It seems known that Inkscape has had trouble outputting patterns to pdf. There is a thread here from 2007 that does not seem to have been resolved. I'm currently using Inkscape 0.46 (on my Mac) and 0.47 (Ubuntu) [and I cannot upgrade to the 0.48 release for unrelated reasons].

I have many pictures I designed in Inkscape with patterns that need to be outputted to pdf. However, it seems the problem still persists in 0.46/0.47. The outputted pdf still has the pattern in Adobe Reader, but pretty much any other reader fails to see the pattern. What can be done? Is there a workaround?

I've attached an example of an SVG file and the outputted PDF.

Question asked and question answered (sort-of). I stumbled across this great(?) Inkscape extension by dnewman here. The extension was written for some sort of pen plotter application, but essentially, given a closed shape, the extension can insert hatched or crosshatched patterns (at a given angle and spacing). Afterwards, you can adjust the line width.

The nice thing is that the 'pattern' is not a filled pattern, but simply a collection of lines. So there is no problem with outputting into pdf (or I assume, any other extension).

I haven't tested this for my own uses, but it seems to be exactly what I need (unfortunately, I have to go and re-do all my patterns). If anybody has any comments (or even an actual solution to the pdf-pattern issue, please do speak up.

The outputted pdf still has the pattern in Adobe Reader, but pretty much any other reader fails to see the pattern. What can be done? Is there a workaround?

I am afraid as far as PDF's are concerned, Adobe acrobat is considered the reference. This means that if it works in Adobe, then it works, and the other viewers are at fault...

Most likely the way the bug was fixed was by implementing some aspect of the PDF specification that the other viewers could not cope with.

If it's a simple hatched or striped pattern, would it work to just draw it? There's a Hatches LPE (Path Effect Editor) which pretty quickly and easily makes hatchmarks. And I think a stripe pattern would be pretty easy to create with the Pen tool.

Oh wait....I can't remember when the Path Effect Editor was added. Was it in 0.47 or 0.48? I don't know what unrelated problem you have with 0.48, but would it be possible to use 0.48 for this project (which I'm hoping isn't affected by the problem)? (And still retain the other versions.) Or use 0.48 to make the hatchmarks, then Object to Path, then copy and paste into the docs before converting to PDF? (unless 0.47 actually has the Path Effect Editor, I'm sorry I just can't remember) Although in some situations, this might make a pretty large file(size)....

Just a couple of thoughts