Xfce Forum

organicode

Member

Registered: 2026-04-01

Posts: 6

Render SVGs as PNGs, natively

Is there a way to render SVGs as PNGs on user-friendly gnu-linux distros without installing another program. I know inkscape can render svg but almost no distros provide inkscape out of the box.

Is there some command that I've missed with 'apropos' searches?

I know that individual programs can render svgs. like a file manager for example, and it is maybe possible to arrange a hack that takes a screenshot of the svg from that third program. But that isn't the sort of thing I'm looking for. Such a hack would be dangerous, and fail to create PNGs with transparency.

I sense the answer is going to be so in-my-face common that noone bothers to even ask, lol

Thanks in advance

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 943

Re: Render SVGs as PNGs, natively

A distro would have t come with Inkscape or some sort of image manipulation program by default. I don't know of one off hand but I'm sure they exist. A big one that would be likely is Gimp.
For changing image formats myself I use convert. It's part of the imagemagick package. It will convert just about any format into another format.

Description: image manipulation programs -- binaries
ImageMagick is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images.
It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100)
including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript,
SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale,
shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special
effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
All manipulations can be achieved through shell commands as well as through
an X11 graphical interface (display).

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But it's all right, when you're all in pain and you feel the rain come down
It's alright, when you find your way, then you see it disappear
It's alright....
Chris Cornell

peter.48

Member

From: France, sud-ouest

Registered: 2017-01-31

Posts: 166

Re: Render SVGs as PNGs, natively

It might not be a “native” app, but “Converseen” is a superb (and easy) tool for graphic conversions – try it...

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The main defect of the linuxers is lack of memory - they don't remember how their knowledge was when they started with the linux

organicode

Member

Registered: 2026-04-01

Posts: 6

Re: Render SVGs as PNGs, natively

Thanks Peter and Erie!

imagemagick

Yep, this sounds very promising I remember seeing it around. COMPLETELY forgot about it. Thanks!