I have an image that I want to save as an svg file. When I save the file, it saves it as an image on a page. I want to save just the image, not a full page containing the image. How do I do it? I don't see the option to select "save image only."

You can't have an image without a page - at least in Inkscape. But I can make a couple of guesses about what you want.

First, I'm thinking you might be wanting the page size to be the same as your image size. For that, File menu > Document Properties > Page tab. About halfway down, Resize page to contents, click the plus sign, then click the button "Resize page to drawing or selection".

I'm also guessing you might not want to see the page border. File menu > Document Properties > Page tab, near the bottom, uncheck Page Border setting.

Edit > Resize page to selection is even quicker.

Yes, that is part of what I wanted to do. Thank you. But still when I save the file it looks like a small image saved at the top of a large page--say 8 1/2 x 11 or maybe A4-sized stationery. I probably misunderstand the software and its intended use, and the few things I can now do with the software came with a long learning curve. I'm not accustomed to editing lines and curves. And I thought once an svg file was saved that I could import the svg file into an application and size it freely without loss of resolution. Turns out, most apps can't import svg files.

I can make a screen video to show what I'm talking about--and maybe I should have--but you got the idea. I wanted an svg file in the same dimensions as the png file that I exported the image to. The concept of saving the image within the frame of a "page" was alien to me. I'm more accustomed to dabbling with Photoshop Elements and working with jpg's and png's.

You need to select what you want to have on the page when using 'resize to selection'.

If you use Document Properties, it resizes to the drawing, even if the drawing is not selected. But apparently the Edit menu item requires it to be selected.

The SVG standard has height and width parameters which Inkscape always sets. Therefore, everything it produces has a "page".

They had the same problem with PostScript, so they invented Encapsulated PostScript do deal with it.

But SVG is an XML standard and linking an external file to XML is a convoluted process.