Playing all day with pdf. (I can pdf everything it seems except Inkscape, however I've posted that prob up elsewhere.)

While creating pdfs they all emerge with a white border. After googling it seems using Adobe® Acrobat® software is the way to remove the border. However I priced it - gulp - and don't want to spend $300- $400 just to remove a white border. Is there another way direct from Inkscape to solve the white border - Inkscape is where, hopefully, I will be despatching out the pdfs.

Inkscape can load any pdf-s, but they seem to have a totally different structure than one would think.
It can produce things with many kinds of clipping and grouping involved, maybe even creating fills from some elements.
So while it is technically possible to clean up a pdf through inkscape, yet it takes too much time to do that right in most cases.

Thanks Lazur URH. I'm managing to save my work as a pdf generated from Inkscape now. The finished pdf certainly has large white borders around the desired pdf content. Is there a way to save my work as a pdf without those borders? Lots of hunting around and googling but I haven't yet found a fix inside Inkscape in which I can save a file as a pdf with data right to the 4 page edges.

By default, pdf-s display a white background where the svg background is transparent.
You can set the pdf canvas to be around the drawing, or to be the at the svg's canvas.
To have the inkscape canvas in right size, you can set it at the document properties panel -press Shift+Ctrl+D for that-.
Then if you set only the canvas for the saving area of the pdf by ticking in the right box, it should work.

Maybe you set it to be the drawing before, but then the filters could produce the problem:
they can make the object's bounding box bigger than the original,
without displaying anything out ofthe original region
-which could result in a bigger drawing area, than what is actually displayed.

No, I didn't set anything on the canvas - I followed a tutorial on YouTube that said ignore the canvas in the middle. It's caused me a few hiccups/shocks taking that advice I can tell you. But I knew no better back then.

I'll follow your instructions.

Several days later and I'm still getting white borders.

I've tried:

* Set pdf canvas to be around the svg, after setting canvass to the same size
and
* EDIT - Fit page to selection or drawing
and
* FILE / SAVE AS / Save as File Type pdf / SAVE / Portable Document Format....see screen grab.

And clues as to what I'm missing / doing wrong?

First, you have to set the canvas borders right.
In that document properties panel, set the default units you want to use.
What is the custom size? Is that given in mm-s? If so, preferably set it as the default unit.
To set the canvas borders right, there are two possibilities:
-type in the exact dimensions in the right units,
or
-draw like a rectangle in the drawing area, set its size to the wanted page size, and
when selected, click on the resize page to selection.

The border options at the bottom only affect the displaying of the page inside inkscape, it doesn't have anything to do with pdf-s.

After you set these things right, at the pdf panel thick in the export area is page box instead of the one above it.
This way no white borders should appear in the opened pdf-s.
If you want to print that custom page whitout white borders, setting the printer right would be a real question, as regular printers cannot do that.


Edit: just realised that's for the same subject http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15436#p57661
I really think it will give you better results to create pdf-s out of the clean png-s you have with a pdf printer.
As all the filtered elements will be turned to raster ones -!at the set resolution of the pdf panel!*-, but with an ugly mix of the parts in the document.

*For online publishing 250 dpi -resolution for rasterization, of the filters- may be more than necessary, with regular screen resolutions at about 100 dpi,
but for printing such images in the other post, 600 dpi would be the minimum.

If you are still having problems, click the big button that says "Resize page to drawing or selection." Ignore all other settings in the document setup dialog box - they will be set automatically after Inkscape performs this task.
Please check the box that says "Show border" and optionally also "Show ...shadow" and ".. on top". This has nothing to do with your output, and will not be seen anywhere outside the inkscape working canvas. It is there to help you orient yourself and for a new-ish user provides invaluable information!
Now close the dialog. You will see the page border enclosing your drawing very tightly. (The shadow and border color helps you distinguish this border from any rectangular shapes you might have on canvas.) If it is not enclosing your drawing tightly then you have invisible objects that are making the white space.

If it is nice and snug around your objects you are ready to save as PDF and check the export area is page option, which should give you the same result as "... is drawing."

Thank you for the replies~ about to try following above now. Wishing myself luck!

...

3 hours later - success!!!!
Due to some invisible bleeding outside my svg - due to blur - I have now made the canvass size snug around my svg and I have ONE wonderful pdf with no thick white border. 40+ more to go!

Also... I do not know how to turn a .png into a .pdf. Does that require downloading some of the recommends like CUTEpdf and such like?

As always, your help has been hugely valuable, without it I'd be 6-months solving these issues instead of 6-weekends. Or is it 7 weekends now? Or eight.....

I had same issue with white borders around some of the edges: All my settings were correct and also used no filters. What caused the problem was when an external PDF-"printer" was used via Print ->> Theprinter, instead of inkscape built in "Save As" --> PDF.

Strange though, since it sometimes works, sometimes not with the external I tried (CutePDF).