Hello,

I am not a very proficient user of Inkscape, but I have successfully used it to create some simple drawings in the past. I normally convert these drawings to pdf files by using the Save as... option without any issues, but I am currently having trouble with one specific file.

I normally create my files using the 'Export area is drawing' option to get tight boundaries around the drawings. With this last file, I have not been able to figure out why it is not saving with tight boundaries around the drawing (see attached pdf).

I thought it might be an issue with having objects which were not vector based, so I played with the dpi for rasterization, but this didn't have any effect. I also thought there could be a small object (which was not easily visible) somewhere in the page far from the main drawing, but this is not the case either. When I zoom Drawing (4) it displays perfect.

I have attached both the svg file and the exported pdf file. If anyone has had a similar issue, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your solution with me. Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,
Supvato

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I can't see what the problem might be. But I think someone should know, so I'm just posting a reply to make the topic current again

Weird... I just downloaded your svg, then I went to Save as, saved it, and the result looks good.

Settings and result:



This was done with Inkscape v 0.48.1 on Win7 32 bits.

supvato wrote:I have attached both the svg file and the exported pdf file. If anyone has had a similar issue, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your solution with me. Thanks in advance for any help.

You are using the initial release of Inkscape 0.48 (from the SVG file: inkscape:version="0.48.0 r9654"), the error no longer occurs with Inkscape 0.48.1 or the current release 0.48.2.

As far as I can tell, this is due to Bug #624775 “PDF export with --export-area-drawing gives wrong canvas size (too big)” having been fixed in Inskcape 0.48.1.

If - for whatever reason - you can't upgrade to 0.48.2 (e.g. because your linux distribution only offers 0.48.0): attaching a version of the file which exports with the correct drawing area even in Inkscape 0.48.0.

Steps done to modify the file:

1. Check the preference setting for Transforms and make sure to 'Store Transforms: [x] Optimized'
2. Ungroup the current group containing the diagram, keep the resulting selection
3. Nudge the selection with the arrow keys one step up and back down again
   (this triggers a rewrite of the path data, flattening any preserved transforms on regular paths)
4. remaining issue: the small arc with the two end markers.
   The arc needs to be converted into a path (menu 'Path > Object to Path') to flatten the transform. If you need to be able to edit the arc with the ellipse tool later on, first add a new layer, then duplicate the arc and move the duplicate onto the new layer ('Shift+PgUp'), remove the markers of the duplicated arc and hide that new layer. Then select the original arc which still has the two end markers (arrows), convert it to path ('Shift+Ctrl+C') and also nudge it with the arrow keys to flatten the transform
5. Select all and group it again
6. save the modified version, then Save a Copy as PDF with' Export area is drawing'.