On 2011-03-11 13:38, donn wrote:

Anyone have a clue how to convert an image (bitmap) *inside* inkscape into grayscale/desaturate?

You can apply a filter using the color matrix primitive (it has an option to do this more or less). We also have a ready-made (preset) filter that you can apply through the menu. If you need help figuring this out, have a look at this book for example (chapters 15 and 16 specifically): http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.html (It's also available in print btw.)

Are those extensions scriptable perhaps?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but there are a couple of options available to you. If you want a standalone script it might be easiest to modify the xml in some way to include the right filter definition and then referencing this. Similarly, you could do this in an Inkscape extension, but I don't think that would have much, if any, advantage over using the preset filter. If you're talking about destructively changing the image from within Inkscape, that goes a bit against the idea of a vector editor, but I guess you could do it.