Hi!

I am a newbie using Inkscape 0.91 running under Windows 7 Pro (64-bit).

On startup, the Inkscape window shows the canvass and a document. One can draw shapes (e.g., a rectangles) either on the canvas or on the document. Since one can move the shapes from the canvas to the document and vice versa, does it make any difference where one initially draws the shapes?

Thank you!

Dr. T

Welcome avoard!

The page borders work as a graphical depiction of the viewbox in the svg.
If you open it with a browser, only the content inside those boundaries will be rendered.
Same with pdf-s.

You can draw anything outside that area, use it for constructing, hide extra content, comments etc.
Also you can resize the page borders in the document properties (Shift+Ctrl+D).

Dear Lazur,

Thank you for your reply.

I am confused! I saved a drawing in both Inkscape SVG and Plain SVG. I expected the Inkscape SVG file to include both what was in the window and what was in the document and the Plain SVG file to include only what was in the document. But when I re-opened the two files with Inkscape, the two files included both what was in the window and what was in the document. So, what is the difference between Inkscape SVG and Plain SVG?

FYI, when I re-opened the two files with Corel PSP, the two files included -as I expected- only what was in the document.

Dr. T

Plain svg and inkscape svg are mostly the same. Inkscape svg are just larger because they contain additional informations such as the name of the layers, your grid settings, some informations about how to deform the shapes along a path...
All those informations are generally not needed in final document (for web displaying) so by saving as plain svg you get a lighter file.

What is outside of the "visible" area (the viewbox) is not discarded when you save as plain svg.

Why ? If you want a still image you'd probably expected this to be discarded to get a lighter file size.
But with javascript you could animate a object that is outside of the visible and make it cross the screen.
So it's hard to decide if saving should trash anything that is drawn outside or not.

There may be an option in the future but right now there's none.

Welcome to the forum

Inkscape SVG remembers all the useful helper bits that aren't exactly part of the drawing, like grids, guides etc.

Plain SVG stores the entire drawing, only without the helper bits.

Since vector drawings are actually mathematical equations they are drawn across an infinite coordinate system. Document borders are only convenient to show the area that includes the origin in the first quadrant. Plain SVG only makes sure everything is according to the SVG spec and doesn't include anything unrelated to the end product. If you choose to create objects outside of the page area then that's your choice, no reason not to save them in Plain SVG since they are part of the drawing, just not part of the Page area. Paging only makes sense in PDF and other similar formats.

BTW there is one feature that can be confusing if not created within Page borders, and that is 3D box, since the vanishing points are automatically set to middle of Page borders.

Dear Vince and Prkos,

Thank you for your replies.

Dr. T