Multipage

Multipage feature was added in Inkscape 1.2 . In front end it was implmneted as a new tool Pages Tool in a toolbar. Pages are saved in SVG in nameveiw tag as a custom inkscape spesific propertie (this does not work on web and its not part of svg standard).

First page is svg viewbox

Page Tool

The new Page tool (lowest button in the tool bar) allows you to create multi-page Inkscape documents, and to import as well as export multi-page PDF documents. (MR #3486, MR #3785, MR #3821). It supports overlapping pages and pages of different sizes in a single document.

Importing (Merge) / Exporting (Split)[edit | edit source]

Multi-page documents can be imported with their pages appended as new pages in the existing document. Select the correct option in the window that pops up to append pages rather than import shapes as usual. This can be used to merge multiple pdf files.

Exporting multiple pages can be done in the new export dialog in batch mode. As well as each individual page in the Single export tab. Use this to split into single page svg or pdf documents. Note: it's not yet possible to select a sub-selection of multiple pages to export yet.

Tool usage:

• To create a new page either:
  • click-and-drag on the canvas
  • or click on the 'Create a new page' button in the tool controls
• To delete a page, click on the page to select it, then click on the button Delete selected page or use the Del or Backspace keys.
• To move a page on the canvas, click-and-drag it to the desired new position. If the option to Move overlapping objects is active, this will also move any objects that touch the page along with it.
• To change a page's size:
  • click on a page whose size you want to change to select it, then drag the square-shaped handle in its bottom right corner
  • click on the page, and then choose one of the predefined sizes in the page size dropdown, or enter your size values for the 'Custom' option, by typing them into the field in the form of 10cm x 15cm
• To fit a page to:
  • the size of the drawing: make sure to have no object selected before you switch to the Page tool. Then select a page by clicking on it, then click on the button 'Fit page to drawing or selection' in the tool controls
  • a selected object: first select the object(s) with the selection tool, then switch to the Page tool, click on a page to select it, then press the the button 'Fit page to drawing or selection' in the tool controls
• To add a label to your page, select the page by clicking on it, then enter a name or label for it into the text field in the page tool's tool controls. Labels are always visible, no matter which tool is currently selected.
• To export a multi-page PDF file, use File → Save a copy … → PDF. This will automatically include all pages. If you only want to export a certain page, or a selection of pages, the updated File → Export dialog's batch export tab can help you get that done (one file per page).
• To open or import a multi-page PDF or AI (pdf-based) file, use File → Open/Import → select file name → choose to import 'All' pages [Known issue: 'import' moves content of some pages to some far out place in the drawing]
• You can navigate pages with page navigator on that will show up in right down corner of status bar

Note: Multi-page SVG files are an Inkscape-specific concept. Web browsers will only display the first page of your document, which corresponds to the 'viewbox' area of the SVG file.

Multipage in the SVG 1.2 standard (dropped)

• All pages are contained within a single pageSet element. A pageSet may contain any number of page elements. Each page element defines a single container of graphical objects.
• In a screen-based user agent, only one page element is displayed at any time on the main canvas.
• The SVG content typically defines a page dimension or aspect ratio in the topmost svg element and its viewBox. The viewBox transformation applies to printed SVG in the same way as screen display.
• The orientation of each page element can be controlled by the page-orientation property. This enables the content to define whether a portrait or landscape mode is used for display and printing.

Inkscape-pages extension

Developer lixapopescu created a inkscape extension in 2011 which hacked into inkscape some multi page support. https://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape-pages/

The design is based on using layers as the basis for pages and it's a useful hack if the svg specification will always not include pages.