I suggest create 'about.template.svg' and 'about.$l18n.svg' is a include of template artwork and others elements don't necessary translator.

See: <image sodipodi:absref="about.svg" xlink:href="about.svg" style="display:inline" id="aboutsvgfile" x="0" y="0" />

And suggest add in pofiles the string "Draw freely", and run the script: for ii in *.po ; do sed s/"XXXXXX"/"$(grep "verbs.cpp:2517" $ii -A 3 | tail -2 | head -1 | cut -d""" -f2)"/ about.svg > about.$(echo $ii | cut -d"." -f1).svg ; done

to create all about.*.svg files, small size, only input translator...

63 files this proposal = 640k

63 copy files or modifi... 10.080k (10Mb)

See my SVN proposal: wget http://valessiobrito.info/projetos/inkscape/scheme-screens/abou*.svg