  • Written as bash shell script and uses common packages. Easy to install.

Scribus

Scribus is a publishing software supporting SVG, allowing to organise Inkscape documents as a full featured pre-press tool. It doesn't support SVG filters (blur/blend modes...), but manage most of other features.

JessyInk

JessyInk is a JavaScript that can be incorporated into an Inkscape SVG file. It turns every layer of the image into a frame of a slide show. The slide shows can be viewed in any browser supporting SVG and JavaScript. Current features include: different transitions between slides, automatic slide numbering and an index sheet view.

Sozi

Sozi creates JavaScript based presentations which pan through a large svg containing all slides at once. Portions of the large svg can be defined which are then shown in presenation mode. Also free panning and zooming is possible during presentations.

Charts & Graphs

Gnuplot

Gnuplot, the command line (with several frontends) driven interactive data and function plotting tool has SVG output for graphs & charts.

matplotlib

Matplotlib is a python plotting library and can also output SVG.

Gnumeric

Gnumeric, the Gnome spreadsheet output a variety of graphs/charts in SVG format.

SVG Charter

SVG charter is a perl script dedicated to generate SVG charts on web servers.

JSpecView

JSpecView is a Java project with application and applet designed to display spectra in the JCAMP-DX format. It can export the display as standard SVG or as an Inkscape SVG document for import by Blender as a path.

Diagrams

Graphviz

Graphviz is a tool for automatic graph drawing, it produces structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks in SVG and other vector formats. Several diagrams softwares use this tool or dot file managed by this tool in variety application domains including:

  • UML
  • databases
  • networks
  • source code analysers objects/functions relations
  • code profiling analalysis
  • web server log analyser
  • packages dependencies
  • ...
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