On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 06:28:25PM -0400, Edward Hume wrote:
It's not me. It's my software. Various apps, from GIMP to Paintshop Pro, take in SVG's made with sodipodi, for example, but choke or make bad images with Inkscape SVG's. I quit outputting SVG's and simply have Inkscape export PNG's to work on in bitmapped image editors now.
Yes, it's unfortunate but true that despite SVG being a true standardized format, there are few applications that are 100% compliant. Even Inkscape is not 100% compliant, although it is definitely our goal to become so one day.
As a general rule, Inkscape's SVG is closer to compliance than many other (even commercial) applications, so many times the issues are due to issues with the other program. If you get really curious about the incompatibilities, a good judge is the program Batik. It's probably the most compliant program out there, so if there is a difference between Inkscape and Batik, we generally assume Batik is correct.
Of course, all this is neither here nor there for users, who just want the programs to interoperate...
After all, Inkscape itself differentiates between Inkscape SVG and "plain" SVG. If there is no difference, why the output option?
I think a good way to think about Inkscape SVG and "plain" SVG is like between a color photo and a black and white photo. The B&W photo will display correctly on a printer, its file size will be smaller, and you may have fewer issues using it in various graphics programs. But despite all these benefits, it doesn't have color!
Similarly, "plain" SVG will display correctly in more programs, be smaller in size, and have fewer issues, but it's still "less" than the original Inkscape SVG.
Finally, do recall that I was suggesting a way to make an SVG file that would be accepted by another app. In the past, I have had better success with the plain option than with the Inkscape option.
Yup, that was good advice you gave; this is exactly why the "plain" SVG was included. Hopefully this thread was also useful to help in explaining that the issue isn't due to Inkscape not being sufficiently standard compared with other programs, but in fact the opposite.
Also, if anyone *does* find an area where Inkscape is failing to meet the SVG standard, those are considered very critically important bugs (almost as critical as crashes or data loss), so please make sure they're listed in our bug tracker.
Bryce