Hello,

I select the text tool, type something like "Test Image" in black in the default font and size.
I then go to File, Document Properties, and click Resize Page to Drawing or Selection.
I then Save As as a plain SVG.

Inkscape can read/write the file with no problems, but:

Gimp 2.8 renders it all black.
Firefox 47.0 won't render anything at all.

I've included the file test.svg; does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

ubuntu:~ $ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04 LTS"

and the latest Inkscape in the repos:

ubuntu:~ $ inkscape --version
Inkscape 0.91 r13725

Hi.

Without opening the file that sounds as you had made a flowed text.
Unlflow it and it should work.

That was exactly it; thank you. Inkscape is not a trivial endeavour