Decent Multi-Format SVG Converter?

gbulmash asks: "I've been messing with the graphics in the Open Clipart Library and it feels as if SVG is a standard like 'meatball' is a standard. Most of the graphics render just fine in Inkscape, but you'll get 5 different renders in 5 different applications. For example, one of the Baby Tux drawings renders differently in Firefox, Corel Draw X3, Illustrator, and Inkscape, and generates error messages from Batik's rasterizer. If I use Inkscape to export to EPS, the EPS opens in Illustrator pretty much like the SVG does, but (and this may be a problem with Corel) doesn't import well into Corel Draw X3. Is there an application that can render SVG images as well as Inkscape can, but will also produce an output to EPS & SWF that looks like the render? Is there something that can output to a more normalized SVG that will render more faithfully in Illustrator or Corel for the sake of conversion to EPS and SWF?"

Re:

[zsazsa]

whoops, mod my original comment down. pstoedit can only take PostScript or PDF as input.

Sketsa

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you try Sketsa? [kiyut.com]

60 something SVG programs

[Anonymous Coward]

A previous Slashdot post linked to an article that listed 60 something
different SVG programs.

Vector vs Raster (at maa.org)
http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_0 8_01_05.html [maa.org]

Sounds like an article that trudges through SVG compliance for
all these programs is needed.

Re:

[wysiwia]

http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_0 8_01_05.html

Very good link. Unfortunatly most of the free solutions require either an additional GTK- or Java-Installation which is a killer argument for my use.

O. Wyss

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

most of the free solutions require either an additional GTK- or Java-Installation which is a killer argument for my use.

Huh? The standard Linux desktop environment is GNOME and it uses GTK, so it is likely that you already have GTK on your system. Even those who are still stuck with an older system such as KDE usually have GTK installed. I don't see how it could be a "killer argument". If you want the best environment and the best applications, you will need GTK anyway. And just in case you would be

Re:

[wysiwia]

... And just in case you would be using some other operating system, you can also install GTK for Windows or for MacOS X.

None of the people I'm looking for an SVG editor use Gnome nor any other Linux desktop system. They all use Windows and there's no chance to convert them to anything other. Besides none would ever try to install a GTK or Java-Runtime since they all are more or less computer illiterates.

O. Wyss

Re:

[chrish]

You're expecting people to switch platforms for a graphics format?!

Re:

[wysiwia]

You're expecting people to switch platforms for a graphics format?!

No, why do you come to this conclusion?

O. Wyss

Re:

[Elwood P Dowd]

Many GTK applications will install their own GTK on Windows. GIMP & Gaim have completely painless installers (although not necessarily painless first run experiences, but whatever).

And installing the Java Runtime is not brain surgery.

So you're asking for a program that can perfectly convert SVGs to whatever and are installable and usable by computer illiterates? Sortof a different target.

Re:

[aminorex]

It's quite trivial to bundle GTK or JRE in an NSIS installer .exe. Presumably you're not equally illiterate?

Re:

[EsbenMoseHansen]

older system such as KDE usually have GTK installed.

What sort of flame is this? KDE (and lots of other toolkits) are currently developed, and are thus quite new. It's not as if GTK is even a superior toolkit, meaning that it has some points where it is better, and some where it is worse. Thus personal opinion matters much; e.g, the printer support in GTK is pretty horrid.

On the subject, I think that rendering the image to PNG or even GIF is the only option that produce consistent, if non-scalable, resul

Re:

[try_anything]

The standard Linux desktop environment is GNOME and it uses GTK, so it is likely that you already have GTK on your system. Even those who are still stuck with an older system such as KDE usually have GTK installed.

Flamebait. KDE is a very lively project that provides all the bells and whistles and releases new versions on a regular basis. I give GNOME a chance every year or so, most recently a few months ago with Ubuntu, yet KDE has remained my preferred environment since 2001. GNOME vs. KDE is a matte

Canvas?

[Rixel]

A couple of years ago, I was trying to import/export Corel files and it was driving me nuts, and I tried several programs. Best results I got was from Canvas from Deneba. Haven't used it recently, but it boasts over 80 import filters.

firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

I loaded up the 3 baby tux svg files from that site and they looked exactly the same to me in firefox and inkscape.
Make sure to use at least FF 1.5 as the 1.x series renders very poorly.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

FF 1.5 still has some problems too. For example it doesn't display fonts of the appropriate size in pfsense's traffic graph, while Opera shows them perfectly.

adobe

[tezbobobo]

I find, as long as you stay in the adobe line from beginning to press things should be alright. It's not the best, but at least it is standard forom one end to the other - illustrator/photoshop to indesign/incopy.

Re:

[tezbobobo]

PS I'm working on apples and adobe SVG viewer plugs into Safari.

Re:

[Haeleth]

I find, as long as you stay in the adobe line from beginning to press things should be alright.

Sure. Similarly, staying in the Corel line until you generate the output works beautifully. Indeed, you can even produce an EPS in CorelDraw that you can use just fine in InDesign.

But I'm not sure what all this has got to do with the actual question, which was how to produce an SVG that renders the same in a variety of products from different sources.

VectorSection

[zerblat]

VectorSection [scratchcomputing.com] is meant to be a universal vector file format converter, and it's being sponsored by Xara. I don't know it it's usable yet, but it might be worth taking a look at.

Anyway, I'm sure that the Inkscape folks would be interested in bug reports if there's something wrong with their EPS export. You could also try saving as PDF instead and see if that works better.

Re:

[Bryce]

"Anyway, I'm sure that the Inkscape folks would be interested in bug reports if there's something wrong with their EPS export."

Actually, for these issues we have sufficient bug reports; next we could really use some patches to fix them... Anyone want to become the resident EPS expert for Inkscape? :-)

Re:

[Cameron McCormack]

Incidentally Batik now has support for SMIL animation in SVN, which will be included in the next release.

Re:

[jesboat]

Batik also renders fonts improperly in some situations.

Batik error with baby tux

[Cameron McCormack]

The reason that Batik doesn't handle the baby tux [openclipart.org] file is that there is indeed an error in it. On line 90, the transform attribute doesn't have a closing parenthesis in it. Quoting from SVG 1.1 [w3.org], one of the things that must be done when the document is "in error" is:

A highly perceivable indication of error shall occur. For visual rendering situations, an example of an indication of error would be to render a translucent colored pattern such as a checkerboard on top of the area where the SVG content is rendered.

Batik stops document rendering at that point and pops up a message indicating the error. Not many UAs do this, actually, and many actually just choose to ignore errors. This is likely one of the causes of the difference in behaviour you are seeing.