Hello,

I am using Inkscape to produce a poster in the A0 format (120cm by 80cm) with a colored background (linear gradient of one color). The SVG file looks good, but unfortunately I need to export it to PDF for printing as a poster (the printer won't take SVG files, only PPT or PDF).

I have been unable to produce a correct PDF output, or even a correct PNG output. "Save as PDF" and "Export to PNG" either crash with some kind of memory error ("Glib-ERROR**:gmem.c:170: failed to allocate 327249296 bytes aborting...") or produce a document with several rendering errors (e.g., the color background is not rendered and replaced by a white background).

I understand that the figure might be somewhat too complex to render, but the SVG file size seems reasonable (2809Ko) and I have successfully exported another file of this kind to PDF last year, maybe with an earlier version of Inkscape. I don't remember the exact method though (Cairo??), and when I tried to export this other file I also encountered a memory error. When the PNG export doesn't crash, the final size is huge (19638 Ko), as is the EPS export (35670 Ko).

I tried: vacuuming definitions, restart computer.
Any ideas of what I can do about this problem? I would need to send the poster to the printer soon and I have no clue where to begin with this problem.

Inkscape 0.48
Windows 7, 64bits
HP Z420 Workstation
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz
RAM 6Go

Dropbox link to the file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j476h8n4dykm6 ... e.svg?dl=0

Thanks a lot

Hi.

Most probably it is due to the filtering.
In the save as pdf you can set up a resolution for the effects -the only way to preserve the look-, which produces a very large embedded raster image.
The blurred object in the background is ~~1413 mm/1060 mm, which even at 300 dpi would be 16689 px/12520 px, plus it would need to have an alpha channel*.
Quite large for making "eye candy".
Contrary a flat design with no gradients at all can have a better impact.


*As far as I know it is implemented by masking with a greyscale raster image.

OK, thanks. From your input I think I got to the source of the problem:

(1) I was asking for an unrealistic resolution, hence the memory problem. Using the original file I managed to go up to 200ppp. At 200ppp a PDF is exported, but at 250 Inkscape crashes.

(2) What was causing the rendering problem was not the linear gradient but the "blurred" option in the filling/contour dialog box next to the "opacity" option (not sure what the English word for the "blurred" option actually is). It had 8.7% "blurred". Changing the "blurred" option to 0% (but keeping the linear gradient) caused the background to be rendered properly at 200pp. I could also push the resolution up to 450ppp, but at 500 there were some rendering errors.

Conclusions:
- Playing with the resolution may eliminate errors occurring during PDF export.
- For some reason PDF export does not support backgrounds with "blurred" filling. (?!?)

Thanks a lot for your help!