I downloaded Inkscape last night to make some images for an app I'm working on. I want to be able to use scalable graphics to address issues with the app being used on different platforms (e.g., iPad vs iPhone) with different display dimensions. So, I did a tutorial and drew a simple shape and went to export it as an .SVG and much to my surprise, you can't export in .SVG (apparently). I can export as .PNG, but .PNG will not scale up with resolution loss (or so I've read). So, I don't get it. What's the point of creating a vector image only to be unable to export it for use in a vector format (i.e. svg) that I can scale up or down without resolution loss? I'm probably missing something crucial here, so I'm ready to be set straight.

Someone (in another thread) suggested using "Save as" to save the shape as an SVG, and it does, but isn't it also saving the worksheet (empty space) around the shape I made? Thanks for the help.

Yes and no. When you first opened Inkscape, you probably noticed a rectangle in the middle of the canvas? That's the page border. Depending on where and how you use the file/image, you may or may not see the space outside the page border. Some people like to keep helpful parts of the drawing there, in case they plan to edit later. (Other people might use a hidden layer for the same thing.)

So for example, if you are planning to upload the SVG file to the internet, an image host, webpage, or something like that, probably only the parts of the drawing which are inside the border will be showing. But other places might not care about the border. For example, I've noticed my file manager doesn't particularly care about it, and I can see the whole canvas in the thumbnail or preview. You might find some image viewers which show the whole canvas.

brynn wrote:You might find some image viewers which show the whole canvas.

Any idea what these could be? I would like to take a look at them.

disposableorchestra wrote:So, I don't get it. What's the point of creating a vector image only to be unable to export it for use in a vector format (i.e. svg) that I can scale up or down without resolution loss? I'm probably missing something crucial here, so I'm ready to be set straight.

You are indeed missing something simple. SVG is Inkscape native format. When you normally save, it saves it as SVG.

When you save, you will notice in the lower right of the Save dialogue, a combo box which says, "Inkscape SVG (*.svg)" This means it will save the file in SVG with Inkscape extensions (which are ignored by other apps). If you click on it, it has a list of other formats, including "Plain SVG (*.svg)" and PDF and others.

Preview and thumbnails are usually bitmap copies of the SVG file. They aren't actually showing the SVG file data.

True renderers that actually show the file data (browsers, apps, editors, etc.) might not support all SVG features ; e.g. Flowed - text.

If wanted, the OP can probably make their application use the whitespace by including an empty rectangle object the size of the page.

TD